Beef

Family Feud at Café Regular

A Grub Street tipster sent an e-mail over the weekend about unwelcome changes to Park Slope’s Café Regular. “Martin O’Connell, the legendarily sarcastic wizard of the espresso machine, was ousted by his sister Anne this week,” the tipster wrote. A source close to Martin confirmed the family breach to Grub Street today. The siblings had been squabbling since the opening of Café Regular du Nord back in July, but it was some promotional postcards that finalized the breach. Designed by an employee, Richard (who managed du Nord) and Martin were distributing these postcards to customers. Anne didn’t like them and told the brothers to stop giving them out. Richard quit over the micromanagement, and Martin sided with his brother. Martin declined to comment to Grub Street, Richard did not return calls or texts, and several calls to Anne at Café Regular went to message saying the voice-mail system had not been connected. “It’s really a Royal Tenenbaums level of dysfunction,” said the source.

According to our source, Anne is the majority owner of both locations and apparently has the right to oust her brother Martin, whose visa was tied to his job. His future in New York is uncertain, further upsetting regular customers. Our source also confirmed changes to Café Regular that may not be embraced by regulars, like computers and uniforms for the staff. “She’s trying to make it like Starbucks,” he said.

Family Feud at Café Regular