(Photo courtesy of Threes Brewing)
Gowanus-Based Threes Brewing Tries Greenpoint On For Size
Bars + Restaurants
What’s ‘OG Croonster’ Luther Vandross Doing in the East Village?
The R&B legend now has his face supersized in spray paint on Avenue A, but that’s not all– he’s earned his own flavor. Every month, Mikey Likes It Ice Cream devotes their latest batch to a different icon— everyone from Urkel to LL to Elvis. For February, they’re honoring the season of love by featuring “the OG croonster” (per owner Michael Cole), known for transforming smooth jams into creamy red velvet. They call the concoction Never Too Much, because there’s never too much love, Mikey tells me.
Now You Can Have Your Liquid Dinner and Eat it Too, Food Returns to Tørst
(Photo courtesy of Tørst)
At first glance Luksus– an extension of the bar’s overly-lit, Nordic minimalist setting– inspired a lot of gaggy, knee-jerk, and not so glowing reactions. But like frowny Nordic people themselves and, say, Ikea furniture, the restaurant grew on critics and customers, who seemed to get used to the stiff, hardened outer layer. That is, until chef Daniel Burns peaced out and Luksus abruptly closed, Michelin star and all. But, as of this week, Tørst is back in the restaurant biz, and a new chef seems to have taken notice of the initial criticism.
Tags: bars, Bars + Restaurants, beer, beer bars, brooklyn, craft beer, food, Food + Drink, Greenpoint, Luksus, reopening, torst
River Coyote Is a Rare Beast: A Coffee Shop That Doubles as a Wine Bar
(Photo: Michael Tulipan)
Jay Nir was chilling in a café in Amsterdam some years ago when he noticed that the person to his right was sipping coffee while the person to his left was quaffing wine. He’s hoping that ever-so-European comingling of caffeine cravers and liquor lovers will be a common sight at River Coyote, which he opened today on the Lower East Side.
Gowanus BBQ Joint Pig Beach Opens a Grown-Up Spot, Pig Bleecker
(Photo: Katie B. Foster)
Just a couple of months after Gowanus barbecue joint Pig Beach converted itself into a seasonal burger joint, the restaurant remains on Eater’s “heat map” of the hottest restaurants in Brooklyn. Now, good news for Manhattanites: You’ll no longer have to persevere the F train to get a taste of it. Pig Beach just opened a Greenwich Village outpost.
Browse Recipes and Laze Away the Day at Brooklyn Kitchen’s New Library
A recent cooking demo.(Photo courtesy Brooklyn Kitchen).
Where there once was a butcher, there now are books. Williamsburg cooking store Brooklyn Kitchen has decided to scrap (get it, scrap?) its butcher counter and has replaced it with an inviting area where customers can peruse cookbooks and food magazines, including a collection of Gourmet that dates back to 1943.
Prepare to Get Buzzed With a Former Child Star at All-Wise Meadery
Odin would be proud (Photo: Daniel Maurer)
It used to be that throwback drinking meant quaffing Prohibition-era cocktails and Hemingway sippers. But these days, we’re seeing an emphasis on even older traditions, and a resurgence of traditional techniques that have long fallen out of use. Mead, the fermented honey drink that was made as early as 7000 BC in China and was drunk in North Europe during the Bronze Age, is making a comeback that started in the homebrew community and grew outward. And in just a few short months, Williamsburg will be home to one of the largest mead brewing operations in the country.
Gone Daddy’s Gone, a Regular Remembers Her Favorite Bar
(Photo: Nick McManus)
OK, we’re almost in the clear for anything New Year’s Eve-related. But before we hurdle head-first into 2017, there’s one more place we lost over the holiday weekend that’s worth pouring one out for: a Williamsburg bar called Daddy’s.
It’s All Over Now for Williamsburg Bar Over the Eight
Over the Eight says goodbye at their New Year’s Eve comics celebration (Photo: Nick McManus)
Last year was a rough one for cultural spaces of all kinds in New York City, so it was somewhat fitting (if not totally sad) that a slew of local spots said their peace-outs during New Year’s Eve festivities. Among the departing establishments that went out with a bang on one of the drunkest night of the year was Over the Eight, a Williamsburg bar which closed up shop after “three and a half years” of “slinging cheap drinks and treasured times” (as we heard back in November when the owners first announced their departure).
Queer Nightlife Legends, The Culture Whore Going Out with a Banger
From left, Dream, Rify Royalty, Paul Leopold. (Photo: Ben Boyles)
Even though the year is ending, most things will continue after the clock strikes 2017. But not all of them. The queer nightlife collective known as The Culture Whore is saying goodbye not only to 2016 with their New Year’s Eve space-rodeo rave, “Night Riders.” The blowout will be the group’s final party, as they are disbanding.
How a Mosque Ended Up Next to a Pig-Roasting, Shot-Pounding Metal Bar
This week and next, we present a series of longer pieces unraveling the histories of storied buildings.
30 Cliff Street today. The metal bar “Iron Horse” located in background.
At dusk, bearded men dressed in suits take hurried strides towards 30 Cliff Street, a nondescript building on a relatively quiet strip between busy Fulton and John Streets. Through metal and glass doors reminiscent of a hospital, men file into the prayer room and prostrate in unison on a floor covered in cheap knock-offs of Persian rugs, the mosque’s only pretension to traditional Islamic grandeur. Very little about Masjid Manhattan says mosque the way the word is understood in Istanbul, Tehran or Lahore: no grand domes and minarets, no call to prayer over a loudspeaker; it’s almost as if the place doesn’t want to call too much attention to itself, and it isn’t hard to understand why.
Secret Project Robot Will Return, Rewind Time to When ‘All Parties Used to Be Art Parties’
(Via Secret Project Robot Art Experiment/ Facebook)
No matter how much you love your favorite DIY venue, there’s no sense in getting too attached– as anyone who’s been in the game for a while will tell you. But having lost seemingly countless art caverns and show spaces in the last year, we’ve reached a certain moment where posi vibes and healthy acceptance of the city’s natural ebb and flow, suddenly feel less like rational bits of wisdom and more like things we say to make ourselves feel better because everything is terrible right now.
Whether by force of landlord, party police, or unnatural disaster, we’ve lost some of the greats– Palisades is gone (for good), Market Hotel (indefinitely, save for some vegan markets here and there) maybe too, and Secret Project Robot went away as well. Since the beginning, the duo behind the latter, Rachel Nelson and Erik Zajaceskowski, have vowed to return in one form or another, and now good things are finally happening. “Secret Project Robot just signed a new lease!!” they announced on social media last week. “the art zombie rises!!!”