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After Popping Up in Clubs and Venues, Kichin Opens a Restaurant Of Its Own

(photo: Mary Kang)

If you were near the Marcy J back in 2015, or more recently at music venue Baby’s All Right, you might have eaten food made by the folks at Kichin. You could have taken a rice ball or Korean fried chicken to go, or snacked on homemade curry at a party thrown by the musician Yaeji. Kichin has served at many places, but now they have a storefront of their own again on Myrtle Avenue, steps from the Central M.

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Vegan BBQ in a Wild West, East Village Saloon

(image courtesy of Honeybee’s)

The city is full of places to get very specific types of consumable items. If you’re looking for bone broth you can sip like a latte, there’s a kiosk for that. Mango fried rice made with Arizona Iced Tea? You can find it at Mission Chinese in Bushwick. But if you’ve wanted to imbibe high-end whiskey cocktails in a Wild West setting that also serves up an entirely vegan BBQ menu, you were out of luck up until last week, when Ravi DeRossi’s new bar Honeybee’s opened in the East Village.

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Where DIY Once Thrived, A Sicilian Restaurant Now Stands

(photo: Leonardo Mascaro)

When Bushwick DIY venue Palisades closed in 2016 after an unsuccessful quest to get up to code following a police raid, we briefly brainstormed what the space at 906 Broadway might become. A corporate music venue, a new Vice headquarters, some kind of chain store? None of these appeared, but in June a Sicilian “casual dining experience” called Concrete officially began serving dinner and weekend brunch there, with plans to begin hosting live events later this fall. More →

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Ambrosia Elixirs, a ‘Home For Plant Medicine’ in Bushwick

(photo: Inna Shnayder)

Troutman Street between Evergreen and Central Avenues in Bushwick is a block awash with construction. Jackhammers, scaffolding, and dust make their home alongside the bar Precious Metal, an auto shop, and the notorious dorm-like apartment complex Castle Braid. One of the newest additions to the block is Ambrosia Elixirs, a cafe, event space, and “home for plant medicine” that’s taken up residence in a small storefront, fittingly flanked by a large, leafy tree. More →

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Coney Island’s New Vintage Pinball Arcade Is Ready to Roll

The Mystic Machine

Photo credit: Norman Blake

Last week we shared the news that the Coney Island Museum is expanding with a new (playable) pinball exhibition. We’ve obtained more details about the pinball gallery, which had its soft opening yesterday.

“We had machines in the bar being played nonstop,” said Dick Zigun, founder of Coney Island USA and “unofficial mayor” of Coney Island.

Not all the machines are installed yet; by this coming weekend everything should officially be in place.

There are going to be 10 pinball machines – six in the Coney Island Museum storefront and another three or four in the Freak Bar in the lobby of the nearby Arts Center.

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After A Long Wait, Chuko Ramen’s Bushwick Location Is Open For Slurping

(photo: Cassidy Dawn Graves)

This past Monday, notable noodle purveyors Chuko Ramen began serving dinner in their Bushwick location at 144 Evergreen Avenue. Now, North Brooklynites will no longer have to make their way to Prospect Heights to enjoy a bowl of Chuko’s flavor-packed veggie miso ramen or their celebrated kale salad.
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Panteha Abareshi Wants You to ‘Hurt Me Badly’ at The Girl Who Loves Roses

Work by Panteha Abareshi (Image courtesy of Larrie, NYC and the artist)

Panteha Abareshi specializes in cutthroat portraits that pair the rawness of ecstatic creation with the realness of first-hand experience. As a young woman of Jamaican and Iranian descent, it seems only natural that she paints other women who look like her. But according to Abareshi, there’s much more at stake than the physical appearance of her subjects.

“I draw women of color only,” she has said of her effort to bring greater visibility to women who are so often left out of, or invisible, in the art world (not to mention under- and misrepresented everywhere else, too). But there are no smiling models or perfect angels in any of the paintings on view at The Girl Who Loves Roses, a show of Abareshi’s work at the new downtown gallery Larrie, NYC (“It’s a women’s space,” founder Emily Spitale told me). Instead, the women you meet are brooding, suffering, and embattled. Often they are splattered in blood, wearing a vacant expression, and seemingly staring at a target point that hovers right between your eyebrows.

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Ultra-Modern ‘Steampunk’ Coffee Brewer Gets a Showcase Cafe in Brooklyn

(Photo: Jonsar Studios)

(Photo: Jonsar Studios)

New York City is saturated with coffee places, so how does one separate themselves from the pack? Well, one way is to invent your own brewing element. Extraction Lab has done just that with an original craft brewer called Steampunk. The device, which looks like a cross between a French press and a draft beer tap, is so ultra modern it’s operated by an iPad app and designed to combine all the elements of drip, French press, and espresso brewing. The whole process is like watching a coffee dance– I recommend checking the whole mesmerizing thing out here.

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