Only by ponying up for courtside seats will fans be able to enjoy the luxury of the new Crown Club in the Barclays Center, to open when the Nets season starts this fall.
The new 7,700-square-foot space is a glossy upgrade for sports arena dining and drinking. There’s a plush lounge, upholstered in green and gold velvet and hung with Venetian Fortuny fixtures; a dining room, with walls draped in scarlet; and a red lacquered “pantry,” with open shelves holding snacks and treats like popcorn and candies. The space can accommodate up to 250 people.
“I avoided the usual sports-lounge look,” said Ken Fulk, the restaurant’s designer. He said he was striving for a sumptuous, almost residential atmosphere, though the inevitable big flat screens of a sports bar are there, hidden when not in use behind mirrors and framed digital artwork.
It’s Mr. Fulk’s first design for a sporting arena. He was selected for the job because of the work he had done at Sadelle’s in New York and some of the out-of-town Carbone restaurants for Major Food Group, the company that is overseeing much of the food and beverage in the arena, especially the Crown Club.
“We’re redefining stadium hospitality, making it our style,” said Jeff Zalaznick, the managing partner of Major Food Group. The restaurant’s name is a nod to the borough’s county, Kings.
The menu in the club will feature a rotating selection of dishes for which the group’s restaurants are known, along with specialties prepared with guest chefs from other New York restaurants. “Our goal is 80 percent local,” he said.
John Abbamondi, the chief executive of BSE Global, the company that manages the center, said his hope in having Major Food Group on the team was “to create the finest restaurant experience in a sporting arena the world has ever seen.”
Crown Club, Barclays Center, 620 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, brooklynnets.com/crownclub.