Walk Fort Greene

Spotlight on Ft. Greene! Walk around the neighborhood, Ft. Greene Park in particular, on the Walt Whitman walking tour. We heard about this recently and the last tour already passed by, it was on June 19th, but mark your calendars because there is another one coming on July 17th. We rarely stray from writing about our hood but this event seemed really cool and we wanted to get the word out. Ft. Greene is an awesome neighborhood too, definitely worth exploring. Plus the tour is free! What more could you ask for? The details (time and place) are below. And you can read more about what to expect while on the tour in this New York Times article.

Summer fun for kids!

Schools are letting out for summer vacation this week and kids will be running the streets wild, bored out of their minds. Good thing for summer school and other community programs to keep the kids at bay. One program worth mentioning, (because it's fun, educational, and free!) is the Carroll Gardens Library summer reading program. They have great activities every week between Tuesdays and Saturdays (they're closed Mondays and Sundays). They show movies, teach arts and crafts, and have storytelling (of course). A complete schedule is listed below.

Tuesdays Knitting $ Crocheting Circle 4pm-4:45 Ages 9 & Up

Wednesdays Chess Club 6pm-7:30pm All ages & Movie and play 3:30-4:30 Ages 0-5

Thursdays Drawing Time 4-5pm All ages

Fridays Babies and books 10:30-11 am 0-18 months
Toddler time 11:15 am-12pm 18 months-3
Arts and Crafts 4-5pm All ages

Saturdays Board games for kids 10am-12pm ages 4 and Up

Bar Bruno

There are new window decals on the door of 520 Henry St. (see pics above) and also on the windows (below). This new restaurant/bar, called Bar Bruno, has been in the works for a while now. Apparently the space needed a lot of work. They replaced the step up to the door with a ramp, so they'll be wheelchair and stroller friendly. As you can see from the windows this place sounds like it will be a little bit of everything. A lunch spot with sandwiches, a place to get your morning coffee, as well as a restaurant and bar by night. There have been comments made on other neighborhood blogs concerned with the vagueness of the concept. We think that offering lots of different options is a good thing though and as do most restaurants they will probably and find their niche and stand out for whatever they do best. We wish them well and can't wait to see what evolves.

Empire B&B

Montreal bagels are here! At 200 Clinton (corner of Atlantic) there had been a sign up for quite some time promising a new bagel shop and now it has arrived. It's got a "Grand Opening" sign in the window and another above the door that says "Bistro", which makes it look like that's the name of the cafe but it's actually called B&B Empire. So, what's the difference between a New York bagel and a Montreal bagel? Well, The New York Times has a little input on this. They are apparently "chewy and tinged with a tantalizing sweetness. The real thing is still baked in wood ovens, which give the bagels an irregularly charred outer surface. These bagels shine, too, with a gloss that only a short swim in a bath of honey or malt-sweetened water can impart. With no chemical additives or dough conditioners, these bagels stand out in taste and looks." But we definitely want to go try for ourselves. Let us know if you've been out there and what you thought!

Mile End Expanding

Photo: Hannah Whitaker
New York Magazine


The much loved neighborhood Montreal Jewish delicatessen, Mile End, has been extremely successful and gotten lots of press. Now it's time to expand. They'll be opening a shop across the river in the Fall according to a report on grubstreet.com. The new location has yet to be disclosed but will be in the NoHo area and will be called Mile End Sandwich. This plan has been in the works since at least the beginning of the year. The critics love them, we love them, and now Manhattan will love them too. We wish them as much success over there as they've had here!

Read this interview with owner, Noah Bernamoff, about his influences and experience opening Mile End. It's quite interesting.

Opera in the Neighborhood!

I remember walking past 219 Court Street a couple of years ago and hearing the sounds of a full operatic chorus practicing coming from this unassuming building. Taking a closer look I realized that it was in fact a theater for the Vertical Player Repertory, an indie opera company that stages full productions at different venues. The latest production will be at Proteus Gowanus, 543 Union St (at Nevins). They'll be performing Francesco Cavalli's La Calisto July 8, 10, 14 and 16th at 8pm with rain dates July 9, 11, 15, and 17th. You can get tickets by calling 800-838-3006 or going to brownpapertickets.com. Go support some local independent opera! We're lucky to have them!

Invisible Dog Dance Performance

Were you aware that The Invisible Dog, at 51 Bergen St, wasn't just an art gallery but an art center? And that they put on performances of all sorts? If you didn't, or even if you did, this Friday would be a great opportunity for you to experience the center and all it has to offer. There will be a dance performance at 8pm and admission is free! We've always loved this gallery and add to it that it's also a performance space makes us so grateful to have this amazing spot in our neighborhood. More info on the event below.

FRIDAY JUNE 24
8pm / free admission

Site specific performance by choreographer Judith Sánchez Ruíz in collaboration with visual artist Ian Trask. Composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist John McGrew will create the music score. Performers: Judith Sánchez Ruíz, Simon Wehrli, and Simon Courchel.

Site-specific work incorporates improvisational structure, and instantaneous movement by performers. Composers often interact with the choreographer and the dancers to provide an original, semi-spontaneous score. Combining architecture, movement composition and edgy emotion, spaces come to life as structures are re-envisioned and re-assembled into vertiginous life forms.

The performance will take place on the 3rd floor of the building where Ian Trask’s ” Worm” long of 165 feet and made of cardboard, will be snaking around, creating open, empty and hampered spaces for the performers.

Portside was the life of the party ths Sunday in Red Hook!

Report from Waterfront Sunday 6/19 in Red Hook








PortSide assembled a Power Team to man our set-up at the Red Hook sidewalk sale organized by RHED. Fresh off the Mermaid Parade, we had Will Van Dorp Tugster; and Frank Hanavan, the creative omnicompetent and maker of the Schooner Pioneer and Admiral Nelson costumes; from PortSide, Stephanie Ortiz, one of our interns, Dan Goncharoff and Carolina Salguero, and Michele Kogon, copy editor, ensuring that all our written emissions were spot on.



Smitty played the guitar for a while.







Will Van Dorp aka Tugster







We engaged in some family-friendly, maritime street theatre to raise awareness of our programs (so hard to do while locked behind the port fence!) and money for our teen Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP).











Most of us took turns being Admiral Nelson to the amusement of passersby.





Frank, who also believes a good prop is key, used the kiddie pool to flag cars.

















Suited up as the traffic schooner for the first time since the Bar Tini move, Carolina slowed traffic with a flamboyant leaf-letting technique and got cars to stop, talk, donate and/or take information on PortSide's fundraising drive for the teen Summer Youth Employment Program.











Frank - creating maritime awareness one knot at a time - left one of his Turks Head Tags on the bus stop pole.









One new storekeeper of the Fulla T-shirt shop liked our hubbub so much he asked if we'd be out every weekend. He said if we were, he'd open up on weekends - even though we looked pretty strong in the t-shirt department ourselves!

BK Swappers event

We know we generally write about our hood and surrounding hoods but we aren't just proud of Red Hook and Bococa, we've got Brooklyn pride! So here's a little news about a cool event going on in Williamsburg with the BK Swappers this weekend. This is normally an invite-only event that fills up fast but this time it's open to everyone so it would be a great opportunity to check it out.

On Saturday, June 25, 2011, BK Swappers, a Brooklyn based food swap event, invites each and every one of you to come down to Williamsburg to the new all-food market Smorgasburg, where the swap will take place. No need to RSVP or scramble to get on a limited Eventbrite list—just come. There is also a Facebook event page, so that we can all communicate before the event and get a sense as to who is coming, but no need to register officially.

One swap note special to this event: please limit the number of items you bring to swap to 2 or 3. I know that sounds crazy, but if we have tons of people and everyone brings 6 or 8 or 10 items, there is simply not enough time or table space to accommodate all the swappables! I promise that we will have another swap in the next month or so where everyone can bring loads of amazing homemade goods to trade and come home with the usual bounty.

The details:

BK Swappers at Smorgasburg!

Saturday, June 25, 2011, 12–2pm (the swap itself will take place around 1:30pm)

Lost and Found

We've come across a couple of really cute posters within the last few weeks and we wanted to share them with you. One (seen above) was posted outside of PS 29 and it's asking for your help to find a lost baby blue bear blanket that was lost last month at the school yard. Call that number listed if you know anything. The next poster (below) we saw in Blue Marble's window on Court Street. Apparently the found a baby tooth on their counter? We weren't sure if it was for real but after reading the details it didn't seem like a joke. Very strange thing to lose and an even stranger thing to find.