Burgers and fries at Mister Dips Image credit: Noah Fecks
The thing about Vale Park is you can easily miss that it’s there. The public space lies one floor up from Wythe Avenue and North 12th Street and is a part of Williamsburg’s The William Vale hotel. But heading upstairs is completely worth it. There’s a little collection of raised beds growing a few greens, a decent-sized grassy knoll perfect for watching the sunset and at the far end, a vintage Airstream. That Airstream is the home of Mister Dips, the hotel’s burger stands.
Mister Dips is one of The William Vale’s offerings from acclaimed chef Andrew Carmellini, the man behind such delicious places as Bar Primi, The Dutch, Little Park, and Locanda Verde. He’s also won two James Beard awards and garnered more than a few stars from The New York Times. The man knows what he’s doing. Yes, even with grill top burgers and waffle fries.Continue reading →
Thanks to a warm welcome from the neighborhood and the initial success of the pop-up, Threes Brewing is extending its stay in Greenpoint! The outpost will continue to occupy the former Cassette space at 113 Franklin Street (corner of Kent St.) at least through the summer.
Though I’d been hearing great things about the Gowanus brewery for a while before my first visit, it was a Luluc concert at Tiny Montgomery—the brewery’s versatile private dining room that doubles as an intimate concert venue—that inspired my first trip to the original Threes location. With a coffee shop by Ninth Street Espresso conducive to tackling some work before the show, my sense of the place was that it would lend itself nicely to spending the day and then enjoying food by one of the pop-ups featured at the time (its food is now exclusively by The Meat Hook) and beers with friends who joined for the show.
Now much of what I loved about that welcoming, experience-focused, “come hang” vibe is just down the block from me. Known for its frequent and interesting programming, Threes will bring more of the same to Threes @ Franklin + Kent with live music and other events starting in May. In the meantime, there will be DJs a few nights per week, as well as a lineup of other breweries coming by each Wednesday (4/19 Industrial Arts; 4/26 KCBC; 5/3 Other Half; 5/10 LIC Beer Project; 5/17 Barrier Brewing; 5/24 Transmitter). Continue reading →
The long anticipated Brooklyn Barge Bar is looming ever closer on our horizons.
Although not yet open for business, the barge itself will take up its new position near Transmitter Park later this week.
Despite initial opposition from neighbors and the local community board, a liquor license was finally granted on June 2nd, much to the delight of bar manager and co-owner Will Drawbridge.
Waiting on the liquor license has held up the opening process a little, but Will tells us that they are currently hoping to be up and running by the end of June. Continue reading →
Fellow block & lot and rooftop chefs: Burger season is upon us. Let 2013 be the year you took your burger to the next level. Your patty prep is key to getting compliments around the grill from your homies! There are a lot of things you can add to your beef before you grill to make it tasty. Start with quality beef. And try some of the following additions to the mix. Just remember to go easy with quantity. If you are using butcher beef, you don’t want to overpower a complimentary flavor with the natural flavor of fresh beef. The following five ways to prep your ground meat are tried and tested, so give these ideas a chance for your next rooftop BBQ.
Beef From The Butcher
Half & Half Use 50% ground pork with 50% ground beef. I hear a lot people say this is a Greek version of the hamburger, but my Italian grandmother made her meatballs this way, too. If you do want to go Greek, add some parsley and minced onion and squirt a little lemon on the patty right before you take it off the grill. Otherwise keep it simple with the mixture with good amount of fresh ground salt & pepper.
Soy Sauce Use a tablespoon of soy sauce for every 8 ounces of meat, mix thoroughly. I like to use my hands for all ground beef mixing. Your fingers can mix more efficiently than any stationary tool. Squeeze the beef in both hands in a big bowl. Add some fresh ground pepper, but no more salt. Don’t forget that the soy sauce is all the saltiness that you need. Continue reading →
I haven’t even lived in Greenpoint for a year and I’ve already been given the keys to the blog. How did this happen, you ask? Beats me. But here I am, in a position to write about all the things that I like and hope you like too.
I’m going to let my new friend Peter interview me in similar fashion.
How’d you end up here?
As in Greenpoint or Greenpointers? Greenpoint happened by magic, honestly. I had a new place locked down in Astoria, my backup to this fine hood, until I found random apartment on craigslist at the very last moment that saved the day! As for Greenpointers, I somehow convinced Justine that this was a good idea. She’ll rue the day. RUE!
What’s your most triumphant Greenpoint Moment?
Besides finding this apartment, it would probably be finding a box of free books on Lorimer. Totally full, all good stuff. A couple of them were copies of books I had sold to Strand in 2008 for money to buy groceries, so that was nice. Boring, I know, but I can’t think of anything in particular. I feel like this question is really based off of that Word basketball game Peter mentioned. I’m pretty terrible at basketball, but I will publically challenge Peter to a game, 1-on-1, just so I can maybe have a new triumphant moment by getting a sneaky win. Loser buys the most expensive beer at Diamond.
What do you do when you’re not winning things?
I haven’t won anything, except scoring free used books. Holy crap… that sounded sad. I once won a trip to the Bahamas by filling out an entry form in a Chinese Restaurant in Oyster Bay on Christmas day. I think I had a high school jazz band award in there somewhere. But I digress….
I play trumpet in a few bands, work in Williamsburg, spend time with my special lady, embark on outdoorsy/adventure trips, and find inspirational time in interesting places. I enjoy finely crafted food and beverages, like I’m sure most of you do, and I’d like to share my travels of the finer things in the north side so you can seek them out easily or just live vicariously through the blog.
What can we expect from you?
My first order of business is to construct a series of posts on my quest to find the best burger in Greenpoint. I’d like to review concerts, new bars and various forms of art shows. If something happens involving the urban landscape and infrastructure of the area, I’m totally into that and will share my thoughts. I don’t really know what to expect myself, so it is probably best not to have any expectations on your end besides my content being top-notch.
You also don’t get a picture of me because I can’t decide on one from my facebook albums. I’ll probably pop into a photo at some point, but until then, let the mystery overwhelm you!
