OddFellows Ice Cream Co. in Williamsburg. All images via oddfellowsnyc.com
As co-founder Mohan Kumar tells it, OddFellows in Williamsburg has an origin as sweet as its ice cream.
“When Holiday was pregnant Sam [Mason] brought over ice cream, and she loved it. At the time I was looking to get out of what I was doing in real estate finance and do something more entrepreneurial, more creative,” Kumar shared. “A couple days later, she said, ‘Why don’t you talk to Sam about opening an ice cream shop?’ I said, ‘That’s a great idea.’ I approached Sam about that over a beer, I had half a business plan already written out, and that’s how it started.”Continue reading →
Waking up at 4 AM this morning, I fumbled around on my iPhone for podcasts to kill time until dawn. Garrison Keillor’s show came up first.
Keillor always ends with a poem, and on this episode it was Route Six by Stanley Kunitz, that follows the poet’s summer road trip to Cape Cod with his wife.
To get everyone into the spirit of our own quickly approaching day trips to the beach, I match the mood of Kunitz’ poem by quoting it alongside this weekend’s best live music. Continue reading →
In North Brooklyn we’re lucky to be surrounded with artistry—we have dozens of gallery spaces, hundreds of working artists, and street art on practically every corner. So if you live here and you’ve got kids, nurturing their creative side in this neighborhood should be a no-brainer. Of course summertime is a great time to do it, when they’re out of school and need to keep their busy minds and hands occupied. And lucky for neighborhood parents, there’s a truly unique opportunity to send the kids to Tumbleweeds Art Camp right here in Greenpoint.
Spring may be off to a patchy start, but ice cream season is here regardless and local producers Van Leeuwen are on a roll right now. February saw the opening of a new store in the West Village, closely followed by the relocation of their Greenpoint outlet to a newer, bigger premises on Manhattan Avenue. Now, plans are underway for a flagship store on Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg, due to open mid-May.
The all-natural Greenpoint ice cream company was started in 2008 by Laura O’Neill and Ben and Pete Van Leeuwen, who set out to make ice cream using the finest possible ingredients. After initially selling their wares locally from two buttermilk-yellow ice cream trucks, rapid success soon saw them opening their own brick-and-mortar stores around NYC, and even branching out to LA, where they currently operate two trucks and have new stores in the pipeline. Their upcoming Williamsburg flagship is a marker of just how rapidly their ice cream empire has grown. Continue reading →
Oh, to be a kid again: warm summer days romping through McGolrick Park, in between being immersed in my own imagination and bringing my ideas to life by experimenting with a wide variety of materials, long before my creativity was blocked by all the challenges of adulthood. Don’t miss this special opportunity to nurture your own child’s creative genius by sending them to Tumbleweeds Art Campthis summer. Continue reading →
It wouldn’t be a summer weekend without a whole boatload o’ stuff to do, now would it? Here are some music events to check out, plus we catch up with the latest songs, videos, and offerings from local artists. Continue reading →
Brooklyn Cured is this week’s featured vendor at Greenpoint’s McGolrick Park Down-to-Earth Market, (open Sundays, 11 am- 4pm). This week, I caught up with BK Cured’s top dog, Scott Bridi, to learn more about his local roots and culinary experience in some of the city’s most notable food spots, and to hear his perspective on being a small-scale food producer. My advice is get over to McGolrick this Sunday to stock up on dogs for Fourth of July grilling! Brooklyn Cured’s products include sausages, hot dogs, bacon, smoked meats, classic charcuterie and more, using meat raised with no antibiotics from farms within the region. 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.
Kiki Morris: Best Trainer in NYC...probably the world!
If you’ve ever taken a run around McCarren Park track, the chances are you’ll know Kiki. Kiki Morris has been a regular fixture at the northwest corner of the track for almost 18 years and is one of the most well-loved figures in the neighborhood. He trains people in the park every day of the week and is greeted by pretty much everyone who passes by. Mothers with strollers come up and say hi, NYPD cars slow down on Driggs to honk and wave, shirtless muscle-rippling joggers remove their earbuds and stop for a chat, and little kids run over and high-five him. It’s no wonder he’s earned himself the unofficial title of Mayor of McCarren and the official title of Village Voice’s ‘best outdoor personal trainer in NYC’. Continue reading →
In North Brooklyn we’re lucky to be surrounded with artistry—we have dozens of gallery spaces, hundreds of working artists, and street art on practically every corner. So if you live here and you’ve got kids, nurturing their creative side in this neighborhood should be a no-brainer. Of course summertime is a great time to do it, when they’re out of school and need to keep their busy minds and hands occupied. And lucky for neighborhood parents, there’s a truly unique opportunity to send the kids to 
