12
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, MARCH 10, 2019
Ryan O’Shaugnessy
at C’mon Everybody (325
Franklin Ave. at Clifton
Place in Bedford-Stuyvesant,
www.cmoneverybody.
com). March 16; 3–7
pm. Free.
A Wicked time
If you want to hear
some classic Irish anthems
while you sip a
perfect pint of Guinness,
head to the Wicked Monk
in Bay Ridge, where local
act the Canny Brothers
Band will play Irish rebel
and freedom songs, along
with Celtic and bluegrass
tunes.
The Canny Brothers
Band at the Wicked Monk
9510 Third Ave. at 95th
Street in Bay Ridge, (347)
497–5152, www.wickedmonk.
com. March 17 at 5
pm. Free.
Shamrock out!
Come on out to see
Too-Rye-Ay, a tribute
band for the Brit outfi t
Dexys Midnight Runners,
who mixed Irish
infl uences with soul.
Too-Rye-Ay at the Bell
House 149 Seventh Street,
between Second and Third
avenues in Gowanus, (718)
643–6510, www.thebellhouseny.
com. March 17 at 6
pm. $15.
Seeing double!
Unlike other boroughs,
Brooklyn is lucky
to have two St. Patrick’s
parades a week apart, so
Kings Countians can go
green twice!
The fi rst is in Park
Slope on March 17, and it
sets off at Prospect Park
West and 15th Street,
traveling in a circle back
to its origin. The Bay
Ridge parade will kick
off on March 24 at Third
Avenue and Marine Avenue.
Brooklyn St. Patrick’s
Parade (starts at Prospect
Park West and 15th Street
in Park Slope, www.brooklynstpatricksparade.
com).
March 17 at 1 pm. Free.
Bay Ridge St. Patrick’s
Day Parade (starts at Marine
Avenue and Third Avenue
in Bay Ridge, www.bayridgestpatricksday.
com).
March 24 at 1 pm. Free.
CLAY POT
Helen Spontak, who moved
to Park Slope in 1977. “The
neighborhood is turning
into something I don’t recognize.”
Entrepreneurial couple
Bob and Sally Silberberg
opened The Clay Pot in
January 1969, hawking ceramics
they made on site
in a back-room studio from
the shop between Garfi eld
Place and First Street.
The couple moved to
Massachusetts in 1974, but
continued to operate the
store in absentia, using it
to sell their “seconds” —
slightly damaged pieces
they offered on the cheap —
according to their daughter
Tara Silberberg, who now
runs the shop and a sister
outpost that opened three
years ago in Manhattan.
The Silberbergs expanded
their Seventh Avenue
store’s inventory in the
1980s, stocking other makers’
merchandise, including
jewelry, in addition to
their ceramics, and their
daughter took charge of
the family business in 1990
after graduating college,
saying her good eye and a
talent for sales made her a
natural successor.
“I wanted to be in Brooklyn,”
said Tara Silberberg.
“I love stuff and it turned
out I had a real knack for
it — I’m an amazing salesman.”
The shop had several
years of strong sales until
the fi nancial crisis in 2008.
“At the beginning of
2008 we were up 25 percent
from 2007, then the stock
market crashes, Obama
gets elected, and I had entire
orders of really expensive
jewelry that I didn’t
sell a piece of for a year and
a half,” she said.
Sales didn’t really pick
up after the markets corrected
themselves, however,
which the second-generation
owner attributed to
a maturing local clientele
and the migration of its
core customers to trendier
parts of the borough.
“This part of Brooklyn
has become older and older
— or extremely wealthy —
both of which don’t seem
to be into this store,” Tara
Silberberg said. “Younger
consumers are the ones
who are more actively
buying things. They need
things!”
Still, news of Clay Pot’s
impending closure shocked
those loyalists left in the
neighborhood, many of
whom scrawled messages
such as “Lots of love” and
“We will miss you” on a
long scroll of paper its current
owner placed in a socalled
feelings corner of the
shop.
Shuttering the Park
Slope location will allow Silberberg
to focus her efforts
on her Manhattan store
“I’m taking a huge gamble
that Park Slope will follow
me,” she said. “I have
so many loyal customers
and I know they’ll shop in
Manhattan.”
And when Clay Pot does
close, it will join a laundry
list of other longtime Slope
shops that shuttered after
decades in business, including
optical shop Visions of
Park Slope , which closed
in October after 27 years in
operation; Tex-Mex restaurant
Santa Fe Grill, which
also closed that month following
a 34-year run; and
Seventh Avenue healthfood
emporium Back to the
Land, whose owner sold his
last supplement last year
after nearly half a century
serving Slopers.
Continued from page 1
END OF AN ERA: Tara Silberberg is closing the Park Slope location
of The Clay Pot on March 10. Photo by Colin Mixson
ST. PAT’S
Continued from page 6
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