Recently in Carroll Gardens Category

Eton is a neighborhood restaurant that snuck right by me. When I first saw the awning on Sackett Street at Henry, I assumed overpriced boutique and went on my way. But oh how wrong I was.

No boutique, Eton is a dumpling shack that is serving up five fresh, hot dumplings per order--in a variety of flavors--for a mere $3.50. Did I mention these dumplings are huge? And tasty? And that the restaurant is open until 11:30pm? It's like I've died and gone to a more accessible version of Chinatown.

Yes, there's a bit of a wait for the fresh dumplings, but you can watch the skins being rolled out to pass the time. And, yes, the decor leaves a bit to be desired--do not lean onto the wall separating the entryway from the counter, it will violently wobble and threaten collapse. But there's a lot of love that goes into a neighborhood joint like this, and it shows in the customer-service details. On the day that I stopped by, the guy at the counter mixed me a to-go cup of sriracha and ginger-infused black vinegar that will be my go-to dumpling dipping sauce for some time to come.

I have yet to try Eton's other offering, shave ice, mostly because I'm so devoted to Court Street Pastry's ices, I hate to cheat, but the sheer number of flavors--and number of people walking out with colorful cone in hand--speak to Eton's popularity in the shave ice department as well.

Does anybody know what the old video store at 389 Court is going to become? It sure looks like it could be a bar ...

The Brooklyn storefront shall remain nameless to protect the not-so-grammatically innocent.

Those of us who live on the south end of Carroll Gardens suffer a problem (and yes, I'm speaking for all of us). No matter where you live, it's rare to walk any more south. Everything is north: the restaurants, the bodegas, the grocery stores. I do walk one block down to hit Le Petit Cafe (bagels, coffee) and Las Americas (beer, anything else I happen to need right now), but I never go south of Nelson. Until recently, that is. And my walk took me right into the neighborhood's newest wine store, Fat Cat Wines, at Court Street between W 9th and Huntington. I've been there three times in the past week and show no signs of stopping. Two of those times I loved the wine I got, and one it was just so-so, but two out of three ain't bad. The store specializes in wine from small and often organic vineyards with a nice mix from the U.S. and abroad. Last night I picked up a great pinot gris from Oregon that wowed our dinner companions. On Friday, we picked up two reds at $12 each that tasted more like $18 bottles. And while I haven't tried any, I've been eyeing the lovely sake collection.

Also, currently on exhibit is work by Junko Shimizu, who worked as an assistant for Takashi Murakami (flyer below).

I was a little disappointed the temp changed from 96 to 95 right before I snapped this pic at the corner of Huntington Street and Hamilton Avenue/the BQE. Still, pretty hot! How hot? Too hot for people to sit outside of Abilene on Court Street below at 6:30pm on a Saturday night. That's hot, people.

So here are the details. With the support of Carroll Gardens bookstore Freebird Books, and the publisher Twelve Books,  author Jess Winfield will be attempting to set the world record for most Shakespeare plays performed solo in Brooklyn in a single day (hopefully you are already a little bit drunk when you are reading this and that will sound really impressive). To join the party, meet at Pier 11 in Manhattan  at 2pm on Saturday, July 19, or Rocky Sullivan's at 2:30pm, Brooklyn Ice House at 2:45pm, Red Hook Soccer Fields at 3pm, Jalopy at Columbia and Soodfull at 3:30pm, B61 at 4pm or Freebird Books at 4:30pm onwards.

I've kept silent thus far on the "Is 'The Real World' coming to Carroll Gardens or not issue?" simply because it's been so back-and-forth. Today (again), Curbed supposedly has the word, which is that the show will be located in Red Hook and not Carroll Gardens or downtown Brooklyn. Red Hook certainly makes more logistical sense for the show, and it's also certain to make many in this neighborhood very, very happy.

On a related note, what's with all the filming in the neighborhood? In the past week, there's been a film shooting in front of the movie theater, a commercial on Smith Street and then today a whole crew was set up in front of the old Little Red Deli by the Cobble Hill Park.

I have a little confession: I've never been inside Carroll Garden's Marco Polo. It seems a bit impenetrable with its valet parking and old-schoolers congregating for cocktails and dinner. But this I know: The Italians of Carroll Gardens wouldn't have kept it in business for 25 years unless it served up some tasty Italian food. And now I have an excuse to go--the restaurant is serving a three-course $19.83 lunch, in honor of the year it opened, and a three-course $25 dinner, in honor of its anniversary. The special lasts throughout the summer and includes dishes such as house-made pasta with spicy cured anduja sausage and guanciale, grilled octopus, a prosciutto and mozzarella stuffed pork chop. Anybody want a lunch date with ABL?

And if you're not in the mood for fancy Italian, I can heartily recommend Marco Polo's pizza annex. The sausage, onion and broccoli rabe pizza is just about the perfect combo.

In what is, to my knowledge, a first for ABL, a review of a restaurant (South Brooklyn Pizza) has made it from cyberspace to windowspace. It has ... in a word ... been ... laminated! Move over Time Out New York, New York Magazine and other assundry mags of eating record ;)

And check out my online review of South Brooklyn pizza. Although, I have amended my thoughts a bit, as subsesquent visits proved the pizza uneven (see my comment in the comments section). The potential is there--they just need to figure out how to tame that beast of an oven and handle crowds.

You may have noticed some different artwork in the windows of businesses along Smith and Court streets. It's all a part of Windows Brooklyn. Two personal favorites--the "how much is your rent?" (my title) installation at Brownstone Treasures/Yesterday's News, above, and the "old-photo peepholes" (my title) at Hasker.