The Downtown Brooklyn Thread

Wouldn't be ridICulously surprised if a Barnes & Noble type deal did, except it's 2013 and that business model is struggling. But if there's anywhere it might fly, it'd be there, right? People with money to spare, moving around on foot, needing coffee and something to read for the subway...

I'd be surprised. Plus there's already a B&N very close to there on Court St. I do always find it a little surprising that chain retail seems to succeed in neighborhoods like that -- you would think they urban sophisticate, quasi-lefty population would prefer to stick with their boutiques.

J. Crew coming on Court St. btw.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQCTIo1YlNE

so awful

incidentally I have really mixed feelings about the piers -- they have really cool features but no fucking shade whatsoever. I'm glad they got rid of the little baby frying pan climbing aparatuses, but there's still a lot of stuff on the playgrounds that gets hot in the sun. Maybe it will be nicer in fall.

I happened to be in the new park in LIC this morning and overheard a resident of one of the multiple new developments there saying that the one bad thing about the neighborhood was there was no shade. I was like are you kidding me? People will complain about anything.

IDK, I think that's kind of a thing. City heat gets nasty. But especially for a park/playground area.

from several months ago: Bedouin Tent is awesome (thanks to whomever recommended it). Yummy Taco is absolutely vile (i have only myself to blame for eating there once).

Is that one of those Sino-Mexican taco carryouts?

yup

OMG Taco yo

http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/omg-taco-2/

Hadramout is also good middle eastern fyi -- open 24 hrs! al Jazeera is on!

I liked Yemen Cafe too, but there was a weird vibe in there and I overheard this guy at the other table who kept saying something something Al Yahud ("The Jew" -- usually in the pejorative sense). So I didn't go back, meh.

Oh, I went to OMG Taco a few times when it was called Oaxaca. Pretty good. Same food?

basically! i also like them bc it seems to be run by a bunch of young ppl and i can support that. plus horchata

Not downtown, but I found out about a week ago that Jackie's 5th Amendment closed, so no Old Man Bars left in Park Slope? Of course, all the old men have died or been evicted.

i just jackie's open a few weeks ago. i guess they were finally able to secede from park slope.
old carriage inn is maybe not quite an old man bar but it's real shitty in there.

oh yeah, I go in there couple times a year to watch baseball. It's not quite up to J5A on the Calcifying Liver Scale.

Is O'Connors on 5th still there?

I believe it got a makeover to appeal to Nets fans in their 20s, right? Haven't been in.

it's been under renovation for about a year maybe. i'm sure it will be terrible (and attempting to lure in barclays center crowds)when it reopens. o'connor's and freddy's were my favorite bars.

Old Carriage Inn and Smith's Tavern are the only things I'd think of as Old Man Bars around there that are still open. I haven't been in either one though. Will probably get around to going to Smith's at some point.

And yeah O'Connors is still boarded up and will be shitty. Not that it was that great before. I went a few times but it was no Freddy's.

there's a new bar at 5th and Bergen where a furniture store used to be. Duke of Montrose. like everything else popping up around there it looks like it's gunning for boring/awful post-Barclays crowds.

I don't think I've been to any bars north of the Gate on 5th since the glory days of Great Lakes.

RIP Timboo's, hope all those old men found a new place to make bets :/

the old Great Lakes space is a schmancy wine bar now

I know, my friend who usta bartend at GL took me in there one night.... We had CHEESE. Like that's supposed to be DINNER.

They preserved one of the old bathrooms tho, graffiti intact.

It was always pretty dark in Great Lakes

One night there some stranger asked the bartender if it was a gay place, and he went down the length of the bar pointing "Straight, gay, straight, straight, gay..."

I never loved Great Lakes, I was a Boat guy since I lived over there. While I respected Great Lakes jukebox, which I think was care of bartender Ray, who I only met once, Boat in those early years should be commended for an even greater jukebox, as much of it was supplied to bartender Tony from myself and Rich Zerbo. If you ever heard Klen + MBO, Sparks, Pretty Things etc at Boat, you know who to thank.

thanks Dan. i still like Boat.

although if i'm over that way i am more likely to go to Brooklyn Inn

I know, my friend who usta bartend at GL took me in there one night.... We had CHEESE. Like that's supposed to be DINNER.

hahaha. well to be fair it's supposed to be more "wine bar with snacks," not "restaurant/bar." if you were expecting dinner that's more on your friend I think. I haven't been in though. not that into wine really.

I liked Great Lakes, I think I was going there well past the heyday but it was still pretty fun.

has anyone ever been inside Park Slope's Beauty Bar? it ALWAYS looks empty. I don't know how they stay open.

yeah, he (Ray) didn't care how much I was eating, cuz he was staying up til 7 a.m.

vigil against Syria intervention, Fort Greene Park @ 7pm

did anyone else hear gunshots last night? i was suffering one of my periodic bouts of insomnia and heard what sounded like two gunshots, close together, somewhere within what i assume was a few blocks? this would be clinton hill/fort greene area. don't see anything on the news about it, so it's possibly it was sometihng other than gunshots.

i dunno, when i lived in clinton hill a few years ago there was a shooting on the other side of the street. cops, etc, and we couldn't find out whether the guy lived or died media-wise until a police blotter days later (he lived).

i didn;t hear sirens after the 'shot' so i'm still not sure if that's what they were. but i'm sure i will find out at some point

fwiw the few times i have heard nearby gunshots i feel like i have always been able to tell, very clearly, that they were gunshots

i thought my experience in crown heights/pros. heights had me knowing what gunshots sounded like -- and i think these were. but, you know, i could have been wrong.

couldve just been someone firing a gun off for lolz

yeah but im thinking maybe they were far away or something?

http://www.brooklyntheborough.com/2013/10/the-mallification-of-brooklyns-creative-makers/

http://hyperallergic.com/88183/blessed-are-the-makers-the-rise-and-fall-of-3rd-ward/

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/junior-selling-flagship-location-brooklyn-article-1.1620413#ixzz2tp4RQlms

long story short:
junior's sold property, gonna be a new condo building, they hope to re-open when the new building is complete (but this has not been worked out yet, if it ever will be.)
meanwhile, new/temporary location TBA?

Man, that would feel wrong if they don't reopen, but I guess all things must pass. I could totally see some VC fund swooping in, buying the brand and making it a chain though.

Don't go George Harrison on me

Have people been posting about this somewhere else?

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/spike-lee-blasts-brooklyn-gentrifiers-article-1.1701847

spike-lee-finger-blasts-gentrifiers

Gentrification: Gone Too Far?