Sandy Survivor Gathering Reminder!

Along with sending out this reminder for the coming weekend's Sandy Survivor Gathering, which will be at 351 Van Brunt Street storefront between 4pm and 7pm June 30th, we wanted to let everyone know about the new webpage on the PortSide site.  Since we're hoping to make this a regular thing you can check this page for updates on future gatherings.  We hope to see you all there this Sunday.  Free cake and coffee!!

New(ish) Coffee in Columbia Waterfront.

Isn't it strange how sometimes in Brooklyn you can live or work right around the block from a storefront and not come across it until it's been open for months?  Have you visited or seen Kings Coffee on Carroll Street between Columbia and Van Brunt? It's a very residential street so it's kind of a hidden gem but they've been open for almost a year now!  We got the scoop from the gentleman (pictured below) about where this place came from.  They apparently learned their craft from an old- school brew master (not sure if that's an actual term or if we just made that up, probably the latter) in Bensonhurst that wanted to close shop but pass along his trade secrets first.  It's a really cute simple spot with good coffee.  Check it out if you're around that area! Their hours are Mon-Fri 8am-8pm  and 9am-7pm on Sat and Sunday.

Benefit Tonight for BGI.

You can still get last minute tickets for the News Views 2013 Benefit tonight supporting the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway.  You can go here to purchase or buy one at the door at the supporter level for $175.  The event will be held at Liberty Warehouse at 260 Conover St, which is a great location with amazing views.  Here's what BGI has to say about what you can expect for the evening.

Open bar, live music, dessert and after-party at Hometown Bar-B-Que are included. Enjoy the hot-and-sweet music of The Michael Arenella Quintet! Festive summer attire suggested.

This year’s event will feature tastings of seafood and land-food from some of South Brooklyn’s distinctive eateries, including: Brooklyn Crab, Court Street Grocers, Fairway Market, Fletcher’s Brooklyn Barbeque, Hometown Bar-B-Que, Littleneck, Luke’s Lobster, Mile End, M.O.B., Petite Crevette, Robicelli’s, Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies, Watty & Meg, and more!

We'll also have a fabulous silent auction, featuring goods and services from local businesses, including: A Cook's Companion, Blue Marble Ice Cream, Chez Moi, Circa Antiques, Collier West, Columbia Street Crossfit, Consignment/Eva Gentry, Dodge YMCA, Dvir Salon, Fairway Market, Film Biz Recycling, Finetune Pilates Studio, Four & Twenty Blackbirds, Greenhouse, Jalopy, Kaight, Kittery, Littlefield, Michael Arenella, Néda Boutique, New Body Bootcamp & Wellness, NU Hotel, pok pok ny, Ride Brooklyn, Rolling Orange Bikes, The Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club, Runner & Stone Bakery and Restaurant, Rico, Tres Belle Spa, Turnstile Tours, Twig Terrariums, Uncommon Goods, and Yoga with Rebecca!

We look forward to seeing you on June 26th in Red Hook! Get your tickets today!

Take the Red Hook Survey!

SBIDC, Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corp, has been working with a retail market planning firm called JGSC.  The goal is to help small businesses in Red Hook and one of the steps towards helping these businesses is to find out the consumers wants and needs for these retail markets.  Take this survey, if you haven't already, and share your opinion.  You'll help our small business owners in only a few mintues!

YMCA Summer Deal.

The Dodge YMCA is promoting a summer deal right now.  The basics are join for the summer, which is now until September 2nd, and there is a flat fee of $200 for individuals and $275 for families.  No joiner's fee or monthly fees are added onto that, although you'll have to ask about whether you automatically get charged if you don't cancel membership with advance notice before September if you don't want to continue.  It's a really good deal actually, a lot less than the usual membership fees.  If you've wanted to check it out now is the time.

Draw-a-thon for B.A.R.C. today and tomorrow only!

Orange You Glad, a website design and development studio at 423 Smith Street, is hosting a draw-a-thon today and tomorrow to benefit B.A.R.C (Brooklyn Animal Resource Coalition).  They are 1/3rd away from their $6000 goal.  You can help the animals by clicking here then participating or donating.  You can get a drawing by donating $25 or more or, if you donate $1000 or more, an animation of your favorite animal.  Check it out!

Brooklyn Bridge Park Film Series!

We blogged earlier this week about the Red Hook Flicks outdoor movie schedule and we'd like to share the Brooklyn Bridge Park "Syfy Movies with a View" schedule as well.  It's a beautiful place to watch a free outdoor movie and their line-up is equally awesome (see below).  Our favorite part is that you have a say in their final film.  The vote this year is between Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Good Will Hunting, or Lost in Translation.  Voting begins August 22nd and movies that were rained out will also be added to the list.

July 11
Ferris Bueller's Day Off

July 18
Enter the Dragon

July 25
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

August 1
8 Mile

August 8
Roman Holiday

August 15
Rocky

August 22
Vertigo

August 29
PUBLIC VOTE!

Showboat Circus This Weekend.

The Waterfront Museum Barge is going to be docked at Hudson River Park Pier 25 at the foot of N. Moore St. and the Hudson River in Tribeca, NYC this Sunday June 23rd for the Showboat Circus.  There will be two shows, which will feature music, juggling, and a cowboy rope artist, one at 1pm and one at 4pm.  You can order tickets here.  If you'd like to read more about the performers and what to expect for the days events click here.

Sandy Survivor Gathering Part II

There's going to be another Sandy survivor gathering coming up on June 30th from 4-7pm.  Put it on your calendar!! We'll send out a reminder just before it happens also.  It will, again, be at 351 Van Brunt and we'll have cake and coffee.  If you missed the last one then this is your chance to connect with your friends and neighbors! If you'd like to help in anyway email sandy6mo@gmail.com.  You can also RSVP by emailing that same address.  Hope to see everyone there!

Red Hook Flicks!

It's finally here.  Red Hook Flicks announced their line up weeks ago at Bait and Tackle but hadn't posted the schedule on their website until last week.  We'd been checking every once in a while to see if it was up and we're happy to share the schedule with you in case you haven't seen it already.  Click here!  It's a pretty awesome line up this year (Caddyshack!!) We can't wait to go watch under the stars!

521 Hicks Burger Joint Updates!

Coming soon??!  As you can see from this pic above there was a Pat LaFrieda parked out front recently.  This was taken a couple of days ago.  This gives us a couple clues as to what to expect from this soon to be burger joint at 521 Hicks Street.  One is that they are using quality products!  Two is that if they are getting food delivered already, we say "if" because we didn't actually see any transactions and in fact the man driving knocked on the door and no one answered, this may mean that they are opening very soon!  We'll keep an eye on things.

Brooklyn Brainery the Weekend!

There are a few classes this weekend going on at the Brainery.  Some of you may have attended a class at the Brooklyn Brainery before, at either location (they now have a Prospect Heights location in addition to their Carroll Gardens spot). We've led a class here and absolutely love this place! We haven't given it a shout out in a while so thought we'd share this weekends events with you.

June 14th- The History of Scotch Whiskey
June15th - Typography for Beginners
June 15th- South Indian Food + Photography: Learn How To Cook It & Shoot It Like A Pro
June 16th-  Get Unstuck: Get Writing, Again

Honeydew Drop Childcare on Columbia Street.

257 Columbia Street, which used to be the little postal store, has had a new tenant on the second floor for a little while.  Although they aren't quite open yet, Honeydew Drop is taking calls and answering questions about their daycare, 718-855-2548.  The company has daycares and preschools in other areas of Brooklyn.  This place on Columbia is called Honeydew Little Stars and they'll be taking ages 4mos-2yrs.  For more info visit their website.

Vote for Red Hook!!!

Benjamin Moore is having a contest and the community with the most votes will win a make over of sorts, that is a row of properties will get spruced up through a program entitled "Main Street Matters".  Red Hook has been nominated!  You can cast a vote a day and the deadline is June 30th so start voting now!  Read more about this contest on Pardon Me For Asking.  And start voting here.

Calling all Artists!

Brooklyn Boulders, at 575 Degraw Street, is having an art show.  They are asking for submissions from anyone and everyone who wants to be a part of it.  The deadline is June 28th.  Here's the info that they sent out in their newsletter:

We're excited to announce our very first community art exhibition! Since those graffiti guys get all that wall space, we thought you should get some too. We know you're creative,
show everyone what you've got!

If you'd like to participate, submit up to five works with up to three images of each in PNG, PDF,             or JPG to ArtShow@Brooklynboulders.com. If your work is selected, you're in!
                                 Opening night will be held here on Thursday, July 18th.

Red Hook Jazz Festival

This Sunday is day one of the Red Hook Jazz Festival. And if you can't go this Sunday, June 9th, you have a second chance next week, June 16th, to hang out in the Urban Meadow and listen to 5 different Jazz bands play (10 total for both dates).  The cost is $10 for adults and free for children.  For more information and to view the line up of musicians you can visit the Urban Meadow Blog.

The Total Red Hook Immersion.

We're sponsors of this event this weekend, along with Brooklyn Based and Brooklyn Brewery!  Come check it out!  It's this Saturday, June 8th from noon-6pm in Red Hook.  In addition to free brews and discounts to really great shops around Red Hook, their will be live music at Jalopy theater towards the end of the day.  Read more about this event below as seen on Brooklyn Based.

To take part in this neighborhood-wide celebration, you’ll need to score one of our 500 FREE Immersion cards, a golden ticket that will get you complimentary brews at Brooklyn Ice House, Rocky Sullivan’s, Fort Defiance and Jalopy Tavern; complimentary Local 1, Local 2, or Sorachi Ace over brunches at The Good Fork, Kevin’s and Home/Made, plus 15% off at local shops like Foxy & Winston and Brooklyn Slate Company, $2 off lobster rolls from Red Hook Lobster Pound and more sweet deals. A full map of participants to date is here.
For the truly adventurous (and inveterate Instagrammers), we’ll challenge you to five dares on the day of the immersion. Those who actually follow through, with pictures to prove it, will win great prizes like a private tour of Brooklyn Winery and a class for two at Pioneer Works.
And for the first year ever, we’ll also have live music at our after party, thanks to our supporting sponsor Realty Collective. Jalopy Theater is opening up early to host rising electro-folk-pop stars, Wyatt, who’ll be playing a free show at 5pm before heading to BAM for a later gig.
To get in on all the deals, the beers, and the show, you’ll need to pick up an immersion card, which we will be handing out at both Brooklyn Ice House and Rocky Sullivan’s starting at noon. We suggest arriving early to snag one–last year we passed out all 500 cards in an hour. And be sure to follow @BrooklynBased and @BrooklynBrewery on Twitter for updates on how many cards are left, random giveaways, and other tomfoolery.

Red Hook Park Events! Rakim Tonight!

There are hundreds of amazing free events during the summer all over New York and so many happening in Red Hook.  Here are just a couple happening this week in Red Hook Park, (listed below).  Red Hook Flicks will be starting up soon too, although their schedule has been announced last weekend at Bait and Tackle it's not up on their site yet.  We'll share any info about these free outdoor movies and any other events as we hear about them!

June 5th (Tonight!!) - Red Hook Park

Rakim / Hosted by Lyricist Lounge 7-9p

June 7th - Red Hook Park

Comedy Central in the Park

Featuring stand up from Comedy Centrals favorite comics 7-9p

New Restaurant coming to Columbia Street.

192 Columbia has been vacant for a little while now.  It used to be Kotobuki Bistro and has been sporting this sign (above) that says "Cesar's Garden Restaurant", which will be a Greek restaurant.  There's no sign of any work being done there when we took this photo last week it was the middle of the day on a weekday and the gate was down.  We'll keep an eye out for any changes and if anyone hears of any opening dates or has more info please share!

Carroll Gardens Branch Library Closure Dates.

The Carroll Gardens Library posted a notice on their facebook page that they'll be closing for a month this summer for some upgrading.  The renovations they are making sound like it's going to make the place more efficient.  They are adding a book slot so folks can return books during their "closed" hours (finally!). Below is the post with all the other changes they are making and the dates they'll be making them.

Notice to the community: The Carroll Gardens library will be closed from Saturday June 8-Sunday July 7, re-opening on Monday July 8 at 10 AM. The closure is for the installation of self-check out machines, a slot for quick return of books, and reconfiguring of the circulation desk and some other areas of the main floor.