Fort Reno is a Southern-Style Barbeque Joint Built From the Bones of Brooklyn

<a href="http://www.dailyslope.com/2012/01/17/fort-reno-provisions-is-park-slopes-only-full-fledged-bbq-restaurant/">Fort Reno Provisions</a> feels like it has been around forever. It is a deceptively worn-in and comfortable barbeque joint on Union Street in Brooklyn where diners can cozy up to a tray full of <a href="http://fort-reno.us/eat.html">grass-fed, hormone free, lovingly smoked meats</a>, an <a href="http://fort-reno.us/drink.html">organic beer</a>, and the best cornbread in town while being surrounded by the history of New York's most populous borough. That's because almost all of the building materials used in Fort Reno's construction were reused from demolition sites in the neighborhood.

Fort Reno was built by Chef and co-owner Jacques Gautier from the most sustainable building materials around: pieces of other buildings that were being torn down. Perhaps more impressive than his repurposed wood-slat ceiling and found-glass mirrored wall is the fact that Gautier didn't spend a cent on gasoline to get all the materials to his new location on Union and 4th Avenue. They were all hand-carried and personally installed.

Gautier owns <a href="http://fort-reno.us/about.html">Fort Reno Provisions </a>with business partner Anthony Laudato. Lia Forman holds down the fort in the kitchen as Pitmaster -- she was Gautier's sous-chef at Palo Santo before moving across the street. "The aesthetic really is about reuse but it is also about saving money, we were on a tight budget," said Gautier who learned the craft of building with reused materials during the construction of Palo Santo, his decidedly delicious and beautiful latin food restaurant across the street. The benches that line the mirrored wall were made from three long beams salvaged from a site on Court Street and Saint Marks.

One entire wall of the restaurant is covered with a mirrored mosaic made from broken pieces of glass found trashed behind a glass cutting warehouse in Brooklyn. Gautier said he and his team of builders -- which consists of himself and his sous-chef, Trinidad Perez, from Palo Santo -- kept returning to the warehouse until they had enough salvaged glass to cover the wall. They of course, carried all the pieces back to Fort Reno on foot.

The ceiling is wrapped in wall slats commonly found under the plaster walls of older buildings. The slats were reclaimed from a demolition site across the street from Fort Reno. "Places like to talk about recycled wood and this and that from a farm in Pennsylvania. They have to truck it here and that uses gas," Gautier said, mentioning that he didn't have to pay much for his reclaimed materials because the building sites were just going to throw them away.

"Using recycled anything that is supposed to be sustainable should also help your bottom line. You shouldn't pay more for it." The wood slat ceiling is a warmly linear cap to the space.

Many of the lights in the space are enclosed with blue-tinted mason jars that were leftover flower vases from co-owner Anthony Laudato's wedding.

Perhaps the most contentious piece in the place was this gorgeous, ancient, porcelain sink. When Gautier saved it from being trashed, he carried it back for his plumber to take a look at. The plumber took one look at the thing and said there wasn't hardware available anymore to make it work. Gautier was excited and undettered and mentioned making a faucet out of old brass. The plumber replied, "Jacques, that sounds like a job for an artist, I am a plumber." Needless to say, he didn't see Gautier's vision and wasn't around for long.

The lights that aren't closed with mason jars are capped with old colanders, an idea of Laudato's that adds a touch of humor to the space. The windows pictured here came from Brooklyn Heights, Gautier said they were the piece that traveled the farthest -- about two miles.

The colander idea can easily be replicated with Ikea's <a href="http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10175810/">Hemma chord set</a> and a reclaimed strainer.

The front door's handle is especially wonderful and was found in a box of tools at <a href="http://www.filmbizrecycling.org/">Film Biz Recycling</a> in Brooklyn and was welded to a metal sheet by Gautier.

Other surprising details around the restaurant were found objects from Craigslist, like this incredible fish-eye mirror in the bathroom.

The wood-edging on the bars and all of the tables was up-cycled from old wood pallets.

Though Gautier knows that barbeque probably isn't the most sustainable of culinary choices, the team at Fort Reno does it as sustainably as possible, serving grass-fed, hormone free food from local suppliers. When telling us about why they chose barbeque he noted, "people love it. If they are going to eat it anyway at least do it sustainably."