Gage & Tollner: Oyster & Chop House

We are going to restore and reopen a 140-year-old oyster and chophouse in Downtown Brooklyn. For 125 years, from 1879 to 2004, Gage and Tollner was the most famous restaurant in Brooklyn and one of the most famous restaurants in the country. It was known for its straightforward approach to cooking and for a sense of warm hospitality. It was a place where everybody was welcome, where generations of families celebrated weddings, bar mitzvahs, birthdays, anniversaries, or just came in for dinner on a Wednesday night. It was an exceptional restaurant for a very long time. It went out of business in 2004, just as other neighborhoods in Brooklyn were starting to grow. Now that Downtown Brooklyn is finally starting to explode, it's time to reopen Gage and Tollner. 

$1,000+
An invitation for two to our grand re-opening party!

$5,000+
A complimentary welcome cocktail or glass of wine for you and a guest at your first ten visits to Gage & Tollner. Plus a limited-edition color silkscreen print of "Gage & Tollner" by artist John Tebeau. The author/illustrator of Bars, Taverns, and Dives New Yorkers Love (Rizzoli 2018), John Tebeau creates portraits of country's most beloved restaurants and watering holes, available at tebeau.com.

$10,000+
A meal for two (appetizers, entrées, and dessert) with a bottle of wine and a Gage & Tollner gift box, to be picked up on your first visit.

$25,000+
A 10% lifetime discount on food purchases for parties including you and up to three additional guests.

Founding team has 3 successful NYC restaurants between them.
Located in the heart of Downtown Brooklyn, currently the center of intense private and commercial residential development. Served by 19 public transit lines, it's been a bustling neighborhood since before Brooklyn was a borough.
The dining room is a unique, Gilded-Age jewel, sure to be a tourist destination in its own right. The third interior to be "landmarked" in NYC. To re-create it today would cost millions. "One of Brooklyn's most venerable and beautiful restaurants." —Ruth Reichl, NY Times
Five generations of goodwill: Brooklynites love this restaurant and want it to come back
Limited ramp-up time: The building has 19th century charm but largely 21st Century infrastructure, put in by pervious tenants
Limited neighborhood competition in one of the fastest growing neighborhoods in the city

If we raise: $400,000

• Use of Proceeds: 95% These funds will be used to purchase equipment and inventory; to restore and furnish the restaurant space; to train our staff; to pay our legal, design, and architecture teams.  5% Wefunder Intermediary fee

If we raise: $600,000

• Use of Proceeds: 95% These funds will be used to purchase equipment and inventory; to restore and furnish the restaurant space; to train our staff; to pay our legal, design, and architecture teams.  5% Wefunder Intermediary fee

Sohui Kim - Chef
Classically trained chef, Culinary entrepreneur, Cookbook author, Co-Founder of The Good Fork & Insa

St John Frizell - Founder
Award-winning writer, bartender & owner of Fort Defiance- critically-acclaimed cafe-bar in Red Hook

Ben Schneider - Partner
Designer, builder, and restaurant professional who designed and built Insa and The Good Fork

4%of revenues

1.25Xpayback multiple

Secured revenue share

The company will pay investors 4% of revenues each quarter until 100% of your principal is returned plus 25% on top.