Here’s an update to a story we first brought you last week. As you might recall, Dewey Dufresne told us he was temporarily closing BYGGYZ, his sandwich shop on Clinton Street, while he searched for new investors. The shop is still ending normal operations, but thanks to a new anonymous investor, BYGGYZ will continue to have a weekend presence at 37 Clinton St.
As Dufresne explained, the new capital is enough to operate on Saturdays and Sunday as a “pop-up,” and to keep a stall at Smorgasburg on Saturdays. The larger goal is to lock down more capital and to solidify a business plan for a larger scale version of BYGGYZ (with potentially multiple locations throughout the city).
BYGGYZ has won critical praise for its inventive sandwich creations. Dufresne, dad of influential chef Wylie Dufresne, said the shop on Clinton Street never attracted enough business to survive. Clinton Street is notoriously a tough place to run a retail business, especially one dependent on daytime foot traffic.
