Lobster Joint’s beer garden (courtesy their Facebook page)
Greenpoint (and pretty much all of NYC) will be experiencing record breaking temps of almost 70 degrees over the next two days. It’s March, people. Are you ready to strip off those coats? Here are some of our favorite outdoor spots in Greenpoint where you can soak up some of that good ol’ Vitamin E.
Lobster Joint – 1073 Manhattan Ave. Open from noon every day, they’ve got a lovely New Englandy open air beer garden in the back of their seafood restaurant. Grub on a lobster roll and chill out with a beer.
Step out onto Franklin Street on a Monday at noon, and Greenpoint is a world away from its bustling Saturday afternoon self. Local business owners, freelancers, dog walkers and babysitters are out buying a loaf of bread, taking a stroll, and often, looking for a delicious new lunch spot to break up the work day.
North Greenpoint offers an exciting range of options for lunching, laptopping and loafing. In our three-part series, The Lunch Counter, we’ll guide you through the lunch options for the north, south and east sides of our rather large neighborhood.
Whether you’re looking for a creative sandwich, a quick slice, a seafood special or a comfortable spot to linger over coffee, you can truly eat (or drink) your heart out at midday in northern Greenpoint. Continue reading →
Even our gondoliers have hats and facial hair. (Image courtesy of The Diamond)
Valentine’s Day is on a Sunday this year. Sunday is so much more relaxed than Saturday — no one is pregaming for anything, rushing to get to the theatre, or frantically texting friends to finalize their plans for “the best night of our lives.”
If you’re like most of the Greenpoint population, you’re so over the #WeekendWarrior. So why not apply that laidback Sunday philosophy to this year’s Valentine’s Day or Galentine’s Day, and keep it in the neighborhood?
Here are some of the spots offering Valentine’s specials in Greenpoint and Williamsburg this year. Some specials run all weekend and some prix fixes are only on V-day. Continue reading →
Sister Selva performs under the sea at Brooklyn AirSpace c/o Sam Polcer
From the outside, it looked like just another two-story brick building, hunkered between a hardware store and a deli on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg. People were drinking at Allswell or Mugs down the street, unaware that behind the grey metal door of this building, Ursula, daughter of Poseidon, had descended, bringing with her sultry sirens, belly dancing mermaids, bioluminescent poi creatures, and all sorts of singing sailors and seafarers.
As some people continued to drink at Allswell, others entered into Ursula’s kingdom inside the unassuming building—where merman hoop artists and aerialists in glowing fishnets performed within feet of the crowd, where musicians played on a stage just a step away from the audience, where the currency was seashells and the air almost smelled salty if you used your imagination.
Ursula was in fact the nightlife queen Sophia Urista, and the two-day kingdom inside the aerial loft known as The Brooklyn AirSpace was the brainchild of Dakota Kim, a Brooklyn-based events producer, and Shalva Wise, one of the AirSpace’s three co-founders. Recently, Greenpointers caught up with Dakota to ask the important questions. Continue reading →
If you came to our fabulous Valentine’s Market yesterday you’ll be well aware that the annual celebration of love etc. is fast approaching. And the fact that it falls on a Saturday this year means that it’s even harder than usual to opt out by ‘working late’.
In case you’re in line for a romantic dinner à deux (or trois, or dix), here’s a run down on some of Greenpoint’s finest who’re laying on special menus for the occasion (as well as their usual fare):
Adelina’s (159 Greenpoint Ave)
Greenpoint’s coziest Italian is offering a four-course prix-fixe for $60 with seatings at 7pm and 9pm. Highlights include:
-Burrata, prosciutto, balsamic fig jam and mint
-Pollo al limone: Free range chicken breast with lemon & red onion puree
-Chocolate hazelnut mousse
Reservations:info@adelinasbk.com / 347-763-0152
*** They also have some very beautiful, affordable flower arrangements available for pre- order ($25-$60)***
Esme(999 Manhattan Avenue)
Esme are marking their first V-day celebrations with a three-course modern American menu for $55 (+ $25 wine pairing) Highlights include:
-Beef carpaccio, mustard greens, purple mustard, pecorino
-Red snapper, lobster, celery root, lemon
-Dark chocolate, pistachio, cherries Reservations: hello@esmebk.com Continue reading →
After several false-starts to summer, it’s the arrival of gorgeous weeks like this that make it seem important to spend as much time as possible outdoors. A few among us are lucky enough to have an outdoor space of our own but fortunately, for those of us that don’t, Greenpoint has an abundance of cafes and bars offering some beautiful back yards in which to idle away some sunny hours.
We are in the middle of the full roar of the holiday season. Lots of shopping to do and holiday parties to attend (Greenpointers hosts one tomorrow – come!). Sometimes it’s nice to put on a little music to take the edge off, or see a show to keep the buzz going. Here’s some music I’m digging this week.
On a recent super top secret important Greenpointers business meeting, I needed some sweet and Lauren at Milk n’ Roses described an Italian pastry stuffed with cheese and flavored ever so slightly with orange. “Give me that!”
What came was a sfogliatella, so I know why she didn’t even try to pronounce it. (Sf-oy-yuh-tell-uh) Crazy Italians! Who cares how to say it? It’s delicious and you shouldn’t talk with your mouth full anyway.
After working at an Italian bakery as a teenager in Queens, I quickly got sick of all the cannolis, rainbow cookies and the collect calls from the bakery owner’s mafioso son in jail, but I never got sick of the sfogliatelle (that’s plural).
Sfogliatelle are Nonna, my Sicilian grandmother’s, favorite dessert so it’s always in the box of pastries we bring to her house when we have our traditional Sunday eat-until-you-pass-out feast.
It is crispy dough infinitely layered into the shaped of a shell and inside is soft and not too sweet ricotta with a nice citrus tang and dusted with powdered sugar. Try one next time you’re at Milk n’ Roses (1110 Manhattan Ave), they’re irresistible!
Thank you everyone who participated in the Greenpointers’ poetry contest!
Our winner is Athena Pappas with her poem “The Shayz Lounge.” Athena will be a featured reader at Poetry Teachers NYC’s open mic on February 27th, 2013 at Milk and Roses (1110 Manhattan Ave). Signup for the Open Mic at 7:30, show starts at 8pm.
The Shayz Lounge by Athena Papas
I want one stained
pencil scribbling
barely legible against
grainy brown paper
love letter jotted down
on the back of recycled napkin,
one thinking-of-you
pack of cowboy killer cigarettes,
discounted bottle of Chianti,
a blood moon stain on the end table.
One moment of the jukebox
making me feel
the pulse of fingertips
until the record ends.
I was 17 in the snow. It was the winter of 2004, new to college, and new to love. Who knew that I would get stuck in a Greenpoint apartment that winter rekindling a high school love? Beginning with a lost cellphone at the Royal Oak, to his bedroom in his loft apartment on Sutton, to Nassau Avenue, a little 1950’s diner we would call B’s on the corner of N Henry, and the swings in McGolrick park.
So to the Greenpointers who have fallin’ in love if once, if ever, if by chance, let’s scribe our loves into a poem.
And remember: we don’t just fall in love with people. Many of us fell in love, are still in love or fell out of love with Greenpoint.
Due February 10th @ 5pm, send us one of your poems, and let’s make this Valentine’s Day a brim to the hat to the nod toward love.
The winner, whose poem will be published on Greenpointers.com on the February 14th, will be a featured reader at Poetry Teachers NYC’s Monthly reading at Milk and Roses in February.
One last thing. Sometimes the best thing about falling in love is the story. Single or together this year, remember the place that landmarked your love.
