This Restaurant’s Tone-Deaf Marketing is Only Getting Worse

(Crown Heights, BK) Summerhill’s decor is attracting attention in the Crown Heights community yet again, with another eyebrow-raising marketing move.

Today, a bright red graffiti tag contrasts against Summerhill’s white and blue scheme on the exterior of the restaurant, in what seems to be an intentional display of the restaurant’s tagline, “A Boozy Sandwich Shop”.

Summerhill opened in the Summer of 2017, and quickly garnered publicity - for all the wrong reasons. Community members were shocked at Summerhill’s owner, Becca Brennan, and her insensitive fetishizing of Crown Heights’ violent past. Brennan’s menu advertised “40-ounces” of rose served in paper bags, and what’s worse, left an entire wall of the interior unrenovated as an homage to the alleged bullet holes that were left by the previous tenant. As one angry Yelp reviewer posted in January of 2018, “(She) Tried to capitalize off the "instagramable" bullet holes in the walls she mysteriously failed to renovate, although she unabashedly gutted the whole rest of the place after buying out a small business owner,”

Why, after the media frenzy they experienced last summer, would Summerhill make another questionable move like this one? When I first saw the tag, I thought that it said, ‘An overpriced sandwich shop”. I thought someone had malicious intent. But upon further inspection, this seems to be part of the branding that Brennan is going for. When I reached out to Summerhill to comment on the new decoration, I didn’t receive any feedback. I would have loved to have heard from the staff.

Eight months have passed since the protests on Nostrand Avenue, but the residents of Crown Heights haven’t forgiven Summerhill. I pass this corner daily, and I can’t help but notice that on most days the floor is empty of patrons.

The reason I’ve never given Summerhill my business, aside from the scathing reviews on yelp (They have ⅖ stars), is that if I were to sit in that restaurant, a young white millennial that moved to the neighborhood around the same time as Summerhill did, I would feel complicit in the ignorance that Brennan displayed surrounding the complex topic of gentrification. It’s unclear if Summerhill can move past it’s undesirable brand identity.

Brennan has cleared up the bullet hole frenzy by explaining that the holes were simply left by the previous tenants, and the infamous 40 ounce has been removed from the menu. It’s also important to note that Summerhill’s Instagram has been advertising art show collectives and concerts, presented by community members. This is a great way for Summerhill to add something positive to the community in Crown Heights. But the tag? I’m not so sure about.