Good afternoon, Greenpointers.
Welp. There’s no sugarcoating it—things were pretty rancid this week.
The good news is that if any neighborhood has the playbook on how to take on tough fights, it’s Greenpoint. As we wrote in our recent election recap, while we’re not feeling overly optimistic about the state of the world, our belief in our neighborhood’s resolve and indefatigable kindness has never been stronger.
This week’s election results mean that it’s even more of a bummer that queer Irish pub Mary’s Bar is closing at the end of the month (luckily, they plan to relocate).
Balkan Grind is a family-owned coffee shop that recently opened in Williamsburg, offering burek, baklava, and Turkish coffee. In more local food news, Field Guide officially opened, and Persian spot Masquerade reopened with a new menu. Williamsburg restaurant Meraki hosts live Greek music on Fridays (if you can’t make it tonight, they also shared a recipe).
Local author Rob Sheffield spoke to us about his latest book, Heartbreak Is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music. Celebrate with a book release event at Brooklyn Brewery next week.
Check out our weekend roundup for other ways to be out and about in the community.
The DOT has officially started work on the McGuinness Boulevard redesign.
A sad story from the NYC Marathon: a local man fell to his death while watching from a Williamsburg fire escape.
In and around North Brooklyn
One example of that indomitable Greenpoint spirit is the Meeker Avenue Plume CAG group, profiled this week for Inside Climate News.
The Refinery at Domino is still waiting on more tenants.
On top of all of this, a reminder that, once again, no G train service between Hoyt-Schermerhorn and Church Ave this weekend.
As a result of loss parking on McGuiness, the popular since 1982 Cassonova restaurant has closed. There were other reasons like high insurance, rise in costs all over but the loss of parking due to the McG redesign was the final straw that broke the camel’s back.