While Greenpoint is still a bastion of Polish food, community, and culture, there was a time when pierogi purveyors were more ubiquitous than banks and drug stores, longtime neighborhood resident Richard Humann recalls. In the 1980s, the large population of single Polish men working for the American dollar made for a pierogi paradise, with bare-bones cafeterias selling the dumplings for cents at seemingly every street corner. The combination of gentrification and more opportunities to make money following the fall of communism led to the departure of many of the Polish men and the resultant closure of many pierogi vendors.
In 2018, there’s still cause for indecision when picking a pierogi spot in Greenpoint, even if the dumplings today are a bit pricier and a bit more infrequent. Below, a guide to the best local pierogis.
Opened by Krakow native and restaurant namesake Krystyna Dura in 1993, Christina’s is known for its no-frills food in a charming, but tacky diner-like space. The table service is speedy and the plates will reliably fill you up faster than you think. Sour cream will cost you 50 cents extra.
While the pierogi options at Karczma are limited, what they do have delivers. The waitresses are all dressed in traditional outfits or school uniforms and the restaurant itself feels from another era. The borscht bread bowl isn’t for the faint of heart, but it’s worth a second trip back to experience it.
The pierogi here qualify more for their price and location than quality, although they’re certainly tasty too. In the back of Krajan, a Polish bodega of sorts, fridges sit full of soup, milk, meat and boxes of pierogi, $8.99 for 12, meat or cheese. Nab some cow caramels on your way out: a medium-sized bag filled with them will run you just $2.99.
Commonly known as some variation of “The Knights” due to the armored figures guarding its entrance and the hard to pronounce name, Krolewskie Jadlo is a neighborhood landmark. It earned this status not only through its memorable front but also its authentic atmosphere, hearty food, and warm environment.
The name and homey but chic decor make Polka Dot seem a bit out of place with the neighborhood’s food scene at first glance. A look at the prices and offerings will show you otherwise. If you’ve got room post pierogi, try the zucchini pancakes – like a lighter latka.
This cafeteria-style eatery hasn’t been updated in decades, prices included. The atmosphere alone is worth a visit. Don’t get too comfortable while you wait for your order – it’ll be called out in Polish when its ready for pickup at the counter.
Secure your spacesuit, prepare for takeoff and get ready to blast off into the cosmos at the Greenpointers Gardens Of The Galaxy Spring Market on Sunday, April 22! The celestial happening is coming up on us fast, although there’s still plenty of time to find a pair of Moon Boots for the occasion.
The market will go from 1-7pm in the Greenpoint Loft (67 West St., 5th Floor). Join us in orbit early by RSVPing on Facebook!
It’s going to be a star-studded day with live music, free fun activities like massages, rooftop yoga henna, nail art, refreshments and food. Check out the full details of what’s in store here.
We want to highlight our awesome vendors. They’ll be hawking the best of their earthly wares for you to nab for yourself, friends and family both of this astral plane and beyond:
Eat Chic Chocolates is a woman-owned and operated confection brand that takes the classic chocolate peanut butter cup to the next level, using the highest quality organic craft chocolate and their own small batch nut butter fillings. Enjoy dozens of flavors, from their signature peanut butter cups dusted with Maldon sea salt, to more adventurous pairings such as lemon-poppy seed cashew butter and cinnamon-tahini. Their chocolates are vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, and palm oil-free, and they just won a Good Food Award for their commitment to making delicious and ethically-produced confections.
Shipwreck Press is a stationery company that wants to make your correspondence playful, beautiful, and worth keeping. Offering cards, correspondence, bookmarks, gift tags, wedding invitations and more, these handmade, cut-paper cards are detailed enough to hang on the wall, bright enough to lift spirits, and are a gift onto themselves.
To find them outside of the Spring Market, you can find them online or at Wares.
A self-taught ceramicist, this Bushwick local designs jewelry and objects that focuses on contrasting the permanency of stoneware with the fragility of form. Avery is constantly exploring new applications for clay, drawing from of fashion and new mediums to stretch what is possible for this medium. Her work has been featured in maker’s markets throughout the country and in nylon magazine.
You can find her outside of the Spring Market on her website.
Spring may not yet have fully sprung but we’re bringing fresh life, warmth, and out of this world local vendors to the Greenpoint Loft on 67 West Street for Greenpointers’ Gardens of the Galaxy Spring Market. We’ll be blasting off on Sunday, April 22 and staying in orbit from 1 to 7pm. Join your fellow space gardeners and RSVP on Facebook.
We’ve searched our local solar system to find 60+ star-studded vendors offering up their cosmically curated crafts and wares. There’ll also be some of the best free activities you can find under the sun, including henna tattoos by Miss V, tarot card readings by Hannah Frishberg, nail art by Peenk and 3D scans and digital avatar creation by Capture Me In 3D. Get grounded with complimentary rooftop yoga courtesy of Hosh Yoga, become the Martian you are inside with free face painting by Greenpoint YMCAand orbit the dance floor to DJ The Josh Craig. Oh, and don’t forget to look stellar for the camera in our space garden art installation and photo booth.
I met artist Richard Humann on a Queens-bound G train in the summer of 2015. He was reading a book about Chinatown and I asked him if it was good. It wasn’t, he noted, but we talked and we stayed in touch, sharing our memories and dreams of Brooklyn. He’s traveled the world for his award-winning art, but since 1985 Greenpoint has always been home. While he can’t recall creating any conscious odes to Greenpoint in his work, the neighborhood and its residents have undoubtedly influenced him in his decades here.
When he moved to Brooklyn from his hometown of Stony Point, New York (“I would say it’s like an hour north of the city but it’s a million miles away”) after college, he shacked up on Meserole Avenue. In the years since, he’s migrated a mere block over. “I never left,” he smiles. When he first moved to Greenpoint, Humann recalls that Williamsburg was considered a hotter area because it was more rough and tumble – south of 7th Street wasn’t considered safe. He had shows in both neighbs though, from the Minor Injury Gallery – one of North Brooklyn’s first as far as he’s aware – to Williamsburg’s Pan Arts gallery, both long closed.
He’s stayed put as the neighborhood changed over the years along with the rest of the borough and city. I spoke with him about his thoughts on gentrification, the bad old days, bygone businesses, and what the future holds for Greenpoint. Continue reading →
Bad weather be damned: Despite the blustery blues outside, thousands of you still made the trek to our Winter of Love Valentine’s Market this past Sunday. In fact, the Greenpoint Loft was made all the cozier by the rainy day outside, and the market was a blast. Attendees were rewarded with free tarot and henna not to mention an epic array of dope local vendors.
There is an ancient Greek proverb that goes, “You have not truly seen a mortal’s soul until you have seen it in the context of a dope ’60s-themed photo booth.” Nahh, that’s not true, but like, the pictures from the photo booth at Sunday’s Greenpointers Winter of Love Valentine’s Market are pretty soul-revealing. Little speaks deeper to your intentions in this world than how you interact with free love in the form of foam board.
For real though, the photo booth was a blast, thanks to all you beautiful people who came out and struck a pose. Some held babies, others held dogs, many wore red, and some did a backbend while Cardi B bumped in the background. You know who you are.
Check out the full album of photos on Facebook, and don’t forget to tag yourself! Here are a few of our favorite shots:
The time has come to dig those old velvet bell bottoms out of the closet, adjust your mental boob tube to be on a properly fabulous wave of turbulence, and get down with the nostalgia for the Greenpointers Winter of Love Valentine’s Market this Sunday, February 11! The far out event is finally just days away, but don’t have a cow if you haven’t picked the perfect outfit yet – you’ve still got three days.
As a reminder, the Market is this Sunday, February 11th, from 1-7pm in the Greenpoint Loft (67 West St., 5th Floor). It would be radical if you RSVPed on Facebook!
Botanical based skincare line made for sensitive skin. Founder Gina Pulisciano is a veteran esthetician with 15 years in the skincare industry. Also available for facial services at Usha Veda Yoga on Manhattan Ave in Greenpoint. Check out Alchemy-Holistics.com for more information on Alchemy Holistics skincare, upcoming workshops, booking a service, and more!
Find them in the neighborhood at Burson & Reynolds (649 Manhattan Ave), Usha Veda Yoga (1002-1006 Manhattan Ave), or fellow vendor Treehouse Brooklyn (430 Graham Ave)!
Simple skincare created to nourish your body and ease your mind. Their products are a blend of easy to read, non-toxic ingredients made from organic oils and minerals. Ethical and safe — explore the world with out-dôrz!
When they’re not in the Greenpointers Market, you can find them at www.out-dorz.com
Groove into your most psychedelic hippie attire and get into a mellow mood – on Sunday, February 11 from 1-7pm, we’re going back to the 1960s at the Greenpointers Winter of Love Valentine’s Market. The Greenpoint Loft (67 West Street) will become our sky high Woodstock stuffed with more than 60 local vendors and plenty of positive vybz.RSVP here!
Live music will help everyone hang loose and feel the peace and love while rivers of refreshing craft beer by Greenpoint Beer & Ale will keep the aura wavy. Mugs of mulled hot cider with Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum will help you tune in, turn on, and drop out of the stress of your week, and a psychedelic flower power-inspired art installation photo booth will let you capture all the funky memories.
Free activities including massages, henna, tarot card readings, digital avatar creation, professional photo booth, and nail art will be farther out than the Fab Four, with more turbulent surprises to come.
So come release your inner flower child and flee the scene of groady everyday anxieties to the Greenpoint Loft with us. We’re sure you’ll dig it.
Check out a teaser preview of our talented vendors here.
“Leonard Street, south from Calyer Street, showing in the left center foreground the spire of a Polish Church. July 25, 1939.” Photo via NYPL
The New York Public Library’s Old NYC website is an excellent resource for taking a walk down memory lane through vintage photos. The site maps the NYPL’s immense digital collection of vintage images of the five boroughs. While the concentration of photos is visibly the densest in Manhattan, the Brooklyn collection is also expansive, and an excellent wormhole back in time.
We already used the tool to roundup one set of images showing Greenpoint throughout the 20th Century, and here’s another, this time with a smaller date margin. Continue reading →
Our Winter Holiday market is over but Candyland lives on in our photo booth! We had so much fun and hope that everyone keeps on riding that sugary high for the rest of the holidays. To recap, it was a blast last Sunday, with all that hot buttered rum, free tarot and henna, and many of our vendors selling out.
Remember that dope candyland themed photo booth we had up in the mezzanine? We finally had a chance to go through the photos, and you all look super sweet. Thanks to local artist Colleen Blackard for making our Candyland come alive and Been Shirai for getting all these great shots! Check out the full album of photos on Facebook, and don’t forget to tag yourself!
Eat Chic Chocolates is a woman-owned and operated confection brand that takes the classic chocolate peanut butter cup to the next level, using the highest quality organic craft chocolate and their own small batch nut butter fillings. Enjoy dozens of flavors, from their signature peanut butter cups dusted with Maldon sea salt, to more adventurous pairings such as lemon-poppy seed cashew butter and cinnamon-tahini. Their chocolates are vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, and palm oil-free, and they just won a Good Food Award for their commitment to making delicious and ethically-produced confections.
A self-taught ceramicist, this Bushwick local designs jewelry and objects that focuses on contrasting the permanency of stoneware with the fragility of form. Avery is constantly exploring new applications for clay, drawing from of fashion and new mediums to stretch what is possible for this medium. Her work has been featured in maker’s markets throughout the country and in nylon magazine.
Botanical based skincare line made for sensitive skin. Founder Gina Pulisciano is a veteran esthetician with 15 years in the skincare industry. Also available for facial services at Usha Veda Yoga on Manhattan Ave in Greenpoint. Check out Alchemy-Holistics.com for more information on Alchemy Holistics skincare, upcoming workshops, booking a service, and more!
Simple skincare created to nourish your body and ease your mind. Their products are a blend of easy to read, non-toxic ingredients made from organic oils and minerals. Ethical and safe — explore the world with out-dôrz!
