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‘Serious Eats’ Returns To Cobble Hill, With High Marks For Spanish ‘La Vera’

By on April 19, 2012 in Cobble Hill, Food

Serious Eats seems to have some serious love for the ever-evolving restaurant scene in Cobble Hill. A week after serving up a loving review of intimate eatery Battersby (255 Smith Street), the webbie is licking its chops over La Vara, a new Spanish restaurant at 268 Clinton Street, which explores the Moorish and Jewish flavors of Spain.

According to the Serious Eats review, husband-and-wife chef duo Alex Raij and Eder Montero offer “a welcoming vibe for both family meals and date nights alike, with a menu ranging from snacky nibbles to bigger entrée plates.” Continue Reading →

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Boerum Hill Resident Tracy K. Smith Wins Pulitzer Prize For Poetry

By on April 18, 2012 in Boerum Hill, Literature

Boerum Hill resident Tracy K. Smith has won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her collection “Life on Mars,” which the prize committee called “a collection of bold, skillful poems, taking readers into the universe and moving them to an authentic mix of joy and pain.”

There was plenty for Smith to celebrate when she discovered the news of her award April 16: It was also the Princeton University Assistant Professor’s 40th birthday. Published by Graywolf Press in 2011, “Mars” is Smith’s third published book. Continue Reading →

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Cobble Hill Association Calling for Executive Board Candidates

By on April 18, 2012 in Cobble Hill, Government

The Cobble Hill Association has issued an open call for nominations to form its new Executive Board of officers for the 2012-2014 term. Its Nominating Committee invites any interested residents to join an open meeting Monday, April 30 at 7 p.m. in the Cobble Hill Community Room at 250 Baltic Street, off Court Street.

Please come with questions and ideas, so that the committee can discuss interested individuals’ potential for filling one of the seven positions on the executive board.

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‘Serious Eats’ Sings Praises Of Cobble Hill Intimate Eatery Battersby

By on April 17, 2012 in Cobble Hill, Food

Foodie website Serious Eats tells it like it is… so when they like what they taste, there’s little higher praise. Last week, the New York site gave a shimmering review to Cobble Hill intimate eatery Bittersby at 255 Smith Street, titled “Good Food Comes in Small Spaces,” heralding co-owners and chefs Joseph Ogrodnek and Walker Stern.

Reviewer Carey Jones writes in an exhaustively detailed piece: “What did our meal at Battersby tell me? That these chefs have dead-on intuition for how people want to be eating. Continue Reading →

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New York Mag Cover Story Features Carroll Garden’s ‘By Brooklyn’

By on April 17, 2012 in Carroll Gardens, Food, Shopping

New York magazine’s April 23, 2012 issue covers “Artisanal Brooklyn,” with a generous 8-page spread about the borough’s movement toward locally made edibles. The subhead: “A step forward for food or a sign of the apocalypse? And does it matter when the stuff tastes so good?” (Read the full story here.)

A secondary piece showcases Brooklyn’s best “brewers, bakers and beef-jerky makers,” and includes Carroll Gardens’ own By Brooklyn, at 261 Smith Street near Degraw. Featured is its Binxgoods Genuine Vanilla, with the descriptor: “How to arrive at vanilla extract as fresh and pure as Binxgoods? First travel to India and befriend a bean farmer. Then let your imported beans steep for six weeks in your South Brooklyn kitchen.” The By Brooklyn website is here.
Continue Reading →

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Most Walkable Nabes In NYC: Brooklyn Heights & Cobble Hill

By on April 13, 2012 in Cobble Hill, Featured, Neighborhoods, Uncategorized

No surprise to those of us in the know, but hipster pub The L Magazine notes that Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill are “the most walkable neighborhoods in Brooklyn,” according to a study by Walk Score published on website Slate.

The webbie bases its “walk scores” on the amount and accessibility of amenities, including restaurants, movie theater and schools. New York City is the most walkable out of 50 cities surveyed, with a score of 85.3 out of 100, which The L Word notes was knocked down by “unwalkable” Staten Island. Continue Reading →

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FASCINATING: 1940 Census Data Reveals Who Lived In Your Digs

By on April 5, 2012 in Census data, Cobble Hill, History, Uncategorized

Ever wondered who was cooking pot roast on your antique stove in 1940? Who hid that stamp beneath the floorboards when you were gutting your Pacific Street coop bedroom? How much that Degraw Street apartment cost to rent 70 years ago? Now’s your chance to find out. In partnership with Archives.com, the U.S. National Archives released Census records from 1940 online on April 2—comprising 3.8 million images scanned from some 4,000 rolls of microfilm.

The website offers access to maps and hand-written info about every known address in all 48 states in the Union, allowing you to find census maps and descriptions to locate an enumeration district, browse census images to locate any household interviewed in the 1940 Census and then save and/or download images. Continue Reading →

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Cobble Hill Resident Alan Cooper Launches New Restaurant In Fort Greene

By on April 5, 2012 in Cobble Hill, Food, Fort Greene

Two 2001 graduates from Brooklyn Heights’ Packer Collegiate Institute—one of whom grew up in Cobble Hill—are staying true to the borough by opening an American restaurant in nearby Fort Greene. Pals Alan Cooper and Stephen Cohen plan to launch Prospect Restaurant at 773 Fulton Street in July, in the space of recently closed Mediterranean Aqualis Grill.

The pair was interviewed April 5 in the New York Times blog “The Local,” after the eatery’s license was approved by the Community Board 2 Health Committee. The spot will offer 53 seats and a full bar, serving dinner seven days a week and brunch on weekends. Continue Reading →

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Cruise Ship Air Pollution Response Stalled

By on April 4, 2012 in Government, Health, News, Red Hook

A year ago, Mayor Bloomberg announced a deal to eliminate air pollution resulting from cruise ships having to run their diesel generators to supply power while docked at the Red Hook terminal. Under the agreement, the parties involved: the Port Authority, the suppliers and distributors of electricity, and the cruise line, would share the cost of installing and maintaining equipment allowing ships to take power from shoreside. Now, it appears, that deal has collapsed, and local residents will have to continue to breathe fumes from the ships’ generators.

New York Daily News Cruise ships docked in Brooklyn continue to choke Red Hook with their fumes — despite a widely touted deal a year ago that was supposed to solve the problem. Continue Reading →

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194 Court Street, Cobble Hill

By on March 31, 2012 in Cobble Hill

This view along Court Street looks as if it could have been taken in 1972… or 2012…

On occasion, it’s nice to see that some things remain the same. (Photo: Chuck Taylor)

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