Celebrate New Years nearby

Don't want to stay home alone, but also don't want to do the Times Square/Manhattan thing? Well there are some local places that have New Years Eve Parties and events planned. As more info comes in, we'll fill in this list more completely.

Sugar Lounge
$50 (limited tickets, deposit required for groups)
Open Bar from 8pm-12am, Food Buffet
Times Square on TV, DJs

147A Columbia St. (b/w Kane and Degraw)
Website Here

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Botanica
NYE 2009 @ Brooklyn's Botanica (it's not Manhattan).
$10 Cover
Dancefloor, Drink Specials, 3 bubblies for under $50
DJs Adam Warped, Onionz, Sameer, Billy Belmont,

220 Conover Street (@ Coffey Street)
Website Here

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Hope and Anchor
NYE Party
Free entry and Karaoke!

347 Van Brunt Street

Go sing into the new year

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Rocky Sullivans
Cost unkown (and quite possibly free)

DJ Matty Slice playing ska all night
Drink specials all night, champagne toast at midnight

34 Van Dyke St.
Website here

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Korhogo 126

New Year's Eve 2009

$40 Prix Fixe @6:30P

$50 Prix Fixe @9:00PM including a midnight bubbly toast

Please reserve at opentable.com or email info@korhogo126.com.

Menu on December 31st:

Appetizers

-Local baby beet with endive, Bartlett pear, gorgonzola, toasted hazelnut, pomegranate seed with wild honey and ground mustard dressing

-West African crab salad with heart of palm, grapefruit pineapple, mango, cumin in pepper dew sauce

Soups

-Light minestrone soup with spiced fried feuille de brique

-Maine Lobster bisque with truffle oil scented corn salad

Main courses

-African black pepper crusted filet mignon, shallot chutney, caramelized salsifi, Jerusalem artichoke, crushed potato and aged red wine sauce

-Atlantic lemon sole, walnut crust , Swiss chard, aged cheddar twice baked new potato, noisette butter sauce

-Organic chicken Yassa style, Pearl onion, lardon, cumin carrot, haricot vert rice pilaf

-Stripped bass, black olive tapenade, fennel and tomato confit, sorrel ginger sauce

Desserts

-Cold chunky sabayon, passion fruit and mixed spices poached pineapple, lychee sorbet and Kenyan curry coconut sauce

-Flourless molten chocolate cake with Madagascar vanilla ice cream

Website Here

Waste Nought: Eco-friendly retail hits Van Brunt

Walking down Van Brunt yesterday, we discovered a new store called Waste Nought, which features products that are entirely made of recycled or reused materials.

Items include cleaning supplies, garden supplies, office/school supplies, and more.

Currently, all of the products are by a company called Terracycle, which uses recycled material for everything from the products themselves to the packaging and shipping. They collect discarded containers and wrappers from schools and other institutions around the country and convert them into school/office supplies or home products. Check out the video at the bottom of this post for some news coverage of Terracycle.



More eco-friendly product lines will be added to the shelves of Waste Nought in the future as well. On top of all that, the prices are affordable. What an exciting addition to the retail options in the area.

Waste Nought is located at 424 Van Brunt St (@ Van Dyke).

Operation Christmas Cheer 2008

While many of us enjoyed time off from work and the company of family today, many workers on the tugboats and barges of New York City's waterways had to remain at work and out on the water, away from home.

Fortunately for them, local organization PortSide NY has an annual event called Operation Christmas Cheer in which they deliver cookies and newspapers to the workers of this necessary industry.

Here's a description of the event (before-hand) from PortSide:

We show up in a small powerboat wearing silly Christmas hats, make a ruckus, and hand over a plate of cookies and newspapers (papers are hard to get when you work on the water). Tugs and barges work 24/7 and often work long hitches (two weeks on, two weeks off is typical). They frequently work national holidays and keenly miss their families on those days. They also feel the burden of working in obscurity, bringing you the stuff you use. The simple gesture of being remembered on Christmas means a lot to them. Just $600 covers the cost of a paper plate of Christmas cookies and a bundle of newspapers (New York Times, Daily News, and The Post) for 40 tugs and barges, plus boat fuel and sandwiches for the elves.

We weren't on the scene today, but the Tugster blog was and posted the following photos:


All pictures taken by Will Van Dorp. More available on the Tugster blog here.

Update: More pictures posted to Tugster here.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Carroll St. Bridge (re-post from MAS) / City of Water trailer

The Municipal Art Society posted an interesting piece about the Carroll St. Bridge yesterday (the picture above is from their Flickr). Did you know that it is a landmark and that "it is one of the oldest remaining bridges in New York City, and one of only four known “retractile” bridges in the United States"?

Definitely worth celebrating the fact that we have such interesting and historical things nearby.

Check out their entire post here and more of their Flickr photos here.

Also, speaking of MAS, we missed the chance to post about a recent screening of their movie about the NYC waterfront called "City of Water," but check out the official page for the film to learn more and see where it might be playing next. The trailer is below:



"City of Water" trailer from MAS on Vimeo.

The Red Hook Waterfront

Here are some recent (pre-snow) pictures i took while walking around Red Hook. The first three are at Valentino Pier. The others are a little further north from Wolcott St.

TONIGHT: Bringing Red Hook flavor to Manhattan

Alternate Post Title: Supporting your neighborhood while in other neighborhoods?


TONIGHT at Whole Foods (Bowery location in Mahattan)

Beer 'n' Baked Goods: An evening with Baked and Sixpoint Craft Ales (Lecture & Tasting)

7:00-8:30 p.m.

$40

Who says beer can't be on the dessert table? Join Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito of Baked, Red Hook's most creative bakery, as they present many of the delectable goodies from their new cookbook, Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. Then sit back and enjoy as Jeff Gorlechen of Sixpoint Craft Ales makes the perfect pairing. It's safe to say it will be a pretty sweet evening.
On the Menu:

• Beer and baked goods of all persuasions.

Instructors: Jeff Gorlechen, Sixpoint Craft Ales, Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, owners and authors, Baked

(the above description from Whole Foods site)

Other Links:
Baked
Six Point

Pictures from the Tree Lighting ceremony at the Human Compass garden on Columbia street

The Tree Lighting ceremony was a great success. There was hot chocolate, cookies, mini cupcakes and candy canes. Also there was Santa Claus with the Mrs. Thank you for coming and sharing treats and holiday cheer.

Piccolo Cafe mystery solved!

I recently had the chance to be introduced to the owner of the soon-to-open cafe. His name is Arturo Galeano, father of Frank, the real estate broker on Union. Arturo came to the US in 1957 from Calabria, the tip of the Italian boot. He landed in Columbia street and has never left. He is truly one of our old school residents.
A long time ago he had a trattoria where Teeda, the Thai restaurant is now, and has longed to open a new eatery for quite some time. The Piccolo Cafe will be a breakfast and lunch joint with traditional Italian pastries and American hamburgers.
As we were talking about the neighborhood as it used to be and what it has become, I asked him about his favorite hangout. He admitted to being quite the gambler as a young man, and revealed that there was an illegal poker game in every basement on Columbia street. He also spent many hours in his social club, which was where his son's real estate office is now. He described how the men would cook together, play cards and talk about the old country. Listening to him, almost cinematic images reeled through my mind, and once again I dreamed of time travel.

Today the door has been painted by the famous Jay Crider. It announces its opening for January 2nd 2009. So let us show up in numbers to enjoy a restorative breakfast and erase the excesses of the New Year celebrations.

UPDATE (01/05/09): NOW OPEN!

Arturo Galeano inside the Piccolo Cafe a few weeks ago.

Meeting local artist Launa Beuhler

One of the many wonderful things about this neighborhood is the presence of a wide array of artists. Looking around one would never guess how big the artist community is here. On Columbia street between Union and Sackett stands the old Sessa Bank building, and inside its walls is sculptor Launa Beuhler's studio, which I had the chance to visit recently.

WoCS: What is your favorite thing about living in the Columbia street Waterfront District?
Launa Beuhler: Being near the water, having open space with so many community gardens, the meadow, and the strong sense of community that you feel between the people who have been in the area for years and people who have moved to the area more recently. Young and old, people from all different nationalities and backgrounds, all share a sense of community in the neighborhood and coexist.

WoCS: What don't you like?
LB: The increased truck traffic and the BQE, and development that does not respect the scale and character of the neighborhood.

WoCS: Which is your favorite hangout?

LB: The community gardens.

WoCS: What is the biggest change you have seen happen to the neighborhood in the 15 years you have lived here?

LB: The loss of all the Mom and Pop stores, and places like the Cammareri Bros. Bakery, Latticini Barese, and Frank's department Store. There has also been a departure of the younger generation of families that have lived in the Columbia Street Waterfront area for years

that have moved away to places like Staten Island and New Jersey.

WoCS: If you could live anywhere else in NYC, where would it be?
LB: No where else in NYC, but if I move anywhere it will be to Italy.

WoCS: What service/shop do you feel is missing in the district?

LB: We could use a green market, a daycare center and another public school for all the new children.

Some art pieces:

Stop

Quiver

Tangled Web

Life

Tempesta

Tempesta (detail)

Peace Motion

Union Street Art (more Jay Crider!)

This is one that I had missed in my post about the construction sites

Union Street 2008!

Same building at the bottom

Full building shot

Sun Setting on the Working Waterfront

Art by Gabriela Vainsencher @ Work

When I posted about the smART Hop bus to BWAC, I failed to realize that other local galleries were showing things today as well. Walking along Union street this evening, we realized that Work (aka the Red Tin Shack) was open and showing art.

The artist on display was Gabriela Vainsencher (who unfortunately was not there at the time). All of the pieces on display were very interesting, and I particularly liked a series that was created by making a new drawing each day of the year, called "Morning Drawing."

While I highly recommend visiting in person, those who can't make it should at least check out the "Morning Drwaing" blog that has each picture posted on each day.

Gabriela's art is on display at work through December 22nd, so you still have time to go see it!

Go to Work's website for details.

smART hop to BWAC for their holiday sale!

Come to the Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition’s "Support Living Artists for the Holidays" Sale

BWAC is pleased to be part of Brooklyn’s first ever smart Hop – free

hop on and off buses this Sunday to four of the borough’s art districts.

We are on the Gold Route from Borough Hall.

For more information, go to: http://www.visitbrooklyn.org/pdf/smART_Program.pdf



There’ll be art and unusual, beautifully handcrafted gifts,

carols, cocoa and Christmas classics playing in our Screening Room.

Over 50 artists and artisans will be selling gifts – most for less than $100.



We are open this coming weekend, Saturday 11-4, and on Sunday 11-6, at

499 Van Brunt St, across from Fairway and down the block from IKEA.

Balkan brass and more @ Jalopy this week

Below is the schedule of events at the Jalopy theater this week. What sparks my interest the most is the Veveritse Brass Band on Saturday. I love brass, and this is balkan brass! The songs on their myspace sound pretty great, and it would definitely be fun to see live. Of course, the other events look good as well.

As a general reference, there are just too many events at Jalopy to list on our event sidebar, so check for more posts like this in the future.

December 8th @ 9pm $FREE$ (Every Monday!!!)
Country Blues Jam
Bring your Banjo, Accordion, Guitar, Fiddle, Bass, spoons, Washtub…anything.

December 10th @ 9pm $FREE$ (Every Wednesday!!!)
ROOTS N RUCKUS
A night of old time blues and folk. Hosted by Feral Foster

Thursday, December 11th @ 9pm $5
Hobotec

Friday, December 12th @ 9pm $10
Sometymes Why
King County Strings

Saturday, December 13th @ 9pm $10
Veveritse Brass Band
4th Street NiteOwls

Sunday, December 14th @ 12 - 3pm $35
Introduction to Lap Steel
Led by Bob Hoffner

Sunday, December 14th @ 8pm $FREE$
The Engine Room
Singer Songwriter Debut
Led by Jan Bell