Neighborhood: June 2006 Archives

I thought we were lucky getting one banh mi place in the neighborhood with Hanco's at 85 Bergen right by Smith Street. Now, it looks like East Village Nicky's Vietnamese Sandwich Shop is opening an outpost at 311 Atlantic, between Smith Street and Hoyt Street.  There's no phone number yet, and I haven't heard an exact open date, but, damn, two places to get these delicious sandwiches in the neighborhood is quite exciting. Plan on an ABL banh mi face-off when Nicky's opens.

Photo from nymetro.

So I have a confession to make: I don't like spumoni. Now wait, all ye olde Brooklynites, hear me out. I've never had spumoni before, and I'm 30. So unlike a lot of people whose introduction to spumoni was at age two on a hot day in Brooklyn, mine was at age 30 on a hot day in Brooklyn.

First, let me describe the iced beast itself. Spumoni, at least the large bonbon sized one we purchased at Court Pastry, is sweet, almost sickeningly sweet. It's like eating a big mouthful of frozen sugared cream.  This particular spumoni also had a rather strong flavor of cinnamon (and not rum as apparently some spumoni contains).

My two tasters and I immediately imagined sugar-cracked-out-children at a birthday party jumping around with glee before and after servings of spumoni. Maybe it was that image alone that caused me to cringe as I dug into the encased candied fruit and nuts. Whatever it was, call me a hipster-yupster-grupster-newbie, but I will take a good neighborhood Italian ice or gelato any day over another serving of spumoni.

One of the things we learned at the Brooklyn Blog Festival was that The Brooklynite, a very nice magazine we promo'd a few months ago is shutting down. It makes us sad to see a cool publication fold, and also makes us wonder anew why Brooklyn-only publications don't do better. The borough's other magazine, BKLYN, is now subscription based and, according to its website, "cash flow problems have forced BKLYN to suspend publication, at least until Fall 2006." Not exactly rousing enthusiasm for Brooklyn-0nly publications. Why is that? As was discussed at the Blog Fest, Brooklyn if counted by itself would be the fourth largest city in the U.S. According to my lazy internet searching, the top five cities by rank are New York, LA, Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia. All of those cities seem well covered by traditional media, so why the lack of Brooklyn coverage?

Our friend Charles, a Carroll Gardens resident, will be DJing with his cohort Hank under the alias DJ Au Jus at Bar Reis in Park Slope tonight.

Charles and Hank will play an eclectic mélange of styles covering from C86, E6, Teenbeat, and other poppy stuff to some psych, garage, and other "post-punk" classics.

You will hear Air Miami's "World Cup Fever," possibly several times.

Bar Reis
375 5th Ave (map)
Brooklyn, NY 11215-3344
(718) 832-5716

ABL was a touch trepidacious about this Brooklyn BlogFest. Everyone knows that bloggers should not be seen in the light of day--and certainly not in groups of more than two or three. What would happen when such a large number of Brooklyn's blogerati conveyed for this historical moment in Brooklyn blogdom? (I'll let everyone take a moment to imagine something cataclysmic.) .....................................>

Nope, no kittens on a tightrope. Among the highlights: live blogging from Daily Heights and some rather non-photogenic lighting, inspiring stories from Design Sponge who quit her day job and now writes full time, general disdain (nee energetic hate) for Mr. Ratner and his project from No Land Grab, Develop Don't Destroy, and the Atlantic Yards Report.

And yes, the four minute speeches spiralled longer, but who cares when you have a history of blogging from Dope on the Slope that involves the cave man (photo illustration at left) and a hauntingly beautiful Brooklyn photo montage from Joe's NYC. Newcomer Brooklyn Record was there, alongside its parental unit, Brownstoner, who went rather light on the disguise. Prolific poster Gowanus Lounge (he actually lives in Park Slope, shhhh) spoke of his newest passion. Of course, much thanks go to OTBKB and her partner Hugh Crawford of Daily Pix for organizing. And all the other blogs who showed up that I haven't mentioned (nice to meet 423Smith and B61, SunsetParker) ... somehow this is turning into my imaginary acceptance speech for the Brooklyn Blogger of the Year awards ;)

There were even some non-Brooklyn bloggers in attendance, like Jake from Gothamist (below), who admitted that Brooklyn was kind of cool and  sincerely wished for some more cookies. 

After the jump, photo of real bloggers with their ABL swag.

Wandered by this resurfacing in Cobble Hill the other day and thought it was a pretty cool peak underneath the brownstone.

There was a time when a blogger could happily sit on a piece of information and think "Ahhh, that would be perfect for a Thursday posting." Then, along comes Brooklyn Record, and one person's Thursday post becomes another's Wednesday post. Still, this Saturday and Sunday's Renegade Craft Fair is worth over-exposure. Sponsored by such hipster-defining publications as The Onion, Venus, Ready Made, the L magazine and Bust, this craftstravaganza is sure to bring the L&B pizza-throwing mafia out in full force! It's being held in Williamsburg's (gentrification red flag!)  McCarren Park and attended by young, poor Brooklynites whose rent is currently lining the pockets of people who bought brownstones 30 years ago for $20,000. Everyone (with or without their Fidel Castro caps) will get to enjoy favorites like the Austin Craft Mafia, Fred Flare and local DIY crafters, but watch out for the asymmetrical haircut crowd. Those pointy gelled ends can be brutal when you're fighting your way to the last hand-knitted iPod cozy!

You see that little sign in the upper right-hand corner of the photo? "Italian ices," it reads. So small, so unassuming. And yet, this little store at 298 Court Street scoops the best Italian ice I've ever tasted. I would rather eat the chocolate Italian ice here than have gelato or ice cream anywhere else--that is how good this Italian ice is. Also, it's $1.25 for a small, and the smalls are huge. WHY DID I WAIT UNTIL THIS SUMMER TO DISCOVER THIS GEM? I am angry at myself for all of the past two summer's missed opportunities. Highly recommended flavors are chocolate and lemon. You will thank me for it. And you will dream of these ices in your sleep, I promise.

One of our favorite things to do is obsess about Brooklyn-duh! And one of our favorite pastimes is discovering new blogs about Brooklyn-double duh! There have been several excellent entries into this group recently (see our entire Brooklyn blog list on the right), but most recently, we've been checking out Brooklyn Record. It seems like Brownstoner (who publishes the site) is hiding this little gem, waiting for people to discover it for themselves. It's worth discovering. A bit more of a news compendium than a snarkity-snark blog, the site lists events, links to Brooklyn in the news, and offers some first-hand Brooklyn info like what's going on at the local CSA. Also, we've got a friend who is one of the site's bloggers and she's great! So *after* you're done reading ABL, do check out BR.

New businesses are popping up on Smith Street like weeds in our backyard garden after the rain. One that's yet to flower is Sapodilla, in the old Village 247 space. All the information we have is taped up to the window (above), but good to hear that the garden will still be accessible.

Of course, the new cheese store Stinky Brooklyn, right next to the yet-to-open Provence en Boite, has been making a splash. My first foray revealed much more than cheese in the tiny space. Bread from Mazzola, sweets from One Girl Cookies, duck fat from Applewood and a nice case of chorizo and cured meats, plus pickled green tomatoes in the cold case. YUM!

Not to be left out is the newly opened French bistro Porchetta at Smith and Douglass, where the old Banania used to be. If you have a chance, grab a business card, which features a pig in a colorful wig and a high-necked shirt. A peek at the brunch menu revealed hangover offerings that are par for the neighborhood (several kinds of eggs, pancakes, etc). I do like what they've done with the front planters (click to enlarge at left).

And to show that I'm not totally partial to food, I stopped in Bird at Smith and Butler. Wasn't super-hot on the jeans selection, but the store was stocking some great summer dresses and tops. If you don't have a high-paying Manhattan job, however, these may be out of your price range (most items I liked were $150 and up).

And people say Red Hook is economically depressed. Here are the neighborhood's drug numbers via GowanusLounge via Brooklyn Papers: 9,234 vials of crack, 3,135 dime bags of heroin, 1,755 bags of marijuana and 400 grams of powder cocaine sold every day. The neighborhood is/was selling $154,150 every day, or more than $50 million every year. And Manhattanites think they've got it all!

Also, from the very busy Gowanus Lounge, an enticing photo of the new Provence en Boite on Smith Street (original in Bay Ridge). We hope they kick Patois' ass.

Thanks to Yeti for noticing the NYTimes wedding announcement that Chengwin of Chengwin and Chunk just got married. I hope this doesn't mean the Chengwin fights are off.

New in Carroll Gardens: Stinky and Bird, via 423smith.

One more reason to hate Key Food, via DailyHeights.

Brownstoner has given us some inspiration to post a few pics of our lovely garden that we've recently spiffed up by adding some new plants and grass. Keep in mind this isn't really our garden (we just rent), but it's still a daily source of personal joy and an occasional source of envy amongst friends. The above picture is the recent mini-tree infestation we had to take care of when our neighbor's huge maple tree deposited about 8 million tiny little helicopter seedlings. Below is the beauty.