What was once the Excelsior Cable Factory warehouse has been totally converted into a place of fun and leisure. Ainslie, an Italian restaurant wine bar and beer garden, features a sedate backyard for customer comfort and additional seating.

Located at 76 Ainslie Street in Brooklyn, NY's Williamsburg neighborhood, the original warehouse, built around 1910, was completely gutted. It now features an added basement, 20-foot deep backyard with trees, second-floor mezzanine lounge and roof terrace. The 10,000-square foot eatery will seat 340 people and features reasonably priced dishes like burrata, wood-fired pizza, house-made pasta, grilled branzino and New York strip steaks.

The rear façade of the building opens up to a relaxing outdoor yard and beer garden through a 30-foot, 6-inch by 13-foot, 4-inch bifold liftstrap door clad in glass from Schweiss Doors. Glass walk doors are positioned at each side of the bifold door.

Co-owner Chris Horrigan says he came across Schweiss Doors by researching online and what he saw immediately ended his search.

“I knew I wanted to do a big hangar door,” he says. “I found Schweiss and it seemed to work. We have four bars in the place; the hangar door and bar next to it are about the same size. We installed the door and that went OK. I’m pleased with the door and have been excited to see it used by people here.”

Chef John DeLucie, who previously ran a network of thriving restaurants in New York City, backs Ainslie. He soared to fame more than a decade ago by serving $55 truffle mac and cheese to celebs at Graydon Carter’s Waverly Inn.

Work on this establishment was the brainchild of a restaurant group and Horrigan Development, an established real estate developer based in New York City. The company is owned by brothers, Chris and Matthew Horrigan. The core of their business is developing real estate and providing project management services to clients during the planning, pre-construction and construction phases of development projects. The architectural firm assigned to the project was Linea Architects of New York City.