Beans and Vines — Kaytlin Ernske

Upon returning home to for spring break, I went to Beans And Vines, a popular restaurant in Inwood, the Northern-most neighborhood on the island of Manhattan in New York City. Beans and Vines is a self-described “cozy” restaurant with a a dark wood aesthetic and authentic dark red brick walls. The restaurant is tiny, with only 6 two-seater tables, and 2 four-seater tables, however there are mirrors strategically placed on parallel walls to give the illusion that it is much larger. Beans and Vines sells a combination of Italian food, Seafood, and elaborate American food, which they refuse to call by the traditional colloquial names. The refusal to call traditional American foods, like french fries, by their traditional names, and instead calling them “seasoned potatoes”, points to the restaurant’s attempts to add to the neighborhoods attempts at a budding luxury lifestyle. Inwood is currently in the process of gentrification, as it was recently a latin-majority neighborhood with low-income families, it has a budding scene in middle-class white families. The rental prices are quickly rising, and new ABC businesses are opening biweekly all over the neighborhood.  In the past few months, Beans and Vines has seen incredible benefits from the gentrification of Inwood. Whereas a few months ago, its busiest days were Friday-Sunday nights, where the wait for a table was not long, however when passing by throughout spring break, at any given day of the week, why time after 5pm, the restaurant was incredibly packed, with a table wait no less than an hour. The consumers of the restaurant are mostly white gentrifiers, as the majority of the hispanic residents do not go to the restaurant, one could assume it is due to the high prices for small plate portions.