Fornino at Pier 6!

We spotted this sign a few weeks ago at Pier 6.  For those that don't know, Fornino is a delicious pizzeria located in Williamsburg, Greenpoint and now soon-to-be Brooklyn Bridge Park. It's rated ain several publications as being one of the best in New York.  Last weekend the bottom part was open serving ice cream but the top has yet to be opened.  Coming soon though! Bring it on!

Firefighter Cook-off Tomorrow!

July 31st is the third annual Fairway Firefighter Cook-off! It starts at noon tomorrow at 480 Van Brunt. Firemen from Brooklyn Heights and Red Hook square off on the grills.  Much like Iron Chef, there will be a secret ingredient revealed at the cook-off that they will have to use.  Winners receive a $500 Fairway gift card and a donation from Fairway to the charity of the winner's choice.  Should be fun! Come on down!

More than Burgers at New Restaurant Vekslers.

We've blogged about the new "burger shop" coming to 521 Hicks, which we found out about through Grub Street.  This place is way more than just burgers.  In fact, they only have one burger, "the quarter pounder with cheese", on their small but diverse menu.  We've made the photo below extra large so you can see the delicious menu descriptions.  Because it says opening menu for the week we're sure it will be subject to change.  Definitely excited to try this place.  It's affordable too!

New Mural Coming to BQE Underpass.

Where the BQE meets Atlantic Avenue we saw this sign above that states "Mural Coming Soon".  This underpass can definitely use some beauty.  Since Pier 6 opened up, this western most section of Atlantic Ave has gotten a lot more foot traffic and it's a great spot for artwork.  The note reads on "see www.groundswellmural.org for details. We checked this organization out and learned this: Groundswell "brings together artists, youth, and community organizations to use art as a tool for social change. Our projects beautify neighborhoods, engage youth in societal and personal transformation, and give expression to ideas and perspectives that are underrepresented in the public dialogue." Can't wait to see what they come up with.

NY Beach Bus!

We saw this sign on the corner of Atlantic and Court and thought it was an awesome idea.  This "beach bus" charges $10 one way or $12 round trip to take passengers to Rock Away Beach and Jacob Riis Park.  They leave a few times a day each Saturday and Sunday. On their website they only show 2 pick up locations, one near the Atlantic Center (Pacific and 4th Ave) and one in Williamsburg.  We'll see if they choose to add more if it catches on. 

Etsy Pop-Up in Dumbo Saturday.

This weekend, Saturday July 27th, there will be an Etsy pop-up shop at West Elm Dumbo (75 Front Street).  Around a dozen Etsy vendors (all from Brooklyn!) will set up shop between 1pm and 6pm.  Here's more info from their facebook page.

Tina Roth Eisenberg, designer and founder of the popular blog swissmiss, Tattly, TeuxDeux and Creative Mornings has curated a selection of art, crafts, snacks and other handmade goods from local NYC Etsy designers. See all the participating Etsy vendors here: http://bit.ly/swissmissEtsy

Hometown Bar-B-Que.

454 Van Brunt is slowly but surely transforming into Hometown Bar-B-Que and we are psyched.  With so many delicious barbeque joints popping up all over Brooklyn, such as Fletcher's, Fort Reno and the latest, Dinosaur, we are delighted that Red Hook is joining the club. This place is going to have the food and the atmosphere with a rustic look and live music!  Here is a pic from last week we took of the new outside wall.  Also, we saw them doing some work yesterday but couldn't get a good look of the inside yet.  There's a really good spread with plenty of pics on Underground Eats from a couple of months ago. 

PortSide NY Dinner, Tickets on Sale Now!

We blogged about the PortSide NY fundraiser dinner last week and we now have more news.  Tickets are now available for this July 30th event.  If you'd like to buy tickets click here! This event will begin at 6:30 at Fort Defiance, 365 Van Brunt Street. More info is below!

Tues 7/30/13 at Fort Defiance
365 Van Brunt Street

Red Hook, Brooklyn NY 11231 

6:30pm cocktails 

7:00pm dinner

Come join us as we rally the troops over dinner at the noted Red Hook establishment Fort Defiance, named for a waterfront fort which existed down the street during the Revolutionary War.  You will get a PortSide insider update, a cappella singing and fine dining.

  

To buy your tickets, donate if you cant make it, or donate on top of your ticket price, click here!     

From Manhattan, catch IKEA ferries from Pier 11, Wall Street:

• 5:20pm gets you here for cocktails
• 6:00pm gets you here for dinner
• 6:40pm gets you here fashionably 10 min late for dinner

We would like to thank our sponsors!

 

Fort Defiance and St John Frizell

Fish donated by Pagano Seafood 

Shuttle bus from IKEA to Fort Defiance donated by IKEA

Songs of the Sea performed a cappella by Ken Schatz, Frank Woerner, and Heather Wood

Graphic Design by Diane Painter Velletri of Design Diseno NewYork  

Whiskey Soda Lounge Sign Up.

We read back in December that Andy Ricker, of Pok Pok, was planning on opening up a bar down the street from his Brooklyn restaurant and now we have tangible evidence.  The sign is up for Whiskey Soda Lounge on Columbia and Kane!  Talk about cornering the market.  The droves that wait nightly for entry to Pok Pok can now go drink and snack at this bar while they wait.  Here's what they say about the Portland sister bar. "Whiskey Soda Lounge is a bar/lounge serving Aahaan Kap Klaem, the drinking food of Thailand." Bring it!

What's the deal with Nectar?

As some of you may have noticed, Nectar Juice bar has had that all too familiar brown paper over it's windows for weeks and weeks now.  This all happened shortly after Tropic Juice opened up right across the street. Nectar fans are very sad.  We originally heard that Nectar was simply renovating but there isn't much work going on in there and now we aren't so sure.  For now, according to their website, they are still serving on weekdays out of 270 Court Street, which is the restaurant Strong Place.  We'll keep an eye on this and share any more info we find about this.

PortSide NewYork event at Fort Defiance.

Save the date for this event! July 30th, which falls on a Tuesday, PortSide NY will be having a fundraising event at Fort Defiance, 365 Van Brunt. There will be more information coming so keep an eye out on either this blog or you can check their site. Also, if you hadn't already heard about them winning the White House award for their Sandy Recovery Efforts you can read more about that here. 

Interesting Art CSA.

We heard about this cool non profit organization called Brooklyn Community Supported Art + Design.  It basically works like a CSA but instead of supporting local farms or artisans it helps local artists, as well as art lovers.  Here's some more info below. 

CSA+D Brooklyn aims to bridge this divide, connecting up-and-coming artists with up-and-coming art collectors, providing local support to emerging artists and designers while creating a new, easier way for people to collect locally-produced work. You can learn more about how the service works by watching our campaign video.

How can you help?

We've launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise $4,000 in 3 weeks to help us finish what we've started and guarantee a strong financial footing for future seasons.

 

Donate: Donations through our Indiegogo campaign are tax-deductible, and even $10 can help get us there. Donors who contribute larger amounts will receive unique CSA+D gifts and can even pre-purchase a share or half-share with their donation.

Spread the word: If you can't donate right now, no worries! Liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter or forwarding this email to friends and family and getting the word out to your networks are all great ways to support this project.

Recruit artists and designers: If you know artists and designers (or are one yourself) in the greater New York region who would like to submit a  proposal of 50 works for a $3,000 commission, send them to our application page now! The deadline is coming up on July 8th.

Recruit shareholders: Would you or someone you know in New York like to receive six works of art and design for $500, or three for $250 this fall? You can sign up to get notified when shares become available here.

We're mentioned in NYTimes' "The Hunt"!

Check this article out! Realty Collective and the lovely and talented Tina Fallon are mentioned and Tina also adds some commentary!  Through the Brooklyn Based sponsored class we spoke at, "Buying into Brooklyn", which you all may have heard us mention once or twice on here, Tina met a young couple looking to buy a home.  This article follows the process the couple went through in order to finally find the right space.  Very cool!

Workout Gear and Free Yoga.

Lululemon Athletica (try saying that five times) is a new athletic gear store on Smith Street.  The outside of the store is very striking with a swirling metal design wrapped around the brick building and a big heavy wooden door also adorned with swirling metal.  There's no name just a symbol, which you can see below.  With such ornate signage we were a little surprised to learn that they sold athletic clothing and gear.  We also found out that they have a running club that meets once a week and complimentary in store yoga.  Check the link above for more info on that.

New Sushi on Smith.

There's a new Japanese joint that has taken over 170 Smith, which used to also be a Japanese restaurant, Yoshi.  The new place is called Aji 53.  The name and decor are a bit flashy but they have a location in Bay Shore that gets good reviews.  Good sushi is always welcome! Has anyone tried this place yet? Please share your reviews!

Free Intro to Social Media Class.

Seeing as though you may already be reading this on Facebook, you may not need this intro to social media class being offered by BRIC and Brooklyn Public Library.  But just in case you do here's the info.  You can also pass this along to someone less savvy.  This 2 hour class will teach the basics of Twitter, Facebook, and video blogging.  It;s offered at Central, Kings Highway and New Lots Libraries.  For more info on this and other classes click here.

Bastille Day!

                                                                                                          Flickr/hsingy
One of the coolest annual events in the area has to be the Bastille Day celebration on Smith Street, which is coming up this Sunday.  The center of these celebrations is definitely the petanque tournament. The photo above will show you the scale of this event and the quote below from smithstreetbk.com talks about how this all goes down.

With the help of neighborhood resident John Quadrozzi, who for the past 11 years has been donating and spreading the sand with his trucks, the joie de vivre of our heroes at Bar Tabac,  and the participation of many other Smith Street chefs, we produce the biggest Bastille Day party (the French equivalent of our 4th of July) and Petanque Tournament outside of France in the world -- right here in Brooklyn.

Wine Dinner at Red Gravy.

We received an invite to this wine dinner at Red Gravy, 151 Atlantic Ave, and thought we'd share it with you. It's on July 16th starting at 7pm and will be featuring wines from 5 different regions of Italy.  Wine makers will be present so those interested in learning about these wines will be able to ask plenty of questions we're sure.  It's $125 per person plus tax and gratuity.  If this sounds like fun you can RSVP at 718-855-0051.

Library Reopening Soon!

The Carroll Garden's Branch Library has been missed, especially by those with kids who need a fun thing to do on a hot day.  After being closed for about a month it will be opening back up this weekend, July 6th.  Phew!  They'll have some improvements.  One of our favorites of the bunch is a long overdue book return slot (we meant the slot was overdue not the books, although hey, let's face it, those are probably overdue too). 

New Butcher coming to Atlantic!

Happy 4th everyone!  While many of you may already have the idea of grilling juicy burgers on your agenda today, we'd like to share this find with you. There is a new butcher opening in a few weeks at 193 Atlantic and from the blurbs we read on their website, it sounds fantastic. Along with their prime dry aged meats, they will also carry gourmet edibles (cheeses, breads, etc.) as well as butchering tools and utensils. 

Cesar's Grand Opening!

The grand opening for Cesar's Garden Restaurant at 192 Columbia Street is this week.  We took the pic above last week and, although it looked totally set up, they weren't quite open yet.  They did have a sign saying they'd be opening July 1st.  Also noteworthy, they had a seamless sticker out front so we expect you'll be able to order online delivery from this place pretty soon.  Definitely a good way to try a new place out.

Brooklyn Herborium on Columbia.

We saw this signage in the window of 275 Columbia Street.  It's an herb and skincare shop started by two Brooklyn moms, Molly and Emma.  Right now they have a really nice website, where they sell their products.  This is the first storefront for this online company.  About the products? They say on their website that they "want to make the world a better place for our children, a cleaner safer place, one where we don’t have to constantly stress about products and chemicals that we expose them (and ourselves) to". 

Bareburger closes doors temporarily.

After waiting for months for the new Bareburger on Court Street neat Atlantic to open they only opened for a short time before the brown paper went back up on the doors and windows.  The sign outside last week said the "exciting things are happening" and they will re-open with "COOL improvements".  Air conditioning? We can't really guess what could be going on behind that paper but definitely strange that something needs improving after being open for such a short time.  We're growing curiouser and curiouser.