Kayak for Autism Awareness.

This Saturday, August 4th is Paddle for Autism Awareness 2012 in Red Hook.  You still have a chance to register, there is a $25 registration fee that will be added to the money raised for this year.  Their goal is to raise $100,000.  Kayaks launch at Louis J. Valentino Park at 9am and the event lasts until 4pm.  "Shuttles will be provided from the corner of Court and Atlantic Streets in downtown Brooklyn at least three times per hour throughout the day!"  This community fundraiser is put together by the Global Autism Project, which is a "non-profit organization that builds local capacity to create sustainable centers of excellence for individuals with autism in under-resourced areas worldwide".  Go to their website and you can register, donate, or go out and support the kayakers this weekend.

This is Awesome!

Community Bookstore, a shop in Park Slope at 7th avenue between Carroll and Garfield streets, is hosting an extremely cool event that we are so excited about.  It's next week but put it on your calendars.

Patti Smith! Monday, August 6th at 7 PM

A night with Patti Smith at Books Beneath the Bridge, a free reading series at the Brooklyn Bridge Park. Patti Smith will read from her book Woolgathering, followed by an interview by Community Bookstore co-owner Ezra Goldstein. 

For more information see: http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/events/calendar/books-beneath-bridge

Buying into Brooklyn...Again!

The Brooklyn Based sponsored event "Buying into Brooklyn", was so awesome they've decided to do it again!  So come check out this crash course for the first-time home buyer that we are speaking at.  It's only 10 bucks, which includes the course and food provided by Jump Kitchen.  It's next Wednesday, August 1st from 7:30-9:30 at the Brooklyn Brewery, 79 N 11th Street.  Get your tickets in advance because they may run out.  Go to the event facebook page for more info.

Photos from Lessons Learned the Hard Way

Lessons Learned the Hard Way, a "story slam" that we participated in and blogged about a couple of weeks ago, turned out to be a lot of fun.  theSweeten blogged about it and posted pictures.  You can check them out here.  One of the photos is already shown above.

Color Art Show

 

What is color?  That is the question that the BWAC, Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition, is answering in this exhibit simply called Color.  The gallery at 499 Van Brunt will be hosting this art show beginning this weekend, Saturday July 28th until August 19th.  More info from their website below.

Over 1000 works of art in all media will be exhibited in BWAC’s unique and iconic 25,000 square foot Civil War-era warehouse gallery. Located among the historic piers of Red Hook and overlooking the Statue of Liberty and New York harbor, the chromatic backdrop for the exhibit could not be more ideal.  

Being Bourgeois Outdoors.

We love summer in Brooklyn!  One of the best parts?  Outdoor eating!  There are plenty of places to eat outdoors around town.  The new Pok Pok (if you can get in) and Brooklyn Crab (also if you can get in), Abilene, and Bar Tabac all have outdoor seating.  Frankie's, Lobo, Battersby and several other restaurants have gardens out back that are hidden little spaces to enjoy dining al fresco.  We snapped this picture on Court last week of the outdoor seating area at the relatively new Bourgeois Pig.  We didn't know this place had tables outside until we happened to walk by on a beautiful day.  Even Five Guys burgers has tables outside!  Again, we love summer in Brooklyn!

Kidville Coming Soon.

Kidville is opening up at 380 Court street soon.  We don't know an exact date but the website allows you to sign up for fall classes in early September so it's probably pretty soon.  The place has lots of different classes for ages 0-6 that parents or caregivers attend with children or they have a drop off preschool for 2 and 3 year olds.  As you can imagine it's pretty pricey, about $2500 per 16 week semester for a two class a week schedule.  They will also have a play space, or "indoor playground" that people can join.  Good for the winter months.  This is just one in a number of Kidvilles around New York.  They have one in Park Slope and a handful in Manhattan.

Pier 2 Park Pool Pros and Cons

The pool at Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 2 is now open!  It's been open for 2 weeks now and here's a round up of the pros and cons that people are expressing through blogs and online reviews.


PROS-  Being a new pool it makes sense that one of the positive remarks we've been reading is that it's clean.  The setting of course is also a big perk.  Right on the waterfront with Manhattan views!  Another big pro is that, although there are long waits, they give you a wristband and a time to come back so you don't have to hang around and wait in any lines, which would be especially difficult on a hot summer day.

CONS-  It's tiny.  Bococaland described it as being the size of "your grandparents pool in their senior citizens community".  Haha.  And of course con #2 is that it's crowded, which you can always assume will be the case and with the size taken into account it goes doubly so for this pool.

So, there you have it.  Looks like the pros outweigh the cons so it may be a fun place to check out on a hot summer day!

Ted and Honey vs Maybelles

This coming Sunday, July 22nd a very unique event will be going down at the Carroll Gardens Greenmarket.  It's an Iron Chef competition between Ted and Honey's Chef Ted and Chef Ryan from Maybelle's Cafe.  Just like Iron Chef they will have a certain amount of time to prepare a meal using a mystery ingredient picked out from the array of Greenmarket goods.  Sounds like fun!  If you want to witness the battle head down to the market, on Carroll between Smith and Court, at around noon.

Bike Share...still coming soon.

We blogged about a bike share back in March (read here) and since then it's gotten a new name which also indicates a big investor/sponsor.  It's now called Citi Bike and we just got word that it still plans on completing the launch by the end of this summer.  For now the only stations in the neighborhood are at the Atlantic Ave Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 6 but we're hoping they'll expand that if they do well.  It's really a great idea and the prices are lower than we thought they'd be.  To see a price list click here. 

Dassara Ramen Coming Soon!

We're counting down the days until Dassara Brooklyn Ramen comes to Smith Street, the old Chestnut space.  A good noodle shop would be a definite welcome addition to the neighborhood since there isn't really anything like it around that area that we know of.  The last date we heard was August 7th so....soon! According to the Carroll Gardens Patch the owners had some samplings at the Smith Street Funday Sunday and they liked what they tasted.  So, we're excited to try for ourselves come early August!  Above is a shot we snapped last week.  Couldn't peek inside but the outside is pretty cool.

Brooklyn Flea Expands.

 

It's been happening since June 21st but if you haven't checked this out already you should.  Why? because it's delicious and cool.  Both figuratively and literally.  Holding this "Flea Food Under the Archway" ensures both shade and a breeze from the waterfront along with the long list of awesome food vendors.  More info about the vendors and times are below.

All summer long you'll enjoy noshing on Asia Dog (Mel and Steve!), Brooklyn Oyster Party (po' boys and raw bar!), Landhaus (pork meatballs, brats!), and Mile End (smoked meat!)

Find Flea Food Under the Archway on Thursdays 11:30am-8pm, and Fridays 11:30am-4pm, through August. The Archway runs under the Manhattan Bridge between Anchorage Place and Adams Street.

Mama Maria's Make Over.

                           Mama Maria's swaps out its old awning for a simple sign. (DNAinfo/Heather Holland)

This is soooo cool!  We had no idea about this when it was going on but came across this blog (picture above) on DNAinfo New York.  Mama Maria's Italian restaurant on Court Street has gotten a makeover, Gordon Ramsey-style.  They will be on Kitchen Nightmares!  Now although it doesn't air until the fall you can see the improvements already, especially in the very different signage they have put up.  You can read the whole article here.  It talks more about the changes that have been made to the restaurant and is really interesting.  Check it out.

Music in the Park Tonight!

The Cobble Hill Association presents "Music in the Park", Cobble Hill park to be exact.  We remember this event last year and it was really great.  Nice relaxing music, usually folk, jazz or

classical in a beautiful setting.  You've already missed the classical but tonight at 7pm you can go see some folk music and it's free of course.  The flyer for the event is above but in case you can't read it all the info for the future shows is also below.


July 19th     Zenon Garcia and Ada Pasternak (folk jazz combo) 7pm

July 26th     Kelley McRae 9singer/songwriter) 7pm

On-Street Bike Rack Proposal

The DOT, with the help of the Cobble Hill Association, has proposed to install an on-street bike rack at the corner of Court and Pacific, a "no standing" zone.  This is in order to prevent cars from ignoring the sign and parking in that spot.  In an area where parking is extremely hard to find a lot of drivers seem to be risking tickets and parking in these zones anyways.  Maybe it's the lure of Trader Joes, which is only a block away.  Parking in these spots is not only illegal, though, it's dangerous because it blocks the view of people make left hand turns onto Court.  That plus the lack of bike racks in the area, it seems like a win win.  We'd like to see more of these on-street bike racks in the neighborhood, especially if they are as cute as the one pictured above which resides in Seattle.

More on Pok Pok...

We've been reading articles regarding Pok Pok, our favorite neighborhood Thai restaurant, lately.  First check out the pic above that we saw on Eater New York.  This was taken on a Saturday night recently and shows a line to get a table stretching down the block before the sun had even set.  This brings us to another article in the NY Times which recently reviewed Pok Pok and gave it two stars (in case you're unfamiliar with the Times restaurant reviews that is good).  These two stars have made the already packed restaurant even harder to get into.  We had called that Saturday night, coincidentally, and the wait was close to 3 hours long.  The third bit of info we heard recently had to do with the fact that they now have outdoor seating, which is cool but apparently doesn't get you a table any faster.  Will we ever be able to enjoy the delicious Thai food again without having to camp out for hours???

Mermaid Fish Garden CSA on BIT

Brooklyn Independent Television recently featured a segment about the Mermaid Fish Garden CSA or CSF, community supported fishery, in Red Hook, which we're big fans of.  The CSF is exactly what it sounds like, well okay not exactly since there are no actual mermaids involved, but they do have incredibly fresh fish available to members weekly.  The husband and wife duo started this fishery only weeks ago and seem to be doing pretty well.  Watch the video here and pay attention around half way through (2:57) for our special appearance.  And for more info on Mermaid Garden click here.

New Tenant at Kakes Spot

187 Sackett, which used to be the specialty cake bakery called Kakes, has a new tenant.  It's definitely an odd concept but if it works it'll be very exciting.  The space is to be shared by two women, Anna and Elise, together they're calling the place Take Root.  It will be part yoga studio and part kitchen.  Half of the time it will hold children's, adult and prenatal yoga and the other half will have food!  Strange but cool.  Elise Kornack worked at The Spotted Pig and Aquavit before attaining this spot and is planning on having a weekly intimate (10 diners) tasting menu and from Tuesdays-Thursdays from 11am-4pm serving a menu of snacks and drinks.  The space is very small so both the food service and yoga classes have limited spots.  It isn't open yet but we are very curious to see how this place does.  They have no website that we know of yet but they have flyers up on the door which explain more, including prices and schedule info, so if you're in the neighborhood and interested, go check them out.

118 President Street - Get on the wait list!

Unit Square Footage and Common Charges Announced!

Parlor: $799k  911 sq. ft. CC:$300  RET: $397http://realtycollective.com/details.aspx?id=1066077 
2nd Floor: $899k  943 sq. ft. CC:$300  RET: $397 http://realtycollective.com/details.aspx?id=1066097 
3rd Floor: $899k  948 sq. ft.  CC:$300  RET: $397 http://realtycollective.com/details.aspx?id=1066102 
1st Fl Duplex $1.295M  1677 sq. ft. CC:$460  RET: $608 
http://realtycollective.com/details.aspx?id=1066087

Photoville: Cool but Hot

                                          Courtesy of Rock Paper Photo via aCurator Magazine

Did anyone attend the event we blogged about called Photoville?  We went last weekend and, although the event was a great idea, it was an unfortunate weekend to have it because it was sooooooo incredibly hot.  They had delicious food vendors and the photography exhibits were wonderful.  The spot was just under the BQE in Dumbo and it was in a concrete lot, no shade, and the shipping containers seemed to be giving off heat even more.  We hope people went the weekend before when it was less sweaty.  Maybe they'll rethink doing this event in June/July if it happens again next year.

GO at Brooklyn Museum

 

We recently heard of this "community curated open studio project" from the Brooklyn Museum.  Unfortunately we are sharing too late for artists to register, which was supposed to have ended on June 29th.  The first phase of the project, however, will begin in early September and we thought we'd get the word out about that.  Here's more info below along with their website in case you want to read more about it.

GO is a new project from the Brooklyn Museum, taking place in neighborhoods throughout Brooklyn. During GO, Brooklyn-based artists are asked to open their studios to the community on September 8-9, 2012. Community members registered as voters will visit studios and nominate artists for inclusion in a group exhibition to open at the Museum on Target First Saturday, December 1, 2012.  www.gobrooklynart.org

Lessons Learned the Hard Way

Come hear us speak on July 10th at this "Story Slam".  Haha.  Love that term.  Brooklyn Based presents "Lessons Learned the Hard Way".  It's at DeKalb Market, which is a really cool spot if you haven't been there.  Here's some more info from the Brooklyn Based website:

Among the guests are butcher Tom Mylan of The Meat Hook, the soon-to-be proprietor of Royal Palms Shuffleboard Jonathan Schnapp, Rose Red and Lavender owner Kimberly Sevilla, Realty Collective founder Victoria Hagman, L Magazine and Brooklyn Magazine president and owner Daniel Stedman, theSweeeten.com founder Jean Laurer, serial entrepreneur and product development whiz Jason Fried (Myopenbar, Thunderclap.it), Robicelli’s cupcake queen Allison Robicelli, and many more. Together they’ll be sharing five-minute tales of “lessons learned the hard way”–terrible first jobs that taught them all they know, misguided choices, and other funny, inspiring stories about their work.

Everyone is welcome, and other indie business owners are encouraged to sign up for a storytelling slot on the spot (if you want to practice before you share your tale, each story slot has a five-minute max). Just RSVP here–when you do you’ll also be entitled to a 10% discount at select shops at DeKalb Market and two dollars off beer from 6-7pm.
 
It's not mentioned above but Tina Fallon will also be speaking!  Come hang!

Bed-Stuy Fish Fry

A neighborhood favorite in Bed-Stuy is coming to our hood soon!  Bed-Stuy Fish Fry will be opening at the corner of Hoyt and Schermerhorn Streets and we are excited.  The place is a seafood and soul food restaurant and is really well-liked.  The only complaints we heard was that the food takes a long time to make and that the wait to get in can be long.  Both of these sound like the place is good (made to order food that's so good people wait in line to eat it).  Everyone on Urbanspoon raved about the menu, which consists of different seafood dishes, mainly shrimp and fish, and fried chicken.  Mmmmmm.  Bring it!