The Downtown Brooklyn Thread

Hee-yaw!

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/nyregion/14boco.html

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I live in Downtown Brooklyn, matter of fact, and we're territorial. Everything on the west side of Gold Street, from Flatbush to the BQE, then south of the BQE to Cadman Plaza West and Court Street, is downtown, including Metrotech. Draw the southern border where you would like... Atlantic?

Classic: it might as well be another city that you live in. Lots of subways. If you're willing to walk 20-25 minutes, tons of restaurants in three utterly distinct neighborhoods. The Hillside dog run.

Dud: No grocery stores, except for that miserable Associated in Concord Village. No late night food or booze. Walking along Tillary Street, especially where it crosses Jay.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/gif/dwnbklyn2/dcp-2a.jpg

I would say Fort Greene ends at Flatbush, yeah.

Bruce Ratner can eat a bag of dicks.

So I think I need to start being a tourist in my own city. Which neighborhoods to see separately or collectively (for instance, if Downtown/Fulton/Metrotech belong to a surrounding neighborhood, which one is it?) and in what order? Which streets to walk?

(note that the same is true for Park Slope and the park itself, but I won't ruin the integrity of the thread alone)

My knowledge of "downtown" Brooklyn extends to, essentially, Albee Square Mall on Fulton St.

court street is the main drag for cobble hill/carroll gardens, and that's a slightly hipper, younger demographic. yuppie-mom twee. lots of maclaren strollers and pet-grooming stores. carroll still has a couple of old-holdout italian restaurants and bakeries; they're probably not in any danger of closing because if they've survived this long, they're owned by the mob. (the amazing latticini barese is sadly no more, though.)

boerum hill/smith street is past its prime, but faan and the boat bar are there.

fort greene is great. just absolutely super-great. if you're gonna be a tourist in any neighborhood, do it there.

http://www.brooklynmenuguide.com/menupages/140.php?id=140

ft. greene just got a weird new solar cafe place!

my friend calls it RAMBO--Right After the Manhattan Bridge Overpass

Prospect Park, dood. And the zoo therein. THEY HAVE RED PANDAS. My GF lives at 21st between 6th&7th, and I will soon live there as well. There's a good taqueria on 5th and 20th street (and if you eat there they'll give you fresh chips & yummy spicy sauce [though not what we gringos would call salsa, necessarily]).

Lotsa good eating: the Chip/Curry Shop, New Stone Park Cafe (tho I haven't been there yet). Drinks: The Gate (3rd St), Commonwealth (12th).

oh and it's good if you have large dogs.

A lot of people would ask me to give them rides or pick them up from the airport. It took me two years to learn not to do that.

oh god yes

I don't know how NYC grocery shopping is these days but what I remember being so cool about Wegman's when I lived in Jersey was its scale.

Yes. It's like wandering into a food theme park.

My neighborhood now is absolutely shit for groceries. We get most stuff from Costco and supplement with fresh direct and a local Jewish/Russian/Israeli store (labneh, olives, pickles, bourekas, etc). The other options are a Key Food, a C-Town and a bunch of those corner green grocers. There's a Trader Joe's that's only accessible by car and has the world's worst parking lot. Still not driving all the way to Navy Yard though.

Are you talking about the Trader Joe's in Rego Park? I used to go to that one all the time when I lived in wburg. I would just automatically park in the larger lot behind it.

that costco in astoria is the most aggro costco in the world.

Plenty of non rich people in Brooklyn and queens w cars.

Frank's is closing; last human bar I know of near BAM

https://brooklynbuzz.com/the-legendary-franks-cocktail-lounge-in-ft-greene-brooklyn-closing-for-good-as-owners-sell-the-building-just-blocks-from-bam/

rip

fuuuuck

There's also Moe's about a block away but I def prefer Frank's, this is a real loss

On a positive note, Gage & Tollner will reopen this Sunday after being closed 16 years. The new owners are intending to keep it essentially old school. Looks like the beautiful interior has been preserved.

i've been hearing a little bit about that behind the scenes and through the grapevine, and it sounds positive - -- one of the people involved is the guy behind Fort Defiance in Red Hook, which is a great bar, so that's promising. i did peek through a gap into G&T a couple weeks back and the interior looked fantastic.

Is O’Connor’s on 5th ave still there ?

No, it's a different bar called McMahon's now

Looks like the beautiful interior has been preserved.

― Josefa, Wednesday, March 11, 2020 12:53 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

beautiful interior is a city landmark, which is why the arby's that was there was so goofy

if anyone has tips for best availability of sanitizer/rubber gloves in/around Kensington/Ditmas Park/Slope lmk

Neergaard @5th Ave/9th St was selling mini Purell bottles out of a cardboard box near the front register but there were only about three left late Thursday night (& they're marked up).

Someone told me Save-On Fifth @5th Ave/8th St was being accommodating with this kind of stuff, but I suspect that mainly what they have is the non-alcohol based Handi Wipes. Maybe they have something behind the counter.

thx Josefa, I go to Neergard frequently

rip my gym

Building collapse on the corner of Union at and Court St... really hope no one is hurt @NYPDnews pic.twitter.com/mMjVJgQkvY

— Anton Tsimbler (@atsimbler) July 1, 2020

Whoa. It was an active gym until shutdown?

does that cyclist have ... a monkey on their back?

it's been closed since march because of the virus; not sure why it chose now to fall apart

it looked like there were apartments above the gym?

Before pic.twitter.com/42uU9EuTR3

— Luca Powell (@lucapowellCUNY) July 1, 2020

pretty sure that’s all gym — there were multiple floors (plus stuff in the basement)

despite the facade

dang, I don't think I've ever seen a building collapse like that

Since 2005, inspectors with the city’s Department of Buildings have issued at least eight fines to the building’s owner for large cracks throughout the property, including a 40-foot “bulge” on the wall facing Union Street, according to city records.

supposedly there was one person inside, who escaped with minor injuries (!)

when i lived in ft greene the building next to me partially collapsed while i was home

it was loud, basically the face fell off of it, while there were guys working on it on scaffolding, who some how didnt fall even those the shit got all bent, i looked out my window at them from like 5 ft away seconds after it happened, they were all extremely wtf

walked by there twice today. of all the buildings in the neighborhood to collapse i would not have picked that one on its face

Walked by where Rose Water used to be in Park Slope and saw that it's gone - I used to love eating there when I lived a few blocks away, but the owner apparently closed it in November 2019 to go work for a non-profit, so he couldn't have picked a better time to get out of the restaurant business.

Rose Water was discussed a bit in the "Redd's Roster of Restaurants" thread at the time it closed. One of my favorite restaurants in the Slope for many years. Was heartbroken by its loss, with the silver lining that the owner never had to struggle with pandemic fallout.

the barge containing material dredged out of the Gowanus has now also fallen into the Gowanus https://t.co/GKrz2ugQLi

— Tim Donnelly (@timdonnelly) January 26, 2021

Omg
Gravitational pull of the sludge is undeniable

strong "nyc not dead" energy imo, feels like a very old school piece of news

just let the sludge be in the canal if thats what it wants

BARGE PURGES SLUDGE, SINKS SANK SUNK

HELPLESS SLUDGE IN TOPPLED BARGE

SLUDGEBURN ‘21

TIL Brooklyn Inn and WCOU Radio/Tile Bar have the same owner.

Brooklyn Inn is a cool place - that’s the old one on the corner, big space, used to have a pool table, right? Haven’t been in a minute.
Not familiar with the other one

Tile Bar is in the EV, what was it like 7th st and 2nd ave or something? Had a decent jukebox.

I have mixed feelings about Brooklyn Inn though I know it's a classic. It's also the bar that appears in Motherless Brooklyn.

When I lived in brooklyn and would go to bars I found the crowd there to always be a bit older, a bit wealthier, more like a hipster yuppie longstanding brooklyn vibe. I had friends for whom that's their local.

1st. Jukebox was good, maybe not quite as good as the one at Downtown Beirut.

In the east vil my spots were Blue and Gold and scratcher.

B-b-but what about The Lismar Lounge?

I think Alex in NYC blogged about a lot of these places.

I went to the tile bar for like 20 years, lived on 4th and 1st… I would very often play "caroselambra" (which is the closest thing to Wyatting you can do for LZ cuts) and PJ's "A Place Called Home"…

I went there for many years without living in that neighborhood, but not for quite as long as you did.