New booze and food in Brooklyn

On Saturday, former Gage & Tollner, "New York's Oldest restaurant" - (but recently a TGIFridays) looked like this:



But by Tuesday night, the lights were on and new curtains were up. It looked like this:



And this:



(Harlem's Amy Ruth's was supposed to open its downtown Brooklyn outpost in February.)

In Red Hook on Saturday, former the Pioneer bar looked like this:



Last night, they served me a beer. It's now Brooklyn Ice House. It looks pretty much exactly the way it did when it was Pioneer. The kitchen opens next week. (And I assume the garden will reopen eventually, but it was closed clased night.)

Labels: brooklyn, nyc, pictures, restaurants

- posted by Amy @ 5/13/2008 10:35:00 PM

 
Classy cornice on Columbia; or rather: nice frieze



Now here's something you don't see very often anymore. There's a new building almost complete on Columbia Street near Kane, map. (The one on the left.) Up on the top, you can see the building gets a name. Most of the buildings in the neighborhood with names tend to bear dates like 1904. But this one loks like 11-09-2007. (Is that part of the cornice? Is there a more specific architectural term for that? Francis, anyone?)

Update: Francis Morrone, in the comments, corrects: it's the frieze.



If you want to know how they came up with Valoroso, look no further than the construction sign on the fence:

Labels: brooklyn, nyc

- posted by Amy @ 5/11/2008 08:55:00 AM

 
Ikea's Red Hook 'grand opening campout'

See the new Brooklyn Ikea webpage for news of its grand opening campout.

Customers can begin lining up at IKEA Brooklyn at 9:00 AM on Monday morning, June 16, 2008 – in advance of our June 18, 2008 opening. We are going to be doing something special for everyone on opening morning so you do not have to be the first, second, or third customer in line* in order to share in the fun. Keep checking for updates!

Oh, the Red Hook jokes just write themselves, don't they?

******

And in other exciting neihborhood news, the B61 bus I was on this afternoon went down Columbia Street today -- in front of Pit Stop, Freebird, Sugar Lounge, Brooklyn Collective, Winkworth, etc. -- for the first time in a year or two. That said, the construction work still ain't quite done. They were digging up - yet again!! -- the intersection at DeGraw.

Earlier: Red light in front of Ikea Red Hook
Ikea Signange

Labels: brooklyn, nyc, red hook

- posted by Amy @ 5/05/2008 06:30:00 PM

 
'Floater Week' resurfaces

In November, I went to the Brooklyn Navy Yard to cover a book release event for Gabriel Cohen's new New York thriller "Graving Dock." He read a passage from the book that mentions "Floater Week" which he said is real, and normally happens around tax day.

Indeed, April 15 was last week. And from today's New York Times ... it's time.

Labels: books, brooklyn, nyc

- posted by Amy @ 4/24/2008 08:53:00 AM

 
Popemobile in Red Hook

OK, the pope helicopter and popemobile videos and commentary are posted at NewYorkology, but here are the other Popemobile pictures that aren't completely out of focus or obscured by the dirty windshield.

Labels: brooklyn, nyc, pictures, red hook

- posted by Amy @ 4/20/2008 10:51:00 PM

 
Papal flags flying at WTC site

On the way back from Jersey this evening, we passed by Ground Zero and noticed the pope's flags were still in place from his visit this morning. That's the Deutsche Bank building in the background.

Labels: nyc, pictures

- posted by Amy @ 4/20/2008 09:27:00 PM

 
QM2 departs Brooklyn with extra security



I just watched the Queen Mary 2 depart Brooklyn, and with an unusual amount of security. It used to always get one, sometimes two helicopter escorts, even for its 5 a.m. arrivals. But lately, nothing, except for the 3 Queens thing.

Actually, come to thing of it, I watched it arrive around 7 a.m. today and didn't see of hear helicopters.



Anyhow, tonight's departure had police boats and two helicopters flying closer than I've ever seen. (Which kind of freaks me out ever since I read the pilot's and co-pilot's remarks from those East River helicopter crashes in 2005.)

My only guess is that they're worried about retalition after someone stuck a bomb under the car of Hezbollah's Imad Moughniyah in Syria.

Labels: brooklyn, nyc, pictures

- posted by Amy @ 2/15/2008 05:39:00 PM

 
Metroblogging NYC sponsoring WNYC?

This morning's dollar-for-dollar sponsor on WNYC's pledge drive was ... "Metroblogging NYC."

I'm totally confused. Do they mean this site?

(BTW, the sponsorship means that if you call in and pledge $100 to the public radio station, Metroblogging NYC kicks in another $100.)

Labels: media, nyc

- posted by Amy @ 2/14/2008 07:53:00 AM

 
End of year misc.: Gottino, Water Taxi, SB mafia

Had a fabulous dinner a couple days ago at Gottino, a new wine bar on Greenwich Ave. So new in fact, the baretender claimed they weren't even open yet. He claims they need more work on the menu, but what we had was just excellent. Five tasting plates for $25 (including divine cheeses, pates, marinated pears and olives) along with a sardine thing (which yeah, that one was a bit dry.) Great wine as well.

It's at 52 Greenwich Ave - practically across the street from the former Our Name is Mud make-your-own-pottery place (which by the way, is still a vacant storefront.)

The Water Taxi, as you may recall, recently said it would cancel service to Red Hook for the winter, which it calls its South Brooklyn service. A couple days later, it announced it would also cancel its East River service for the winter, due to economic reasons. A couple council members rallied Saturday to get city subsidies to reinstate East River service. Cough, Red Hook?

Seems the NYT also forgot Red Hook, as its Real Estate section commuting thumsucker on Sunday gave a juicy superfluous quote to Water Taxi owner Tom Fox:

Or look at the New York Water Taxi, which started a route from Red Hook to Wall Street last year. Five years ago that circuit wasn’t necessary. But the perpetual “next big neighborhood” has sprouted not only a gourmet grocery store but also a community that shops there.

“The stop has two things,” said Tom Fox, president of New York Water Taxi, who worked with Fairway and local developers to create the service. “It has a new population in Red Hook that is going to Wall Street, and second it’s got Fairway which draws people to Red Hook, so there’s a potential for travel to and from the location.”

Maybe healso forgot he canceled all service to Red Hook.

Still more on Red Hook. ... I walked over in the scathing wind this morning to see what was up at the old sugar factory because I've been hearing a lot of construction noises in the past few days. I was afraid they were ripping down those old red brick buildings closest to the water. But they're mainly still there. The short one, attached to the old metal ruins in the water, are only two walls, the interior of the building has all been ripped out and neatly placed into duumpsters. Have no idea if that means they're going to try to preserve something from that site.

(Pictures TK)

At the right, you can see the outer walls of the brick building.



This is where the smokestack was - the one I took pictures of in November while it was smashed to pieces.:



Two of my college buddies are making media waves lately. Welch is taking over Reason magazine as EIC come April. The Washington Post discusses the swingin' pot-smokin' DC parties he'll be attending. ("We want to add a new bacteria to the culture.") Ironically, it's Tony Pierce now wearing the suit for The Man. But as it turns out, The Man now wants to drink beers with him. Read Tony's account of his first day at the LA Times as king of all blogs. He may yet be able to save newspapers.

Ken Layne, who isn't technically part of the SB Nexus Mafia, has a new politics column at AOL. This week I learned, via Ken, that Huckabee's kid was fired from a Boy Scouts camp for torturing a dog to death.

Oh and since I used to own the crazy animal beat at the LA Daily News, I should flag a line of interest from the SF Chronicle's reporting about the zoo mauling, in which the height of the wall turned out to be lower than necessary: "In the two days since a fatal tiger attack on Christmas Day, the zoo has given at least five different measurements for the outdoor exhibit."

Luckily when I was covering that stuff in LA, the only zoo animal that came after me was Gracie the chimp who slung her poo at me because I was talking to her keeper, who was late for feeding time. Luckily I moved quickly, so the large handful of flying poo -- powerfully lobbed, mind you, from the middle of the chimp enclosure about 40 feet to where we were standing -- instead landed on the expensive shoes of the zoo's PR woman.

Oh and I shouldn't end on a whine, but damn, what the hell happened to the Internet? In the past six months, it seems like there's so much more crap (Gracie's poo excepted) -- and from people who should know better. Is it just that search engines like quantity over quality? I know it's not that you have more time on your hands, so what gives?

I pretty much hate all this Web2.0 stuff, but in the past few weeks I've been wading in, trying to find out what's actually useful. I mean really, I want facts, quickly. Is that so wrong?

Labels: bakersfield, brooklyn, nexus, nyc, pictures, red hook, restaurants

- posted by Amy @ 12/31/2007 11:36:00 AM

 
The end of Red Hook's sugar smokestack

As I've noted previously, there's been a lot of demolition along with the construction in my Brooklyn neighborhood. Here's what the semi-demolished century-old Red Hook sugar factory looked like in June (taken from the water while I was on the Hidden Harbor tour.)



By July, more of the nearby structures were coming down:



Most of the deconstruction of the smokestack was done brick-by-brick by two guys hanging in a cart:


But the end came fast, when heavy machinery was brought in. It had a long arm with a pincer on the end. At certain angles, you could see it had an "eye" making it appear like some evil raptor bent on destruction, taking bite after bite until its prey was ruined and devoured.









The beast, famished:



Lastly, two pictures from May 2006, when the sugar dome was still standing, and the sunken lightship hadn't yet been removed:

Labels: brooklyn, nyc, red hook

- posted by Amy @ 11/04/2007 09:15:00 AM

 
Red Hook cranes go grey for deconstruction



The cranes over at the Ikea site are coming down bit by bit. Last week they were getting painted grey, though I have no idea why.



Over at NewYorkology, I have a little picture of the smokestack at the adjacent sugar factory site -- which is still coming down brick by brick, getting stumpier all the time. As I type this now, I can hear the chunks of the building crashing down as well.

Labels: brooklyn, nyc, red hook

- posted by Amy @ 10/26/2007 01:45:00 PM

 
New York obelisk mystery

Martin has done a guest page at Forgotten NY based on one of the weird facts he dug up while researching "The Malice Box." Please have a look at Mystery of the Obelisks.

And as if your calendar's not already marked -- his first book signing/reading will be at Barnes & Noble in the Village at 7:30 p.m. this evening.

Labels: books, malice box, nyc

- posted by Amy @ 9/14/2007 11:51:00 AM

 
Two book events - Walking Brooklyn and MB

If you happen to be in Park Slope this evening, I'll be the Q half of a Q&A with "Walking Brooklyn" author Adrienne Onofri.

The book talk starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Community Bookstore on 7th Ave -- not far at all from where we used to live.

And tomorrow night of course is the first reading/signing of "The Malice Box." Please join us at Barnes & Noble in the Village (6th Ave and 8th Street) at 7:30.

Labels: books, brooklyn, malice box, nyc

- posted by Amy @ 9/13/2007 04:26:00 PM

 
Two thumbs up - a movie and an opera

Wanted to pass along the info for two really excellent shows I saw in the past week.

One, you can still see. The Pioneer Theater in the East Village this Friday will again screen "In Sickness and in Health," a very moving documentary about same-sex couples in New Jersey who sued to be allowed to marry. The heartbreaking part comes when one of the partners is diagnosed with ALS and it becomes so obvious so quickly how "partner" means second-class citizen to the medical and legal world. I cried.

Unfortunately the other show I saw and loved was the Puccini opera "Il Tabaro" that was staged on the Mary Whalen oil tanker in the Brooklyn container port last weekend. Only two shows left and they're sold out. A very crazy only-in-NY experience. Near the very final dramatic scene, unbeknownst to the actors, the Tribute in Light came on in Lower Manhattan. But for the whole audience, we watched the end of the tragedy unfold on the deck of the boat with Lower Manhattan and the lights in the background. I wasn't the only one who cried.

Labels: brooklyn, movies, nyc

- posted by Amy @ 9/12/2007 02:31:00 PM

 
The politics of mini storage

Manhattan Mini Storage goes in for some pretty edgy ads. Here's the one I saw today along the West Side Highway in Midtown:

Labels: nyc, pictures

- posted by Amy @ 9/02/2007 05:41:00 PM

 
Our Name is Mud, long gone

Wandered down a stretch of Greenwich Ave. I hadn't been along in a while and was surprised to see Our Name is Mud had cleared out. We used to take the steplad there a lot when we lived in the West Village. He actually made a lot of Christmas and birthday gifts there for his mom and slew of grandmothers/step-grandmothers/step-great-grandmother.

I have no idea how long ago they shuttered. From their website:

Our Name Is Mud is no longer affiliated with the paint-your-own-pottery industry.

However, all those Sept. 11 tiles are still hanging on the fence next door.

Labels: nyc

- posted by Amy @ 7/29/2007 09:37:00 AM

 
Picture this: free bike rentals

My pal Paul Frankenstein is traveling, and notes:

"Vienna has free bicycle rentals. I cannot stress how totally awesome that is."

Would it work here? Can you imagine?

Labels: nyc

- posted by Amy @ 4/02/2007 08:36:00 AM

 
Big city coincidences

A funny thing happened on the way to the theater last night ...

Walked out of my Brooklyn apartment and stood waiting for my bus, which was late. Eventually two B61 buses showed up at the same time. I get to Jay Street and a kid can't swipe his metro card, and keeps asking the person at the next turnstile to help, thus holding up about 15 people -- who as a result all miss the A train that's just pulled in downstairs. A few minutes later I get on the (local/slower) C train instead. Somewhere in Lower Manhattan they conductor announces the C is now an A making express stops only. Then at West 4th we're held in the station as a team of cops walk along the platform looking for who knows what.

This whole time I'm reading a magazine, first noticing I'll be early for meeting the husband for pre-theater dinner, later noting I'll be late. People get on and off and I barely notice, except for the guy standing almost right in front of me because his girlfriend sitting next to me is taking two seats rather than one.

So finally the train gets to 59th, I stick my magazine in my purse and stand up. And the passenger sitting directly across from me stands up to get off at the same time, but instead of moving to the door he looks directly into my eyes -- and kisses me.

My husband apparently boarded at 42nd and realized a few minutes later he was sitting across from me.

Labels: nyc

- posted by Amy @ 3/28/2007 08:40:00 AM

 
Political infiltration nothing new

So just a few quick thoughts on the news that the NYPD was keeping tabs on political protesters before the RNC Convention.

Before I left ABCNews.com with a repetitive-strain type injury in 2000, I was working on a story along these lines. Unfortunately it never ran because I couldn't so much as sign my name to a check let alone type by the time I left ABC. But the basics of the story were all out there, though no one had really pulled it all together at that point. To me, it sounded like the WTO riots in Seattle (in November 1999) took police departments by surprise across the US and they started to realize that they needed to be better prepared if their city was about to host any big political/govt/economic event. Yes, individual police depts acknowledged they were doing some stuff, but I couldn't get anyone to say this was being coordinated on a national level, even in an impromptu fashion. (Except the protesters, of course, who were certain it was a giant well-coordinated conspiracy to shut them up.)

At that point, it had already been well documented that the cops were infiltrating the protest groups. How well documented? A Reuters reporter was actually riding along with a protest group during the 2000 GOP convention in Philadelphia when they got diverted on the way to the protest and arrested -- except for the protester among them who was actually a cop. (Oddly, I can't find that story online now, but that link just above is useful.)

That single event alone should have been enough, I thought, to let every political activist across the country know it could/would go on again. And mind you this was all before Sept. 11.

I came to this story with the full knowledge it was nothing new. One of the best stories I did in college was a huge package on the FBI's infiltration (in the 1960s) of the Black Students Union at UC Santa Barbara. I had all the documents; there was no question this happened. They had gone so far as to enroll an FBI agent at UCSB with the sole purpose of joining the BSU and keeping tabs on them. The partially-blacked-out FBI reports (released through FOIA requests) went so far as to list the titles of books on the shelves in the apartments of the BSU leaders. For the story, I tracked down several of the former BSU guys -- some who never knew they'd been infiltrated until I started reading the reports to them over the phone. As best as I could find, the FBI agent never did anything except report what he/she observed.

It was pretty amazing stuff. And indeed, those guys were planing on making waves. In 1968 they took over a campus building for several days until their demands were met. No violence, except they did have chains they used to lock the building's doors. One of the things that resulted from their action was the creation of UCSB's Black Studies department.

Labels: nyc, philadelphia, politics, ucsb

- posted by Amy @ 3/26/2007 10:03:00 AM

 
Facts, twisted (gunshots edition)

So there's a weird Wall Street Journal connection to that terrible Greenwich Village shooting on Wednesday night, according to today's New York Times. The shooter, who apparently took many liberties on his resume, was once employed "working on typeface styles as an information graphics coordinator for The Wall Street Journal."

The NYT continues:

Mr. Garvin was working at the paper when it was forced from its Lower Manhattan offices during the Sept. 11 attack. His department moved to South Brunswick, N.J., where he continued to work.

On his résumé, Mr. Garvin lists that he won a Pulitzer Prize. The Journal did win a prize for its Sept. 11 coverage, and it gave everyone a copy of the certificate.

Martin and I were actually coming back from Jersey on Wednesday as all the police vehicles were racing toward the shooting. We were heading down the West Side Highway and noticed how weird it was that a helicopter was downtown with his searchlight pointed down on a street like it was tracking someone. (A fairly common scene when I was in California, but you don't see it often here.) Then as we got further downtown, the emergency vehicles started appearing and we passed several more that were coming from Brooklyn through the tunnel.

Though A Brooklyn Life blogger was far, far closer. She heard the shots ... and explains first-hand how easy it is for witnesses to be confused over the basics of what they just heard/saw.

Labels: nyc

- posted by Amy @ 3/16/2007 05:23:00 PM

 
Gold and red glass and the Tiffany Girls

Getting back to basics, here's something from my real notebook. Yesterday I was at the New-York Historical Society's media preview of the new exhibit on the Tiffany Girls who designed a lot of the company's famous lampshades. From one card:

Red glass was the most expensive to make because one of the key ingredients was gold.

Who knew? I was just tickled because of the relation to the "red gold" in Martin's book.

Labels: malice box, nyc

- posted by Amy @ 2/23/2007 01:54:00 PM

 
Pictures from the UK trip

A couple interesting things from the camera phone in the past week:

A sign posted above an ATM in Peterborough, England notes that HSBC has a number accounts that are compliant with Shariah, Islamic law:




Here's one that should amuse the readers of Curbed. Just next door to King's Cross Station in London, they've been doing a major restoration of St. Pancras that later this year should open as a mega-transportation, living and dining complex. Of course the deluxe residential spaces (and hotel!) are being developed by ... the Manhattan Loft Corporation.



Oh, and now London has their own squeegie men, though the picture isn't so great as I didn't get the camera out until after a guy in a convertible had shooed them away:

Labels: london, nyc

- posted by Amy @ 2/18/2007 09:06:00 AM

 
'Rock N Roll' on Broadway, Czech style

Oh my, here is some exceptionally good news. While I was away, Variety reported that Tom Stoppard's "Rock N Roll" will come to Broadway this fall.

Martin and I saw it in London last summer and loved, loved, loved it. It's brilliant beyond words, heartbreaking and should be mandatory viewing for all you Czechophiles who were caught up in the post-'89 East Euro revolutionary madness.

So seriously think about planning yourself a fall trip to NYC just to see this play.

Labels: broadway, czech, london, nyc

- posted by Amy @ 2/18/2007 07:14:00 AM

 
Townshend at JFK

Pete Townshend's in town, and he brought his guitar.

How do I know? Because he and I (and a couple hundred other people) spent an hour or so in British Airways baggage claim at JFK tonight. The only reason I recognized him in the first place was because I did a double-take after noticing a dude wearing sunglasses, in baggage claim, at night.

Seeing him was even more excting than the surprise business class upgrade I got handed at the gate at Heathrow. I watched "Spinal Tap" on the in-flight. Think Mr. Townshend did too?

Labels: airports, nyc

- posted by Amy @ 2/17/2007 09:59:00 PM

 
Exchanging ticket trick

OK, maybe this is an obvious trick to Broadway tickets, but I never actually had need to find out myself.

We had tickets to all three Stoppard plays, bought last summer after I freaked out over how great "Rock N Roll" was in London. Anyhow, it turns out that the husband will be out of town Feb. 22, our date for the third show. A call to Telecharge got me nowhere: No exchanges, sorry. Their advice was for me to go alone and try to sell the other $100 extra ticket out front before the show.

Should I go to the box office, I asked.

"Don't bother."

So I went to the box office and asked if I could change dates.

"Sure, when would you like to go?"

Two minutes later I had new tickets, no extra charge. And in a slightly better location than before. Nice.

Labels: broadway, nyc

- posted by Amy @ 2/14/2007 12:34:00 PM

 
Flashy lights at JFK

Bit of excitement as we left JFK for England last night. We were on British Airways and pulled away from the gate about 10 minutes late. Then we stop and out my window I see three fire trucks and at least a dozen police cars speed out onto the runway. A few minutes later our plane pushes back further and turns so I can see all the emergency vehicles have circled a big plane just sitting on a runway in the dark. Couldn't see the name of the airline, but just a strip of dark color on the tail.

We taxied for a very long time, and watched several planes land. Finally the pilot comes on and says another plane had some problems so they had to shut down half the runways at the airport. Thus arrivals and departures had to share the same runway.

Have no idea what happened to that other plane.

Labels: airports, nyc

- posted by Amy @ 2/11/2007 04:53:00 PM

 
Tunnel watch

So this may be coincidence, but there was a helicopter hovering over the entrance to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel for about 45 minutes or so. It's only just taken off ... right about the time the cops in Boston said the suspicious devices there appear to be part of a hoax.

And by the way, although it's still illegal for you or me to photograph anything near the mouth of a tunnel leading in or out of Manhattan, you can still get a live view on the webcams operated by the MTA.

Labels: nyc, webcams

- posted by Amy @ 1/31/2007 03:52:00 PM

 
For the Brits ...

From today's coverage about Prince Charles and his wife's visit to NYC yesterday:

“He’s rich and he rules in England,” Alhamodou Nimaga, 12, said of Prince Charles. And the duchess? “Oh, so she’s Dutch.”-- New York Times

And two from the Post:

Arona Pratt, the mother of another player, said, "I think it's great. My son was up all night waiting for this. They [the royals] looked much nicer in person than they do on TV." ...

"All the time he was shaking my hand I thought, 'Should I do a book report on him for my social-studies class?' "

Labels: london, nyc

- posted by Amy @ 1/29/2007 09:59:00 AM

 
El Teddy's replaced by Tribbles


Remember what El Teddy's used to look like?

I was down in Tribeca last week and was sad to see its replacement. Tribbles - that big new white tower. Could it get worse?

Labels: nyc, tribeca

- posted by Amy @ 1/17/2007 01:48:00 PM