Into Bed-Stuy: collecther

A friend of mine in search of good vintage finds heard about a unique shop just over the CH border called collecther. So, we scoped it out.

Located on Franklin at Lafayette, the shop is set up like a high-end boutique. Vintage purses are displayed in an ornate curio cabinet while chill music plays on an ipod stereo. It's a chi-chi feel for an affordable price, and a real find on a formerly blighted block. Franklin might shape up to be the next cool corridor. Plus, it's great to see local residents as entrepreneurs enhancing the neighborhood.

bodega cats: third in a series

i have to give credit to my husband for this one: he came home from running out for some soymilk one morning a couple of weeks ago with a hot tip on a very friendly kitty who lived in the bodega just around the corner from our house, on the corner of greene and franklin:

he told me that after hanging out for a few minutes petting and talking to the cat, he made his way up to the register and was on his way out the door when he felt a thwap on his ankle. the cat had followed him up to the front of the store and given him a friendly, claws-free little whack, as if to say "hey. buddy. we're not done here. i could use to be pet some more."

so we went to investigate the aggressively friendly kitty:

and he was sweet. and good with kids!

we found him in the back room, just finishing his breakfast, but my husband says he has often found him sleeping on the bags of kitty litter, which is just....a little odd.

there was a bit of a language barrier between me and the guy at the counter, but i believe he said that the cat's name was something like "pancheeta".

focaccino-no-no

if your block is like mine, you've probably seen one or thirty of these in the past week or so:

looking at the menu, with the times square clip art photo and the "slick" graphics, my husband was sure that it was a chain; i wasn't so convinced. i checked their website, and my woman's intuition was right: poor design choices notwithstanding, this was a one-off business.

anyway, as it seems like mainly a order-in kind of place, i felt that i could do a review by calling for delivery and not feel like a slacker....

i called up, and it took me five redials to not get a busy signal, which made me first think "wow, they must be really busy, the food must be great!" and then think "busy signal?? what is this, 1988?".

when i finally got through i spoke to a very nice worker, who took my order for a personal-size plain pizza on whole grain dough and a family-size goat cheese focaccia and was totally accomodating when i asked to substitute grilled zucchini for the grilled eggplant on the focaccia. i was pretty psyched that they offered whole grain crust, it makes me feel like a better mother to order a whole grain pizza.

it arrived (quickly, bonus points), and we cracked open the boxes. the pizza looked fine...

...but wasn't a hit with any member of the family. the little guy thought the sauce was too spicy, we both thought it was too sweet. the whole wheat crust, though, was pretty good.

then we opened the big box to check out the focaccia:

i've eaten a fair amount of focaccia. i've even made focaccia. and every focaccia i've ever met before has looked...not like that. they've been at least 1/2-inch thick, doughy. so after staring at the thing in the box for a couple minutes, i decided that there must have been a mistake—maybe they thought i ordered a goat cheese pizza? also, what was up with the sundried tomatoes? i had a bite: it was dry and flavorless. so i gave them a call. i got the same very nice guy, who remembered me. he couldn't really answer anything about the sundried tomatoes, but told me that the thin dough was just "how they make it", that their focaccia was "pretty much like a pizza dough." which, okay, fine, if that's how they want to make their "focaccia", that's their prerogative. i just won't ever be ordering it again.

Bistro Lafayette

Bistro Lafayette is the meeting place for the Bed-Stuy North Improvement Association. I figured that if people are planning on attending the meetings, Monday nights at 7:30pm, someone should review the food there. And since I like food... So, Bistro Lafayette.

My little ride parked outside as Marise opens up.

The inside of Bistro Lafayette.

It's located on 338 Franklin Avenue, not Lafayette Avenue as previously posted, between Greene and Lexington Avenues.

(Why is it called Bistro Lafayette? Wouldn't Bistro Franklin, Bistro Greene or Bistro Lexington be more appropriate? I guess Bistro is a French word and Lafayette is that famous French dude so maybe it does make sense. Anyway, I digress...)

On my first visit (more on this in a second) I took the recommendation of Marise, the very pleasant hostess, and ordered the Lafayette Burger, a burger with goat cheese and carmelized onions, for $8.

I was too excited that I got my food and took a bite before I remembered to take a picture. (Again.)

While the idea of goat cheese and carmelized onions sounds great on a burger there was something still...missing. Good idea, good ingredients but something keeped it from being "great". I couldn't really put my finger on it...and I probably could have figured it out but I got caught up in a really funny conversation with another patron and Marise that I totally forgot to take notes on the food.

An incomplete food review by me just wasn't going to cut it.

(Lesterhead's a real pain in the butt sometimes...)

So I went back the next day for breakfast.

Bistro eggs with a side of Turkey bacon.

This time I ordered the Bistro eggs for $5. (Eggs any style, toast, grits, fries or home fries.) I got my eggs over medium, passed on the grits (they get all over everything) and got some Turkey bacon on the side.

Turkey bacon was excellent, home fries were good but my eggs were a little overcooked. Eh. I'll live.

Now while I do have to say the food is just passable I would go back again because I had such a great time eating there. It's usually tough to eat alone in restaurants but I never felt like I was eating alone as the patrons and staff were all really nice and willing to engage in silly conversations.

It's really one of those nice neighborhood type of places that you can see yourself going back to again and again just because it's so friendly and comforting.

I just wish it was closer to me.

---

Bistro Lafayette 338 Franklin Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11238 (718) 230-4728

More Info on the Bed-Stuy North Improvement Association

Thanks, readers! An anonymous commenter has filled us in: I recently joined the Bed-Stuy North Improvement Assoc, but it's been in existence for more than a year. We usually post flyers around the neighborhood before meetings. We need HELP! The building that was the subject of the rally is only one of two going up on the block (Clifton-Franklin-Greene-Classon). Another is in the works just west of it. The Bed-Stuy North Improvement Association meets on Monday nights, 7:30 pm, Bistro Lafayette, 338 Lafayette Ave. between Greene Ave & Lexington, all are welcome.

Thanks! Sounds fairly easy to drop in and say hello. Keep us posted of upcoming events and developments affecting the CH-BS border, and we'll fill the readers in.

CH/Bed-Stuy Rally

THIS JUST IN! A rally will be held Sunday, Aug. 20, to protest the new building on Greeve Ave. between Classon and Franklin. We originally covered this here.

Leticia James helped organize this event, which I think is pretty cool. She seems to really be the kind of politician who is accessible and receptive to the community's needs.