Bushwick’s bodegas don’t take the DOB or Health Dept. seriously — why should anyone else?

Bushwickers are tired of tacos. Even those happy with the very few more diverse choices in the neighborhood have been impatiently awaiting new additions to the bar and restaurant scene — only to be disappointed by constant postponements. No one is aggravated more than the entrepreneurs opening these new businesses, as the cost of endlessly delayed regulatory approvals drains their bank accounts. But is it the same for all of the neighborhood’s upstarts?

Sisters Jane and Cathy Virga have been working on their upcoming bar, Tandem, for over a year. While they are determined to cross the finish line, that line has been pushed back with Sisyphean regularity. Still, they insist the wait has been worth it and has allowed them to “pour more love and attention and money into a place we hope everyone will enjoy.” They plan to pass their final inspection soon and be open in April.

Enzo Gugliuzza and Anna Maria Palmiotto have also been dealing with delays on their project, a restaurant called Phorum. Though construction will soon be complete, the couple have no realistic time horizon for their opening date.

“We’re not giving any more dates until we go through all the inspections. It really takes a long time to schedule them,” said Palmiotto. They have waited five weeks to schedule their next inspection.

There is a common thread that connects both of the soon-to-open establishments — their insistence upon doing everything above the board and by the book. Judging by the amount of violations reported by the city’s health department for bodegas and restaurants in Bushwick — no small number — other business owners in the neighborhood would probably scoff at such statutory sticklerism.

Long Lai, a Thai restaurant on Knickerbocker Avenue, opened just two months after it was apparent work was being done on the space. The owners have owned businesses in the neighborhood for years. And Las Alcapurrias, a restaurant serving Puerto Rican specialties, opened a few months ago on Central Avenue, a block from Phorum. From beginnings to bacalaítos, the process took no more than three months. Are these movers just paper-pushing pros — or is something else responsible for these lightning-quick openings?

An anonymous local restaurateur says that to get things done in Bushwick, it’s damn the permitting — full speed ahead.

“To be frank, we are still building this place up to code.” He clarified that there are no cleanliness issues and everything is completely safe for patrons and employees. But it’s a given that most businesses in Bushwick are not shining examples of compliance, and that many get off the hook because they know the right people. “It really is a kind of gangster politics. The places that pose the greatest risk are the least policed.”

Indeed, a bodega at the corner of Melrose and Central that was clearly not only violating every cleanliness rule, but also selling drugs — right next to a family resource center — only shut down when it was evicted by the landlord in 2007. Bushwick’s corner markets are the Wild West of retail.

Though no suspicion is cast upon the neighborhood’s venerable Thai restaurant, Knickerbocker Avenue business owners are well-known for doing whatever it takes to eke a profit out of a low-income neighborhood while paying some of the highest rents in Brooklyn.

It seems that while the neighborhood waits for its promised food and drink spots, an old adage might have been the best advice for some of Bushwick’s newest businesspeople: “It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission.”

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