A portion of Franklin Street may be getting a protected bike lane. (Courtesy of Google Maps)
A redesign of Franklin and Quay Streets by the Department of Transportation with plans to rearrange 15 parking spots and add a protected two-way bike lane is in the works, Brooklyn Paper reports.
Courtesy of NYC DOT
The proposal (available here) is part of a larger DOT plan to make commuting by bike easier and safer along the often perilous route through Greenpoint starting where Kent Avenue and Franklin Street meet; existing issues identified in the proposal include:
• Gap in the protected bike lane network between Kent Ave two-way bike path and West St two-way path • Challenging transition from Kent Ave to Franklin Ave with increased bicycle volumes along a truck route • Limited eastbound access from West St – Quay St and Calyer St are westbound”
Franklin Street has become especially congested in recent years with heavy truck and construction traffic, the added B32 bus route, more waterfront residents resulting in an increased number of cyclists and runners competing for space on the two-way street.
Pheasant (445 Graham Ave.) is on the border of Greenpoint and Williamsburg offering spectacular dishes inspired by the Mediterranean coast. I recently stopped by to sample the restaurant’s newly updated winter menu, and to talk with Chef-Owner Vincent Fraissange, who also shared his recipe for wild gulf shrimp.
Greenpointers: Pheasant opened in November 2017, after you had been at Isa for a time. Was it straight from one restaurant to the next?
Chef Vincent Fraissange: I started at Isa as a regular old line cook and worked my way up to the chef position. I left there, a few months before it closed, in order to pursue something my wife and I wanted to do together, which was a catering company.
GP: Little Pheasant?
VF: Little Pheasant. We ran that for a year and a half out of Brooklyn Foodworks before we started looking for spaces. We used to live two blocks away from here — we realized that the old Graham Avenue Meats was up for lease. We met the landlords, who are sweethearts, and here we are.
GP: Between Little Pheasant and Pheasant, operationally they’re probably very separate.
VF: They are, but we do everything out of this space. Continue reading →
Brooklyn Community board 1’s monthly combined public hearing is Tuesday (1/14) at the Swinging 60’s Senior Center (211 Ainslie St.) starting at 6 p.m., and this one is likely going to be a contentious one.
* Kristina Naplatarski 2020 Kickoff and Fundraiser @ Casa Publica BK (594 Union Ave), donation-based, support a Greenpoint natives’ campaign to bring effective, new leadership to the District Leader role in Assembly District 50, More Info * 94 Precinct Community Council Meeting @ St. John’s Lutheran Church (155 Milton) 7pm, FREE, Join Captain Kathleen Fahey, the 94 Precinct Community Council, and members of the 94th Precinct for their monthly public meeting, More Info ♫ Sacred Song School with Ixchel Prisma @ Sacred Arts Research Foundation (107 Green St. #G55) 7pm, $10 – $20 (donation), a floating comedy show, Buy Tix ☺ How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Fundraising @ Elsewhere (599 Johnson Ave), 7pm, $25, a Comedy Benefit for Emily Gallagher, Candidate for NYS Assembly, 50th District, Buy Tix
THURSDAY 1/9
♫ The Dead South – Served Cold Tour @ Warsaw (261 Driggs Ave) 8pm, $25, Buy Tix ♫ Deli Girls @ Saint Vitus Bar (1120 Manhattan Ave), 8pm, $10, with NAH, Dreamcrusher, Shawty, Ghösh, Dj Skyshaker, Buy Tix ♫ ‘NEVER BEFORE NEVER AGAIN’ @ Triskelion Arts (106 Calyer St), 8pm, $18, improvisation-based performance artists, to cross-pollinate audiences, and to highlight the awesome and varied possibilities improvisation has to offer, Buy Tix ♫ Dream Seed featuring Fernando Lechón @ Golden Drum (97 Green St, # G1) 730pm, $25, participants are led through guided meditations and sound healing practices designed to harmonize body, mind, and spirit. Some blankets and yoga mats will be provided, Buy TixContinue reading →
The suspects who vandalized Acapulco (1116 Manhattan Ave.) with a swastika in December. (Courtesy of NYPD)
A surveillance camera captured two men in the act of vandalizing the Greenpoint Mexican restaurant Acapulco (1116 Manhattan Ave.) with hate graffiti last December.
🚨WANTED for AGGRAVATED HARASSMENT: Recognize them? On 12/22 at 9:20 am, these two men drew swastikas & profanities on the outside of 1116 Manhattan Avenue in Brooklyn. If you have any information, call/DM @NYPDTips at 800-577-TIPS.
The NYPD released footage of the men drawing a swastika on the Manhattan Avenue restaurant on December 22nd and are investigating the incident with help from the Hate Crimes Task Force.
Send any information to crime stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).
A longtime Greenpoint Italian restaurant is making some changes to their menu to start the new year after transitioning the restaurant to a 100 percent plant-based menu.
Il Funghetto pizza (sauce, mozzarella, cremini mushroom & fresh parsley)
Adelina’s (159 Greenpoint Ave.) transitioned to a fully vegetarian and vegan menu last year and as of January 1st, the restaurant has stopped making their usual pizza fritta (fried pizza) and is now focused on a style of pizza known as pinsa Romana made with fermented dough.
This style of pizza is light in gluten with a crust that is crispy on the outside, fluffy in the middle and “much more digestible than a standard pizza due to the minimum 48 hour fermentation and very high hydration,” according to Adelina’s owner Toby Buggiani.
Pizza offerings on the new menu are split between vegan and vegetarian options and range in price from $11 for the la Marinara (double sauce, fried caper & oregano) to $17 for the la Burrata pizza (sauce, topped with post oven pesto, stracciatella & arugula).
la Burrata (sauce, topped with post oven pesto, stracciatella & arugula)
Look out for their rotating list of natural wines and their “Meet the Wine Maker” sessions, usually held on Wednesday nights.
The Greenpoint Art Circle at an art-making workshop.
A newly-formed locally-based art group that started through an online message board will hold their first show this weekend in Greenpoint.
Nadia Gomez, the founder of Greenpoint Art Circle says that the groups’ origins began a year ago with a post she made on the NextDoor app asking if “anyone might be interested in gathering to create an accountability group for creators, especially those with day jobs,” she wrote to Greenpointers. Continue reading →
Mail delivery in Greenpoint and Williamsburg from the U.S. Postal Service came under scrutiny last summer for reported missing and late mail in the 11211, 11222, and 11249 zip codes, leading to local politicians speaking out.
As the collective mail delivery woes led to outrage, Assemblyman Joe Lentol requested that the USPS Inspector General “conduct a thorough audit of mail delivery and its efficiency in North Brooklyn,” and last week the IG released the local mail audit results. Continue reading →
Lisa Markuson at our 2019 Holiday Market (photo: Ben Shirai)
This time last year marked birth of Ars Poetica, the experiential entertainment company that “brings words to life” as Founder Lisa Markuson, who was also born on this day describes. Within one year, Ars Poetica has grown to 35 artists, over 200k followers on Instagram, and has been booked by reputable institutions like the New York Times. And while their services span across the U.S. and beyond to places as far as the U.K., they’re Greenpoint-based at their core. You may have noticed Lisa and other Ars Poetica writers with their vintage typewriters doling out free custom poems and tarot at one of the 2019 Greenpointers markets. Or you may have seen Lisa pop up around the neighborhood under the umbrella of the Haiku Guys + Girls, which she co-founded and previously ran for several years.
Astro Poetica poem by Lisa Markuson at the Greenpointers 2019 Holiday Market
My own story with Lisa goes back to the end of 2014, just three days before I officially closed on the purchase of Greenpointers, and I was looking for some respite from a tense personally challenging few months. The only other person inside Milk & Roses was Lisa and while I can’t remember the entirety of our conversation back then, I do remember that I received a handwritten haiku and a small glimpse into my future for the next few years. Lisa was the first of many complete strangers who would enter my life through Greenpointers. Almost five years later, we circled back to the place where we first met and talked about what transpired during that time period. Back then, Lisa was working in a bike tour company and doing haikus on the side. Now, she is a solo entrepreneur having surpassed her projected revenue within the first year and has been featured by outlets as large as CNN and Bustle for her work.
Ars Poetica writers at our Valentine’s Market 2019
Ars Poetica is inspired by but not limited to poems. “We are going to provide a completely one of kind element to your event that’s going to make it unforgettable, make it notable, make it something that is going to help people connect better according to Lisa:
“The kind of need that we fill is twofold. One is that something to do at the party that’s not just eating and drinking. It’s also a completely custom memento or souvenir from the night. As I’ve grown the company, diversify what we do, represent other artists, it really comes down to bringing words to life.”
Can it be summer already? Not quite, but Watching New York has us enjoying the fabulous winter coats spotted on Bedford Ave. last week. Check out these looks for Fashion Sundae Episode 24: Continue reading →
