Posts tagged Brooklyn
Meet the New Coney
My first time at Coney Island since they redid it! Hey, it looks great! The new rides are pretty tame, but the design and vibe is not as generic as I feared it might be. Yay, Coney!
Resale Kiddy Coming to Park Slope
Lulu’s on 5th is breeding again. Brigitte, the owner of the two shops on 5th Avenue in Park Slope teamed up with my pal Ann Marie to open up a used clothing store for the kiddies.
Lulu’s Then and Now is set to open around Labor Day and they are currently accepting gently used clothing and toys. Ann Marie will be watching the new store at 75A 5th. She was the woman behind the now closed City Cricket in the W. Village. Ann Marie is lovin’ the Brooklyn thing!
The shop will include less expensive items from places like Old Navy to higher end designer clothing. Pretty much what folks donate. When I first walked in, I didn’t realize it was a used clothing store. The stuff is VERY gently used.
The best thing about the location is that it’s right across the street from Beacon’s Closet. So when your done shopping for the kid, pick up something nice for yourself.
Yo, Brooklyn Has The Oldest Subway!
The Atlantic Avenue tunnel tour has been going on for a few years now and I never even noticed people climbing down a manhole in the middle of the Atlantic/Court intersection. Well, I finally figured it out and had a look for myself yesterday.
The Brooklyn Historic Railway Association runs the tours. Just go to their website and call to reserve. It’s well worth the 15 bucks and the next tour is August 8th. Bob Diamond, who rediscovered the hidden tunnel in the early 80’s, is the guy giving the tour. He’s a hoot! As if the history isn’t interesting enough, he’s quite the character himself.
You’ll have to wait on line for a bit as it takes awhile for each individual to get down the ladder. Wear comfortable shoes because Bob likes to talk and you’ll be standing for a couple of hours on uneven ground. There’s more standing and listening than walking.
So, about this tunnel.
It was built in 1844, making it older than the London Tube. The “oldest subway” thing is a bit of a stretch since this was not part of the NY subway system, but rather the Long Island Railroad. It’s still an underground rail system even if it’s only 1/2 mile long.
Diamond shares the folklore surrounding the tunnel. There are tales of heads buried in the wall, bootleggers, greedy politicians, pirates and even a John Wilkes Booth connection. His own story is as interesting as any of these. He first learned of the existence of the hidden tunnel when he was a Pratt student. For years, experts were denying it was there, claiming it would be too dangerous to explore anyway because of gases, water and 5 foot man eating rats.
There’s a deal in the works with National Geographic. Supposedly there’s still a steam engine buried behind a wall! They’re looking to unearth it later this year.
I could share more, but you know what? You should go yourself. Trust me. Just do it.
The Fake Meat Store in Sunset Park
I don’t care what anybody says. I like that soy fake meat stuff. Yeah, I try to eat whole foods as much as possible, but beans all the time? You know what they say….good for your heart, but….
Anyway, if you’re a vegetarian New Yorker, chances are you’ve tried all the mock meat dishes at House of Vegetarian, Vegetarian Dim Sum House , Vegetarian Paradise and Zen Palate. Well, this is the place that sells to those restaurants. Ok, maybe. I just made that up.
Tian Yuan Veg is located at 6016 7th Avenue in Brooklyn’s Chinatown, Sunset Park. Can you get this stuff in Manhattan’s Chinatown? Yes. Can I buy it around the corner from my Bed Stuy house at Tony’s Country Life? Yes. But I felt the need to schlepp to Sunset Park to check it out.
So, was it worth the trip? Well, my freezer is fully stocked now. Plus, here’s the thing I love about Chinatown….the groceries are so inexpensive! I bought 2 FULL bags of vegetables for $7. Do you know what that would cost at Fairway? (I love you anyway, Fairway.)
Problem is, now I have to (get my husband to) cook all this shit.
City Gurl Sez
It’s so nice to walk the trails in Prospect Park and not have to worry about ticks and scary wildlife. So what the trail is like 2 feet long and there may be a rapist or murderer around the bend? It’s the best of both worlds!
Speaking of the park, did you hear that they gassed the geese?? What a fuckin’ outrage! It’s the talk of the doggy circles and people are NOT happy.
Salvage Fix: Awesome Chandelier
See, this is why I shouldn’t leave the house. I go out looking for some restoration materials and I come back with a light fixture that I don’t need.
Roy Vaccaro has lots of iron work and other goodies at his outdoor spot near Gowanus Lowe’s. I went looking for some marble for my window sills (Eddie Hibbert, if you’re reading this, you never called me back!) and ended up falling in love.
Check out that baby below! It’s big and heavy and has griffins and lions. How could I not buy it? The husband says it may be too heavy for our ceiling and I said “You make it work.” Cue whip sound.
Roy had many cute lights, but I had to close my eyes and keep moving.
So, what do you think I paid for it? Huh? Huh? It’s about 2 feet tall and is missing one dangly piece. Of course it needs rewiring.
More Brooklyn Summer Shows
Remember the Thursday night Coney Island Seaside Concerts I posted? Well, it turns out that there are Tuesday night concerts in the same venue and they aren’t listed on the website! WTF? A reader found that the Tuesday event calendar is only listed on Council Member Domenic Recchia Jr.’s site.
A couple of interesting shows at Coney….
Boilermaker Jazz Band on July 20th
Shout! The Mod Musical on July 27th (I dare you to click the link and not sing along. Go on. I dare you!)
Those are just two of the shows that look good to me. There are performances every Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30pm.
Also, let’s not forget that Marty hosts the Martin Luther King Jr. Concert Series at Wingate Field. There are some pretty awesome shows lined up for this summer, started with…
Hel-lo! George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic with The Ohio Players! July 12th.
Toni Braxton. July 19th.
Salt n Pepa with Naughty by Nature and Rick Slick. Aug 2nd
And Aretha will be playing August 9th at Wingate as well as the 12th at Coney.
Be sure to check out the Coney Island Fun Guide. This Saturday, Planet of the Apes! Freak shows, movie nights, baseball games and fireworks. Coney kicks ass!
Brooklyn Seltzer Delivery! How Old School Is That?
After years of going through thousands of plastic seltzer bottles, my husband put the foot down. He wanted to switch to tap water. Water? I don’t like water. I need my seltzer!
So, I did what my mom did back when I was growing up. I called the Seltzer Man. Yeah, he still exists.
Now, it’s a bit pricier than the Vintage variety, but the bottles keep the fizz. Plus, knowing that I’m not single-handedly destroying Planet Earth with my carbonated drink addiction is priceless. The cost for Bed Stuy delivery is $25 per case of 10. It’s only $1 per bottle to schlepp to the factory in Canarsie for pick up, but Narsie? No, thanks.
Gomberg Seltzer Works is the last remaining seltzer factory in NYC and there are only about 6 or 7 guys delivering to the entire city. Ronny Beberman is the Brooklyn Seltzer Man. He’s 63 years old and still drives his wooden slatted truck full of valuable vintage glass bottles.
The alternative to store bought or delivered seltzer would be to make my own. Now lookit, I have trouble boiling water or making toast. I’m not so sure I’d be up for carbonating several bottles of water. It’s just too much work.
Plus, let’s face it. Old school seltzer delivery is cool as shit.
Tomorrow’s post: How I’m going back to the rotary phone.
PS: “Seltzer Works” is a documentary film about Gomberg Seltzer. It’s being screened at Rooftop Films on July 17th.
There’s No Place Like Home
I’ve always wondered what it’s like to step foot in New York for the first time. Must be pretty cool. The energy. The lights. The people whizzing by. Being born here, I’ve always taken it for granted.
Returning home after 7 years upstate is as close as I’m gonna get to losing my New York virginity. Ok, so I lived less than two hours away and came here all the time, but I didn’t get to take it all in when I was just visiting.
I’m back two months now and I feel a bit like Austin Powers having missed nearly a decade. But it’s all good. I’ve got some catching up to do, so….oops….not being too productive lately. Just seeing old friends and eating at restaurants I’ve missed and feeling like myself again.
I don’t regret moving away. I needed it at the time and it was lovely and pleasant and I met some great people in Beacon. I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with New York. I leave for a bit. I come back.
I always come back.
But this time around, I think I’ll stay for awhile.
Organic Bed Stuy
The long awaited Bed Stuy organic grocery will finally be opening in the fall. Location is to be announced. Alls I can say is that it better be within walking distance of me.
The owners are currently trying to raise funds for the renovation of the store.
Brooklyn Apartments Under $1200
It’s been a long time since I did an affordable housing post. Let’s see what kind of rentals are available in our fine boro of Brooklyn, shall we?
Clinton Hill Studio $980
The marble fireplace, the wide plank floors! It’s clean too, which for this price is difficult to find. The drawback? It’s the G train. Ugh.
Prospect Park South $1000
Meh apartment but location, location, location. Q/B train at Church? Not too shabby.
Crown Heights $995
A pre-war 1 BR along the #3 line. Yeah ok, I can deal with that.
Bed Stuy $1110
Brownstone 1 BR with what seems to be a back yard. They don’t SAY that, but why else would they take picture of it? Address is listed as Decatur at Macdonough. No clue where this is, since they run parallel.
Blog Love. Some Old, Some New.
As promised, welcome to part II of my Brooklyn Blogfest post. No matter how good the planned program, my favorite part of the evening is the schmoozing at the end. I get to put faces with the blogs and get to hear about new blogs-a-launching. Most of these are food blogs, as my break-out session was “food, crafts and home”.
So, I met….
Paula from Undomesticated Me. I believe we bonded (She friended me on FB!). Like me, Paula can’t cook, clean or entertain. But unlike me, she is learning. And that’s what the blog is all about. It’s witty, charming and she uses some cool 1950’s imagery. What’s not to like?
So Good TV is another established blog. Heather and her husband are professional filmmakers and do cooking videos on the blog. There are recipes and such, but I couldn’t find the menu and call-for-delivery section. Heather does, however, have a wine section for those of us whom just refuse to cook but want to know all there is to know about the drink.
Historic Cookery. So, as if cooking in 2010 isn’t difficult enough, Carolina Capehart cooks using early 19th century techniques, ingredients and recipes. That means her microwave is an open fire hearth. She mentioned to us that she didn’t own a blender or mixer. I was like “Yeah, neither do I. But I own a phone and microwave.”
A Cake Bakes in Brooklyn. Susan LaRosa doesn’t reach quite as far back in time as Carolina, but she too, uses old recipes for her baking…and reports about it on her blog. Susan obtains her early to mid 1900’s recipes from flea markets and estate sales. Everything looks so yummy on her blog! Weird thing is…she was pretty thin.
I met Ameet from Rice of Life last year. Now, HIS recipes are right up my alley! They’re all vegetarian! And they look good! Now if I could only get someone to cook them for me. Note to self…work on the husband. PS: Gluten free too.
Miss Masala joined us in the group, as did freelance writer Julie Knapp who blogs about fitness. I had a good 10 minute look at her blog this morning in lieu of working out.
The gals from Brooklyn General Store stopped by because they will be launching a blog and wanted to learn the ins and outs.
But the new blogs! Exciting and awesome!
OMG, OMG, OMG, you have to check this out! Brooklyn Flea vendor Lon Black (whom I know as “the postcard guy”) started a Bad Postcards blog. Awesomely funny mid century kitsch.
I saved Dinevore for last because I have a feeling it’s gonna be BIG! The web application is currently in Alpha now (yeah, that’s before it gets to Beta….I never knew the lingo) so to get a preview of the site, you would have to email founder Jeremy to receive your username and password. It’s kind of like Yelp and Facebook combined for restaurant reviews. You can see where friends ate and what they thought of it. Huge database of restaurants! I didn’t comprehend half of the computer geekiness Jeremy was spewing, but all I’m gonna say is that he’s the next Craig Newmark. Just search Dinevore on FB or Twitter to get updates if you don’t want to join yet.
Bloggedy Bloggedy Brooklyn
Brooklyn Boro President, Marty Markowitz trying to steal the show.
The Brooklyn Blogfest was super professional this year! Not that Louise Crawford aka Madam OTBKB didn’t do a fabulous job in the past, it was just totally streamlined last night. Of course, having Absolut Brooklyn as a sponsor and Spike Lee to launch the new vodka flavor might have had a little something to do with it.
There was a performance by Aaron Costa Ganis, Charlotte Maier and Natalie Paul for starters. “Blogs Aloud” was adaption of posts from several Brooklyn blogs through the years. Video: Part 1 and part 2.
After a photo blogger video tribute by Adrain “Brit in Brooklyn” Kinloch, Lemon Anderson came out to rap his ode to Brooklyn. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it looks like that’s the Absolut Brooklyn ad.
Then it was time for Spike. He skirted the issue of gentrification and let us know that Fort Greene was fine just the way it was back in the day. He only hinted at the divisive issue and spoke mainly of Absolut, his relationship with Brooklyn and took questions about breaking into film.
Andrea Bernstein of WNYC was the moderator for the panel discussion. Panelists included Heather of So Good TV, Atiba from Visual Stenographers, Brokelyn‘s Faye, Jake from Gothamist and Petra of Bed Stuy Blog.The question was posed to the panel “Why does Brooklyn breed creativity?”Some nice anwers…. (I’m putting them in quotes but they’re not the exact words. My bad.)”It has attitude.” Heather”Newcomers feel we must live up to the reputation.” Petra
“People have an attitude problem 2 minutes after moving here. We’re always giving advice. We wanna tell people how to live.” Jake
“We’re full of ourselves.” “Everybody gets a chance to show their stuff.” Faye
“Brooklyn made NYC in 1898…..People will defend Brooklyn to the death.” Atiba
Towards the end of the evening, we broke up into smaller groups. I’ll post part II tomorrow and fill you in some awesome new blogs in the works!
Brooklyn Blogfest is Tonight!
Head’s up: Doors open at 6:30 and pre-registration is closed. There is seating upstairs, but you can only see it on video from up there.
I’ll be hosting the break out group on house blogs afterward. Better see you there!