Carroll Gardens: July 2008 Archives

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.