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The crew behind Greenpoint neighborhood favorite Five Leaves has stopped working with nearby bar Nights and Weekends — a move to focus on planting more Five Leaves across the country. The Five Leaves team's departure from its neighboring bar also means that Nights and Weekends will soon turn into something else. It’s not yet clear what it will be, though the owners plan to rebrand in January 2017. The team at Nights and Weekends did not respond to a request for comment.
As for Five Leaves growth, co-owner Jud Mongell is already spending more time in LA to work on a new location of Five Leaves in East Hollywood, but that outpost is just the beginning for more locations, he says. Moving away from Nights and Weekends is in part to invest in the expansions. They’re eyeing more projects in LA and in other cities, all different versions of the popular bistro. Though each one might have local twists — a theoretical in Miami might have frozen drinks, for example — the core will be like the original 18 Bedford Avenue location. "For us, it’s all about Five Leaves right now," Mongell says.
New York, though, won’t be immediately benefiting from the Five Leaves growth spurt. They don’t plan to ever abandon the flagship Greenpoint location, but the move to LA was for more than the better weather. "The square footage in New York — it’s so hard to make sense of," Mongell says. "And it’s just kind of a natural progression to try other cities." Plus, he’d already been consulting at the Ace Hotel in LA and Palm Springs, and people have been flying him out to cities like Nashville too to take a look at potential projects. "We’re into this whole get on a plane vibe," Mongell says. "We’re going to keep doing that as much as we can. That’s the beauty of this country."
Stay tuned for more information on new locations of Five Leaves, and what might happen to the Nights and Weekends space at 1 Bedford Ave. next year.
