Saturday was the perfect day to engorge ourselves on hot dogs and drink Kelso beer knowing that ALL proceeds are donated to Food Bank for NYC. We tried our best to sample each and every dog. We even had a method to our madness, but after a valiant effort we sampled approximately 70% of the dogs. While there was an audience vote and judges’ favorite, we had our own winners in mind.
Mark you calendars. This year’s Brew n’ Chew is September 16, 2012.
Up to seven teams will create their greatest homebrew/snack pairings to be made available for sampling during the event. Guests vote for their favorite team. The most popular teams win prizes and all ticket proceeds go to a soon to be announced charity.
If Mike Bloomberg were to call me tomorrow morning and tell me my services were no longer required, I’d hardly bother to hang up the phone before marching into the nearest cheese shop looking to resume my old fall-back job as a cheesemonger. Working first for a great small, independent shop and later for Whole Foods, I’ve gained a serious respect for the work that goes into every aspect of producing and bringing to market real cheese, and this is why I went just a bit nuts when I was offered the chance to report in on the Third Annual Cheesemonger Invitational. Located in a hard-to-find warehouse in LIC, It’s an all-night party in the name of real dairy, centered around a competition that puts the spotlight on the people who make up the industry’s most public face. Continue reading →
Beth: I always loved cheese when I was growing up, but when I was in my 20s I discovered *real* cheese. I fell in love with the infinite flavor variations that can come from a few simple ingredients, and became fascinated with the science, history and culture that accounts for all the different styles of cheese across the world. Continue reading →
WEDNESDAY 6/20 * North Brooklyn Boat Club Summer Solstice Party @ Broadway Stages Boat Yard (49 Ash St) 6pm-12am, Free, Food, Drink, Dancing, More info • Reclaiming Vacant Land for Public Use @ Flux Factory (39-31 29th St) 7-9pm, Paula Z. Segal of 596 Acres explains NYC’s land use, vacant lots, and share success stories of communities gaining access to public land, RSVP ♫ Rapture/Tanlines/David P (DJ) 8pm, Free, All Ages, RSVP
THURSDAY 6/21 ♫ Make Music NY Ukelele Mass Appeal @ McCarren Park, (Lorimer & Bedford) 5-8pm, open mic, strum along, performances by Bliss Blood, Joe Silver, the Suaverinos, BYOUkelele, More info ♫ Greenpoint Film Festival Sunset Cruise Fundraiser (India St Pier) 6:15pm, $120, music by Anthony Hall and DJ Moosaka, local food and drink, Afterparty @ The End (18 Kent St), $25 at door, Music by Kid Savant, Drink, Hors d’oeuvre, More info/BUY TIX
FRIDAY 6/22 ♫ Admirals/Hello Phones/ Sun Club/ Vows @ XPO (929 Broadway, Bushwick) 9pm, $8, More info • Summer Circus Cabaret @ Big Sky Works (29 Wythe Ave.) 8pm, RSVP
SATURDAY 6/23 • PS 132′s Eighth Annual Kite Festival @ CitiStorage (5 North 11th St) 12-5pm, Kites, Crafts, Rides, Food, Entertainment * 2012 Cheesemonger Invitational @ Larkin (47-55 27th St, LIC) 6pm, $50, All you can eat & drink, the stinkiest, funkiest, curdtastic party for cheesemongers, Premier Fromager Steve Jones prepares a feast of cheese nirvana accompanied with beer, wine and specialty cocktails. The main event of the evening is Cheese-O-Mania. The best cheese shops’ finest mongers compete in a no-holds barred cheese battle extravaganza, BUY TIX
SUNDAY 6/24 • Newtown Creek Birdwatching Excursion, 8am-10am, FREE, RSVP for location, morning excursion via minivan to the hottest bird spots on the creek; the juxtaposition of extremes makes for a unique birdwatching experience on Newtown Creek, rsvp (at) newtowncreekalliance.org • Zombie Dash 2.5mi Run & Party (Lombardy St & Scott Ave – Check-in) 9-10:30am, Free Sign-up to be a Zombie, Sign up to be a runner, Afterparty @ Greenpoint Heights, More info
TUESDAY 6/26 ♥ Masters of Social Gastronomy: Gelatin @ Public Assembly (70 N6th St) 7-9:30pm, FREE, learn about the origins of gelatinous desserts, starting long ago when jiggly delights were made with drippings from beef stew or extracts from the swimbladders of sturgeon, RSVP
* Greenpointers’ Pick
♫ Music
♥ Pheremones Likely
♦ Art Event
Have you bought your ticket to the 2012 Cheesemonger Invitational yet? What are you waiting for? It’s a day of glorious stinky, funky curdy cheese!
On Saturday June 23rd, 2012 at 6pm, in Long Island City, over 40 cheese geniuses, including Greenpoint’s own Beth Lewand from Eastern District will be competing for over $1000 in prizes. But let’s be honest, the real prize is being the best and cheesiest champion.
Greenpointers will be there, and please forgive us when we talk to you with our mouths full of delicious cheese and beer. Did I mention the best part? It’s all you can eat and drink!
Last Saturday Anthony and I were privileged to be invited, for our third year, to the annual Best Wings in Brooklyn competition hosted at Red Star Bar. This year we took a different approach and got a little clever in our presentation of each wing we critiqued. We wanted to give all contestants an equal chance to shine and to do that we needed to devise a way to put them all on a level playing field. Our skewer idea was a pretty cool way to do this plus, it allowed us to create the awesome “franken-wing” above.
The contestants were back in force this year with a few newcomers in the mix. As usual, the line extended all the way down Greenpoint Ave. curving around the corner to Franklin. That’s a long block and with the addition of some big boy wind gusts the wing loving line stood strong (500 deep at least) to get a FREE taste of Brooklyn’s best.
We thankfully tackled the competition and avoided the wind pre-doors allowing us a less crowded Red Star to chat, taste and shoot these luscious flappers. So without further preamble here are the contenders, our thoughts and, at the end, a video revealing our favorites.
WEDNESDAY 2/22 * NATIONAL MARGARITA DAY! * * Newtown Creek Public Meeting Invitation @ Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Facility Visitor Center (329 Greenpoint Ave) 6:30pm, NYSDEC and DEP want to consider and include comments from the public in the Newtown Creek Watershed/Waterbody Facility Plan (WWFP) before it is finalized, Review the plan • Financing Your Future @ The Brooklyn Kitchen (100 Frost St) 6:30pm, Free, The goal of the workshop is to help you learn the value of establishing a credit history for your business that will eventually allow you to access higher amounts of capital, presented by Accion USA, RSVP
THURSDAY 2/23 • Largehearted Lit: Jesse Browner & Joe Wallace @ Word (126 Franklin St) 7pm, Theme: New York City novel. Both authors will each read from their book, discuss music’s influence on their writing and vice versa, and a musician will share a book anecdote and perform, RSVP ♫ Don’t/The Pioneers of Seduction/Cobretti/Beef Wellington @ Grand Victory (245 Grand St) 7pm, $8, Tix ♫ Them Damn Ninjas Show @ Bar Matchless (557 Manhattan Ave) 8:30pm, RSVP
FRIDAY 2/24 ♫ Kielbasa @ Veronica People’s Club (105 Franklin St) 10pm, Free Booze 11-11:30 AND 1-1:30, “See you there, Queen!” RSVP ♫ Turbotax w/Terrence Parker/Doc Daneeka/Octo Octa @ The Cove (108 N 6th Street) Free before 11pm, $5 till Midnight, $10 after, More info ♦ Dreaming Without Sleeping: Criminy Johnson @ The Active Space (566 Johnson Ave, Bushwick) 7-10pm, Join The Active Space in celebrating the grand opening of its new gallery space with an artist’s reception Criminy Johnson, RSVP
SATURDAY 2/25 * Best Wings in Brooklyn Competition @ Red Star Bar (37 Greenpoint Ave) 2pm, Free, Proceeds to benefit the Dr. Theodore Atlas Foundation ♦ Artist Talks @ Fowler Arts Collective (67 West St) Talks by Ellie Murphy and J.F. Lynch in association with their work in Of Mind, Body & Soul: An Exploration of the Personal, RSVP ♫ Arkham Presents: Club Tenebrarum @ Boulevard Tavern (579 Meeker Ave) 10pm, Goth tribute party to Italian Horror Cinema, RSVP • Rumours @ The Loft Above Public Assembly (70 N. 6th St.) 10pm, $5, DJ Tanner presents the latest installation of Williamsburg’s hottest queer dance party. 80′s, post-punk, disco, 90s, old skool, & new wave. SUNDAY 2/26 ♦ A-Maize-ing Grain @ Arts@Renaissance (2 Kingsland Ave) noon-4pm, Suko Presseau, farm-educator for McEnroe Organic Farms in upstate NY, along with Caroline Burghardt present a family friendly food and crafts day that will explore Maize (corn) through a variety of hands-on activities, RSVP ♫ Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra: Paris in the Twenties @ St. Ann (157 Montague St, Brooklyn Heights) 3pm, $18, Kids Free, Nicholas Armstrong, Artistic Director, More info ♫ Roaring Twenties @ Manhattan Inn (632 Manhattan Ave) 10:30pm, As part of the Live Music Series
MONDAY 2/27 * Amazonian Dream @ Pete’s Candy Store (709 Lorimer St) 7:30pm, Free slideshow & lecture with Katherine Needles * Lady Returns for Drag Race Season 4 @ Veronica People’s Club (105 Franklin St) 9pm, Watch the new show Drag Race, Commercials will be replaced by Live drag performances, games & prizes! Happy hour ALL NIGHT! Free shot to anyone who shows up in drag, RSVP
TUESDAY 2/28 * Masters of Social Gastronomy Present: Candy @ Public Assembly (70 North 6th St) 7pm, Free Lecture with Sarah Lohman and Jonathan Soma, drinks and samples, RSVP • Agorafabulous!: Dispatches From My Bedroom @ Word (126 Franklin St) Starting with her anxiety attacks in high school, Benincasa writes about her descent into agoraphobia (and related phobias) and recovery without skipping any of the gory stuff, but also without resorting to melodrama or self-pity. RSVP
* Greenpointers’ Pick
♫ Music
♥ Pheremones Likely
♦ Art Event
Here are the deets:
MONDAY 2/27
