Red Hook Meeting

Tomorrow, Wednesday the 28th, there will be a Red Hook Civic Association meeting at 7pm at PS 15 (Sullivan St between Van Brunt and Richards). Issues to be discussed will be as follows:

-Safety issues and current concerns discussed with the 76th precinct.

-Transportation issues, including possible jitney bus service to lower Manhattan.

-Issues concerning traffic congestion.

Everyone is welcome to come and bring friends. Also any neighborhood concerns can be brought to attention.

Spotlight on Drawing!

We've already blogged about the Red Hook Fall Flea earlier this week but now we wanted to spotlight one of the kids activities we heard about going on there. K.I.D.S, which stands for Kentler International Drawing Space, has a free art education program for children and their parents on weekends. They will be at the flea on Sunday to present Drawing Together between 11 and 12:30. The organization, located at 353 Van Brunt, has been around for a while and if you'd like to learn more about it check out their website. Here's a bit more on what you can expect for Sunday's activities with them.

Kentler International Drawing Space and K.I.D.S. Art Education invite children and their adults to draw BIG and COLORFUL using handmade stencils. The workshop will be led by Teaching artist MEGHAN KEANE.

Designed for ages 4 & up
with their caregivers (no drop offs)

Drop-ins are welcome!

Space is limited, so please be on time.

Battersby coming to Smith Street

Walker Stern and Joseph Ogrodnek taken from Zagat.com

Two great chefs, Joseph Ogrodnek, who has been a sous-chef at Gramercy Tavern and Jean-Georges Vongerichten's The Mark, and Walker Stern, former chef of The Vanderbilt and sous-chef at Eighty One, are opening a restaurant on Smith street next month! They will be taking over the space that used to be Patois at 255 Smith Street. Not only are these chefs very experienced and amazing, they are also friends! So, please show your support and hit their new restaurant, Battersby, which will have a contemporary American menu. Here's a blurb from Zagat to entice you further.

Ogrodnek says they're aiming for a "tightly focused, constantly changing" contemporary American menu with the same quality you'd find at Manhattan's best, but "more approachable" and served in a more modest setting. Upping the ante, he and Stern will be the only two people cooking. "You wouldn't believe how rare that is in the restaurant world," he says, adding "The chef behind the menu is rarely in the kitchen during service, let alone actually cooking and plating the food."

Top Three Egg Creams!

As we all know egg creams, a combo of milk, traditionally chocolate syrup and seltzer, are back after being hard to find on menus for decades. These retro bevs are now featured at several restaurants in and around our hood. Here are the picks for top 3!

#1 Henry Public- The perfect combo of especially creamy milk, chocolate syrup, and seltzer spritzed from an antique seltzer bottle for an ultimate old-timey effect. Not too bubbly, not too milky. Just delicious!

#2 Farmacy- This egg cream wins as much for taste as it does for ambiance. The place is warm, homey, and takes you to an era we can only dream about (or pretend we live in for the 20 minutes or so we're in there enjoying this beverage). Ask about the different flavors too, such as vanilla and coffee!

#3 Fort Defiance- Featured as a top egg cream in Brooklyntheborough.com's best of the borough egg cream contest this is definitely a choice egg cream. The one we had was not as chocolatey as the other two but the milk and seltzer were right on.

Go on an egg cream drinking spree for yourself and tell us what you think!

Red Hook Fall Flea

This weekend, Sunday the 25th from 10am-5pm to be precise, come down to the Red Hook Fall Flea at the PS 15 playground at Van Brunt Street between Sullivan and Wolcott. It should be a lot of fun and plenty to do for both adults and kids. A musical performance by Audra Rox begins at 2pm and a few kids activities throughout the day include a drawing workshop, futball class, movement class, and Zumba! You can also help out the local school, PS 15 whose PTA is sponsoring this event, by bringing classroom donations of pencils, flare pens, markers, crayons, glue sticks, tape, copy paper, liquid soap, or hand sanitizer. Check out the vintage clothing and furniture, hand crafts, local food, books and more! So, we'll see you there!

Bagel Bagel

Right on Hamilton Ave, near Summit and across from the cruise terminal, stands a new bagel cafe. It's called South Brooklyn Bagels and promises not only hot bagels but 24 hours worth of bagels. Wow! That's like a little bit of Manhattan right in our very hood. They aren't open yet, the sign outside says coming soon and the door was open this weekend so we peeked in. It looks pretty much ready for business so we expect it'll open very soon. Definitely a strange spot for a shop like this. Not a lot of foot traffic but great for folks who live in the Columbia Waterfront District as we can't think of any bagel shops in the area. Also great for anyone craving a bagel at 3 in the morning!

Pan Am & Vintage Cars

Walking down Henry Street today will send you back in time. The street, specifically between Kane and Degraw, was full of vintage cars. These cars were parked there for the shooting of Pan Am, which has been shooting in the neighborhood off and on for quite a while now. The show takes place in the 1960's so I'd imagine the cars would be from that era and maybe older? In the picture above you can see a classic yellow taxi cab as well. Maybe one of the stars would be getting out of the cab because it seemed they were prepping it for more than just sitting on the curb when we walked by. It was a very cool sight to see and it looks like we'll be seeing more of that in the area the way things have been going. What can we say? We live in a picture-perfect neighborhood.

Cool Class

Isn't is funny how you can walk by a place over and over again and see it for the first time one day? The other day, walking down Smith Street in the early evening, the Brooklyn Bead Box was just that place for us. Peaking inside the warmly lit store one could see a table where several women were sitting and beading jewelry. It was a class. How awesome! Looking up at their sign we knew we'd seen this place before but couldn't really recall and it was like seeing it for the first time, or at least in a different light. It seemed like such a nice thing to do on a Sunday evening. Sit and bead. If this sounds like a nice thing to you also you should check out their website for the class schedule. It looks like you sign up for daily classes, which are $35 or $40, and then buy the beads you want to work with, make your jewelry, and bring it home!

BeQu now Mandy's

At 227 Smith Street in Carroll Gardens an old spot has become a new spot, all with the change of a name and sign. BeQu Juice bar is now called Mandy's Healthy Cafe. We're not sure if this indicates that business hasn't been doing well. Maybe they just needed a fresh look and name? BeQu didn't make much sense. It stood for "better quality" but that wasn't apparent by first or even second glance. We can't find a menu for Mandy's. The BeQu menu is still up on menupages. I guess we'll find out more soon.

Young Actors Workshop

The fall session for the Young Actors Workshop is coming up (the week of September 19th). This 13 week session will cost you $325 but according to their website "Scholarships are available for students in need who have a passion for acting and theater." The classes teach improvisation, scene study, and comedy & tragedy. They have different classes for different ages. These workshops are held at Christ Church in Cobble Hill, 326 Clinton Street. If you're interested in signing your child or children up check out their website for more info. Here's a little blurb about Ezra Barnes, who will be teaching the fall session.

Ezra Barnes is a teacher, actor, and director. He has performed Off-Broadway with the Mint and Pearl Theater Companies, with numerous regional theaters and been featured on Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, Bored to Death, As the World Turns, and in the feature films Joshua and Once More With Feeling. A Shakespearean expert, he founded Connecticut’s Shakespeare on the Sound, considered one of the premier outdoor classical theaters in the area, and served as its Artistic Director for 14 years. A longtime Brooklyn resident and parent, Ezra has taught theater for young people at Saint Ann’s School, the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, Poly Prep, and Piper Theatre. www.ezrabarnes.com

Columbia Street Waterfront Festival

This Saturday, September 10th, come one down to Columbia Street for a day of food, rides, games, live music and shopping! There will also be a special appearance by the North Shore Animal League mobile pet adoption trailer. The festival starts at 11 am and goes until 6pm and stretches from Degraw to Union on Columbia Street and around the corner on Union to Hicks Street. The weather forecast is looking lovely so let's keep our fingers crossed. If you want to enjoy local food and music or if you're looking to adopt a furry friend head to the waterfront this Saturday. See you there!

Moo Burger...coming finally?

We reported the coming of Moo Burger to 240 Court street quite some time ago, back in January to be precise. We believed the sign that said "coming soon" and so we blogged that they'd be hopefully opening soon after but weren't sure of a date. Considering, though, that the restaurant that occupied the space previously had a fire, it makes sense that it might take months to get the place up and running. Well, we are pleased to announce that the spot will breathe live again soon. They have a Moo Burger awning in place and, after peeking inside beyond the papered windows, we could see that they look pretty set to go. So the "coming soon" sign now has some validity.

Another TV show shooting

On Degraw and Henry street in Carroll Gardens the TV show "Over/Under", which is still listed as in development, will be shooting according to this sign we saw posted. The shoot date is listed as Wednesday, tomorrow, between 6am and 11pm. We couldn't find out much info on this show on IMDB but we did find a synopsis on tv.com and it's as follows. "A day trader is fired from his job due to his serious gambling problem that has cost his company millions of dollars. He moves to a new neighborhood with his wife and finds a surprising new path that will help him rebuild his life." What the "surprising new path" is is anyone's guess but maybe if you catch them shooting a scene or two you can find out.

Francis Louis

Did you know that the Prime Meats and Frankies Sputino owners, or the two Franks (Frank Falcinelli and Frank Castronovo), also have a catering and event company? We've known that Frankies has had an event space in the back of the restaurant, a beautiful room for large parties which is actually a converted blacksmith's stable, but we didn't know they had officially become caterers as well. According to their website they will serve at the location of your choice if you'd rather not have your party at the restaurant. Contact info is as follows.

If you would like to schedule an event
please contact:

Marci Delozier Haas

Email: marci@frankspm.com

Phone: 718-403-0033 ext.13

9/11 Exhibit

Next Thursday, the 8th of September from 6pm-9pm, a new exhibit about the maritime role in the 9/11 response will be opening. The exhibit takes place on the historic ship LILAC at Hudson River Park's Pier 25 (North Moore Street in Tribeca). Hours after the 8th for the month of September will be Thursdays from 12:00pm- 6:00pm and Saturdays from 1:00pm-6:00pm. This was included in the exhibit info that we received. "PortSide NewYork is mounting a multimedia exhibit (photography, videos and oral history) and a related talk about the extraordinarily successful and little-known maritime role in responding to 9/11, from evacuation to rubble removal. The exhibit is created in partnership with the Lilac Preservation Project." Also ways of supporting this exhibit are listed below.

Sponsors are still being sought. Email us here or call 917-414-0565.

Volunteer at the exhibit: Help increase the hours that the ship LILAC can be open to the public.

Provide content: if you were evacuated by water, worked on a response boat on 9/11, or photographed the activities on the water, we may be able to use your images.