Red Hook notes: 360 'back in 5' & 'Santogold' filming



Oh the things I learned on my run this morning. ..

360 Van Brunt now had a back-in-5-minutes-type sign taped in the window.

And no for rent sign.

Just this past Saturday I noticed it had a big new for rent sign out front. (The top and side pictures are from this morning, the "for rent" one's from Saturday.)



Wolcott and Dikeman streets (up from Van Brunt) are currently flyered for Wednesday's filming of "Santogold."



The place down Van Brunt with the cool metal horses out front (scroll down in the Red Hook guide for a picture,), Hyde Power, has a little historical sign out front now. I've seen it from the bus, but actually stopped to read it today - and learned the building was home to Brooklyn's first paid fire department. As I was reading, a guy came out and showed me that the only remaining historical remnant is the board inside -- with slots for what I think are the local street names. (I didn't get close enough to see for sure.)

There are a couple upcoming Smokey's Round-Up at Sunny's Red Hook, 9:30 p.m.: June 18 & 25. No cover.

That is all. Except that well, Ikea opens tomorrow.

Labels: bars, brooklyn, history, movies, pictures, red hook, restaurants

- posted by Amy @ 6/17/2008 09:55:00 AM

 
My editor's notes to the new Red Hook guide



Finally got the Red Hook 2008 guide posted on NewYorkology late yesterday. It's topped off with lots of info about the new Ikea, which will fundamentally change the neighborhood. After the press tour inside the store, I was one of a handful who took part in the tour of the new waterfront park Ikea's built. (And by the end, I was the only one on the tour.) The park tour was lead by Joseph Roth, Ikea's director of public affairs for the U.S. and he started by saying "I've been coming to this location for more than six years. ..."

So among the info in the NewYorkology guide that I think you may not find in all the Ikea/Red Hook coverage elsewhere:

Their dredgers pulled a Mercedes out of the Erie Basin. (No one was inside, and the PR folks I asked thought it was a late-model, but weren't sure. The dredgers also found entire toilets down there.)

Upcoming openings in Red Hook: The gals who run tini wine bar (our go-to no-fuss dinner place) have set July 3 as the opening date for home/made, their new shop down the street. And wow, apparently on July 4 we're getting a coal-oven pizza place called Anselmo's Bakery.

Ikea also gave me some rather specific info about transportation that some of the papers have slightly wrong. The water taxi and bus routes don't kick in until opening day. Oh and by the way, I specifically asked Roth if he's OK with Brooklyn residents using their boats for a free commute, or people from Manhattan just using it as a way to get to the food carts at the soccer field. They are absolutely cool with that. That's when he gave me the "We are introducing Red Hook to the rest of the city," quote. Weeks ago, this question was met with less enthusiasm when I asked the Water Taxi spokeswoman and the Ikea store manager.

Also, considering the ongoing need for NYPD traffic cops in the neighbrohood (and over in Columbia Waterfront District) due to that insanely screwed up road construction project, I found it hugely interesting that Ikea is going to reimburse the NYPD for three months of daily traffic cops to handle the influx of Ikea traffic throughout Red Hook.

Labels: brooklyn, pictures, red hook, restaurants

- posted by Amy @ 6/13/2008 07:46:00 AM

 
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

 
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

 
No more beer shakes?


So this sign's been hanging on the door at Schnack for about two weeks now. Don't know if that means they've got issues with their liquor license, but I suppose that means no beer shakes for awhile.

Labels: brooklyn, restaurants

- posted by Amy @ 4/18/2007 02:02:00 PM

 
One for the neighbors: Bouillabaisse update

E-mail from Bouillabaisse 126

Bouillabaisse 126 is now closed on Wednesdays (except February 14th of course!) and on Sunday Brunch. Both will resume in the Spring when our garden opens. We are also happy to announce our 20% off Early Dinner Special from Sunday to Thursday from 4:30 to 6:45PM, just mention it to your waitress. We are launching our take out menu next week, you can check it on our website. It will be available every day but Fridays and Saturdays (our kitchen is too small!).

Labels: brooklyn, restaurants

- posted by Amy @ 2/01/2007 09:10:00 PM