Greenpoint
January 29, 2008
Checking In With Magic's Green Street Condos
After some noise complaints and worries about damage to a neighboring building, Magic Johnson's 130-unit condo development at 100 Green Street in Greenpoint appears to be in high gear. A reader who lives nearby wrote in to report that the west side of the building is just about topped out (it's going to be six stories). We're curious to see what the market's going to be like for a luxury development in this corner of North Brooklyn when it's ready to go, presumably later this spring or summer. Waddya think?
Magic Johnson Planning Greenpoint Project [NY Post] GMAP<--> P*Shark
Magic's Greenpoint Bldg Gets Foul, Refuses to Go to Bench? [Curbed]
The Latest (g)Rumblings at 110 Green Street [NY Shitty]
January 22, 2008
Righting Wrongs in the Greenpoint Historic District
Two properties in the Greenpoint Historic District must go back to the LPC after the fact to get the commission's blessing for alterations made without its approval. At 116 Franklin Street (left), changes were made to the storefront and doors and windows were replaced without permission; at 832 Manhattan Avenue (right), the owners have applied to bring earlier rooftop and rear additions into compliance. The application for 116 Franklin Street is being heard this morning at 9:30 on the 9th Floor of 1 Centre Street in Manhattan; 832 Manhattan Avenue, originally scheduled for today, has been pushed back.
January 22nd Agenda [LPC]
116 Franklin Avenue [Property Shark] GMAP<-->
832 Manhattan Avenue [Property Shark] GMAP<-->
January 9, 2008
Wednesday Food & Drink Round-Up
Endless Summer Arrives in Williamsburg
"They’re a couple of months later than anticipated, and they don’t yet have set hours, but bless 'em, Bad Wizard front man Curtis Brown and The Jewish front man Jeffrey Jensen have finally parked their Endless Summer taco truck on North 7th Street and Bedford." [Grub Street]
Now Open: Henry's Bagel & Espresso Bar
520 Henry Street, Cobble Hill
"The bagel shop on the corner of Union and Henry has been Aroma Bagel and Everything Bagel. The new owners are apparently banking on the addition of the word "espresso bar" to the spot now named Henry's Bagel & Espresso Bar... Anybody been? I found Everything Bagel to be only so-so and I never got the vaguely southwestern decor." [A Brooklyn Life]
Brooklyn's Own Winery?
Alie Shaper of BOE (Brooklyn Oenology) talks to LennDevours about her plans for a Brooklyn-based winemaking business:
"Right now the business consists of sales and distribution operations in Greenpoint, and the production operation on the North Fork. I will probably next open a small tasting room in Brooklyn, along with a warehouse, after the portfolio expands. Ultimately, I want to transplant the winemaking operation, and make bona-fide Brooklyn wine. Maybe I can even convince Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz to let me grow grapes in Prospect Park!"
Now Open: Fiore
284 Grand Street, between Roebling and Havermeyer, Williamsburg
Chowhound rumor: "I just heard today that the people who run Bianca on Bleecker has opened up an outpost in Willamsburg called Fiore."
Confirmed by Williamsboard: "We're opening on Moday, 1/7/2008... Try it out, it just might not suck."
After the jump: One fearless food writer finds the cheapest eats in Brooklyn, the Times talks up Salvatore Bklyn Ricotta and Fort Greene's restaurant scene, and the L Magazine hits up Radegast Hall
January 7, 2008
House of the Day: Greenpoint's Guernsey Inn For Sale
The hotel gods of North Brooklyn giveth and they taketh away. Only a year and a half after purchasing the property for $695,000, the group behind the Guernsey Inn at 158 Guernsey Street in Greenpoint have put the four-story building back on the market for $1,195,000. We've never been inside, but it sounds like this was really more of a monthly boarding house than a place for tourists and out-of-town parents to crash for a couple of nights. Anyone know the story behind the sale? For the curious, there's an open house on Sunday from 2:30 to 4 p.m.
158 Guernsey Street [Corcoran] GMAP<--> P*Shark
Photo by A Test of Will
January 2, 2008
Closing Bell: For the Birds in Greenpoint
A reader sent in this photo (more here) with the following note:
I was walking down Franklin in front of Bushwick Inlet the other night and saw this art thing/sculpture/? erected there. Maybe someone knows what it is?
Anyone know? Has it been roosting there for awhile? GMAP
December 26, 2007
Wednesday Food & Drink Round-Up
The L's Best Bars of 2007
In their current year-end issue, the L Magazine lists their top 7 bars of the year—and 3 of them are in Brooklyn. The winners include the Gutter and the Southside Lounge in Williamsburg, as well as the Black Rabbit in Greenpoint.
The Transformation of Franny's
The 2007 restaurant round-up in today's Times lists Franny's among the year's most impressive restaurant transformations: "An example of Brooklyn’s growing restaurant bounty, this ingredients-fastidious restaurant added some very fine pasta dishes to its menu of lovely salads and dynamite pizza."
Now Open: Kim Paris-Vietnamese Grill
128 Montague Street at Henry Street, Brooklyn Heights
"I ate there on the 20th. Had an appetizer portion of the pho bo tai[sic]. It was pretty good. I'm not a pho expert, but I've had, and enjoyed, the pho at a pretty well regarded pho place in the DC area, so I know what I like. The pho at the brooklyn restaurant tasted pretty much like I remembered the DC place's pho tasted like. It came with the usual fixings, and a small bowl of hoisin sauce... I plan on frequently going back." [Chowhound]
November 27, 2007
Guttman Continues to Game the System
One of Brooklyn’s least favorite developers is living up to his rep when it comes to making improvements at the site of one of the largest fires in recent city history. Yesterday Joshua Guttman received another extension—this one until mid-April—in the criminal negligence case that was brought against him over the Greenpoint Terminal Market fire, according to the Brooklyn Eagle. Guttman, who faces 434 counts of Failure to Maintain Privately Owned Waterfront Property, is being given the stay so that he can bring the sprawling, burnt-out property up to code. The developer has applied for permits with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to fix the many outstanding problems, but he has yet to make improvements to the site’s decrepit piers and bulkheads. Some local residents aren’t holding their breath. “I would be surprised if we got to April and those things were done,” said Evan Thies, environmental chair for Community Board 1. “Simply saying ‘let’s wait five months’ is naïve.” Naive, indeed. Why does the city keep cutting this guy slack?
Hearings Continue in Case of Greenpoint Terminal Market [Brooklyn Eagle]
Guttman Stiffs City, Lives to Build Another Day [Brownstoner]
Photo by Vidiot.
October 30, 2007
BREAKING: LPC Approves Eberhard Faber Historic District
Just moments ago, the Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously voted to designate a cluster of five industrial buildings in Greenpoint henceforth to be known collectively as the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company Historic District. (Map on the jump.) In addition to the eponymous headquarters at 61 Greenpoint Avenue and pencil factory at 37 Greenpoint Avenue, the group of designees includes the buildings at 58 Kent Avenue, 59 Kent Avenue and 105 West Street. One commissioner remarked that "development fever is raging through the neighborhood—as well as fires—so the sooner this is protected, the better." As the Waterfront Preservation Alliance has noted, noticeably absent from the designation are the pair of buildings that developer Isaac Katan leveled earlier this year.
LPC To Calendar Cluster of Greenpoint Buildings [Brownstoner] GMAP<-->
Continue reading "BREAKING: LPC Approves Eberhard Faber Historic District"
October 24, 2007
Wednesday Food & Drink Round Up
Photo by Clean Plate Club
Is DUB Pies coming to Windsor Terrace?
According to the most recent DUB Pies newsletter, the Columbia Street-based meat pie shop is expanding and opening a new location somewhere in Brooklyn. One Chowhounder may have discovered the new branch: "Walked by the vacant store across the street from Farrell's this morning. It used to be a check cashing place, and has been vacant for several months now. Looked in and saw display cases and construction material, and there were signs in the window that mentioned Dub's. It was still dark so I couldn't read the signs, but I took it to mean that Dub's is expanding from their original Red Hook location." FYI: Farrell's is located at 215 Prospect Park West, near 16th Street.
Coming Soon: Marco Polo To Go
347 Court Street, Carroll Gardens
Marco Polo, the old-school Italian restaurant on the corner of Court and Union in Carroll Gardens is turning the vacant storefront nextdoor (which used to be home to Fratelli Ravioli) into an Italian take-out joint. According to the signs, they'll be peddling paninis. We've got our fingers crossed that they'll also be offering Marco Polo's delectable blood orange salad.
The Times Checks Out Moim
206 Garfield Place (Seventh Avenue), Park Slope; (718) 499-8092
"Moim does a tempered, tweaked version of Korean cooking that’s still rarer — still more of an exciting discovery — than you’d expect, given all the Momofuku mania. Many of its dishes, distinguished by a beautifully modulated and lingering heat, are compelling. Most are at least satisfying... Moim means gathering; why aren’t more people gathering here?" [NY Times]
After the jump: The L Magazine gives Greenpoint's new bowling alley bar a rave review, the Voice samples funnel cake fish in Sunset Park, and NY Press hits Vietnamese spot, Silent H...
October 18, 2007
Hotel Le Jolie Checks Into The Burg
Yesterday we learned that a Williamsburg/Greenpoint-area called Hotel Le Jolie is set to open within the next few weeks, so we decided to check it out in the flesh. The hotel comes c/o the same team behind Gowanus's Hotel Le Bleu, hence the French name. Anyway, we think the photo above is worth a thousand words, n'est-ce pas? What's not really visible in the pic is the fact that the back of the property is a few feet away from the BQE, so presumably Jolie's owners invested in some excellent soundproofing materials. Rooms are expected to run between $200 and $350, according to general manager Robert Gaeta, which is quite a bit cheaper than Le Bleu. Think those rates will fly?
Brooklyn Hotel Buzz: Boom and Doom [Brownstoner] GMAP
Hotel Le Bleu Opening Still Stalled [Brownstoner]