Boris & Horton in Williamsburg (Courtesy Instagram/@borisandhorton
The Boris & Horton dog-friendly cafe in Williamsburg is shutting down
The cafe, which opened just a year ago, will close despite a fundraising effort that brought in $250K
Boris & Horton, a dog-friendly cafe with outposts in Manhattan and Brooklyn, has announced it will be closing its Williamsburg location this week, despite a fundraiser earlier this year that raised $250,000 for both.
Owners Logan Mikhly and Coppy Holzman wrote on Instagram that after “much consideration and evaluation, we’ve made the difficult decision” to close the Brooklyn location at 510 Driggs Avenue. They acknowledged that many customers donated lots of money a few months ago to keep the year-old location open for their pooches, and claimed they were “heartbroken” to let them down.
The duo said that “sales have just been too weak” to support the location, despite trying to partner with local businesses and throwing events, among other efforts to bring in more foot traffic.
“We’ll miss all of our regulars in Brooklyn and all of the amazing artists and brands that teamed up with us over the last year,” they said.
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The East Village Boris & Horton will remain open, but the news of Williamsburg shutdown isn’t sitting well with some people. Comments on the Instagram post are demanding answers as to where their money went and why it’s closing so quickly after raising a quarter of a million dollars. On Reddit, some said this whole ordeal “felt shady” and another said they can’t help to feel “completely lied to and misled by the owners.”
In response, the owners told Greenpointers that the money went to repairs at its East Village location and salaries for an event manager to drum up business at both locations. They said that “sales in Brooklyn are worse than they have ever been.”
Back on Instagram, the owners said that its East Village location is “healthy and sustainable” thanks in “large part to the incredible support from all of you.”
