The Myrtle Ave Revitalization Project (MARP/Myrtle BID), has done a great job on Myrtle. They also run a really well-designed website, making it easy to support local businesses there.They've just launched a blog called Myrtle Minutes. So far, they've listed info on a Grand Opening Party @ Bank of America (Jan 30), and info on Vesper. I'm hoping the blog stays up-to-date, since the last "local happenings" event listed on the regular site was back in October!
Finally! The empty yet appealing space above Academy Diner has been filled! The new boutique is called Fitted by the Best.
Looks like there's a turntable up in the space, and they also offer personal shopping services. Could be cool, but where does one enter the store? Through the door next to the diner? The problem with second-floor boutiques is that they seem intimidating.
Fitted by the Best 69 Lafayette Avenue 718-858-0050 http://fittedbythebest.com/
(burzh-wa) is open on Myrtle! (352 Myrtle bt Carlton and Adelphi)
Looks like this is the African-hair high-end salon, and Joseph Tyler will be the Caucasian hair chi-chi spot.
A quick Google search proves fruitless, so I guess they don't have a website yet. Looks nice -- I like the signage and the lighting. Anyone been yet? Care to review?
Just received a very comprehensive and exciting email from MARP about new openings and developments on Myrtle. Sweeeeeeet. *** Just wanted to drop some pre-holiday news and let everyone know that our shiny new Bank of America branch at Myrtle & Waverly opened its doors to customers yesterday morning. Stay tuned for a grand opening celebration in January.
There are also a number of locally-owned small businesses that have just opened, or are opening soon. Please be sure to pay them a visit and show them your support.
As always, updates on openings, store hours, and store contact info are available as we receive them.
BANK OF AMERICA 449 Myrtle Avenue Between Waverly Avenue & Washington Avenue Tel: (718) 852-1548 Hours: M-Th 9a-4p; F 9a-6p; Sa 9a-4p
RECENTLY OPENED:
SHALENA'S JEWELRY 384 Myrtle Avenue Between Clermont Avenue & Vanderbilt Avenue Local residents, George and Blanca Shiwbaran, offer a huge selection of costume jewelry at low prices.
LITTLE HOUSE ON CLINTON 150 Clinton Avenue Between Myrtle Avenue & Park Avenue Tel: (718) 237-7780 Offering hearty breakfast and lunchtime fare—specializing in wings, burgers, & waffles.
OPENING SOON:
Move with Grace – new yoga and dance studio opening January 8th. 469 Myrtle Avenue (Washington/Hall) http://www.movewithgracestudio.com Classes for kids and adults
Burzh-wa – high-end hair salon, opening before the end of the year 352 Myrtle Avenue (Carlton/Adelphi) Expected opening date: December 21st
Ruthie’s Sunrise – new breakfast joint by Ruthie’s Soul Food 570 Myrtle Avenue (Emerson/Classon) Expected opening date: January 15th
Joseph Tyler Salon – high-end beauty salon 456 Myrtle Avenue (Waverly/Washington) Expected opening: early January
Gnarly Vines – wine shop 350 Myrtle Avenue (Carlton/Adelphi) Expected opening: early next year
***
Lots of good stuff here. I'll be doing a more comprehensive post on the dance/yoga studio, but do check out their new site. If interested, register online. Class schedules are up, and you can also purchase class cards online. Additionally, student discounts will be availavle.
Next: I forsee a post comparing the TWO new high-end hair salons. Stay tuned...
CH is now home to a teeny shop filled with affordable treasures- Tessan Boutique! I can't believe I just discovered this place on Friday! It's so close to my apartment, yet without the sidewalk sign one could easily breeze past as the shop is located on the garden level of a corner mansion/brownstone.
Inside, the space is tiny -- just one small room. Yet somehow shop owner Aissatou has filled it with an astounding amount of merchandise: clothing (for men and women), jewelry (necklaces, earrings, broaches, etc), children's knits, cosmetics and soaps. Best of all, several items for sale in the shop have been made by local residents (make sure to check out the basket of exquisite scarves-wow!). Take the time to scour every shelf.
Aissatou has lived in the neighborhood for eight years and named the shop for her mother's village in Senegal. I'll do an interview soon -- lots of good stories behind this place, I'm sure. In the meantime, check it out:
Tessan Boutique 280 Dekalb Avenue (Corner of Clinton Av) Brooklyn, NY 11205 www.Tessanboutique.com 718-230-8586
A few weeks ago, I noticed this storefront on Myrtle. Now it's a jewelry shop! I took a peek in the window and was surprised to find the space shockingly small. What are they doing with the rest of the space?
Could this be a front for something?
if your block is like mine, you've probably seen one or thirty of these in the past week or so:
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.
Sorry, guys. It looks like Bonita was only open to friends + family tonight. CRAP. I hear the "real" opening is Friday. Sorry to lead you astray.
A few notes unrelated to this:
A reader tipped me off to this restaurant set to open in the former home of Karen's Body Beautiful.
I first discovered the wonder that is chicken and waffles At Mike's Coffee Shop. Who knew such a combo could be so wonderful?
The sign says it's opening in October. It's now November. Liquors on DeKalb still has a sign in the windows claiming they'll reopen in spring. Spring 2006 -- you know, six months ago. Maybe this place means October 2007, which is pretty much how openings work around here.
I love BBQ.
It's one of my favorite food groups.
So when I heard that the Smoke Joint was opening in the LaFu* I was ECSTATIC.
But I was also a little wary.
BBQ is one of those simple foods in concept but very difficult in execution. There has been a lot of BBQ places that have opened up, mostly in the city, and very few have managed to do it right.
Luckily, the Smoke Joint does it right.
(*I will continue to call the area around Lafayette and Fulton LaFu until it sticks. I'm stubborn, even a little stupid, like that.)
The inside of the Smoke Joint is very sparse in decor. Just a few wooden tables and some lights and a view of the very open kitchen where you can easily spot Craig and Ben busily preparing the food. I really like that as it's like built in entertainment - and they are both extremely friendly and willing to talk to the customers. I thought that was a nice touch and definitely made it feel like a "neighborhood" place.
The Smoke Joint's dining system is cafeteria style. You look at what's on the board, you place your order and you sit down. No waiter/waitress service here but there were a couple of runners to bring the food to your table as well as assisting the diners with anything they needed like sauces, more napkins, etc. They even have plastic utensils instead of real silverware.
All this is more than okay with me.
BBQ is not fancy dining.
It's messy dining and this was set up for you to get down and dirty.
And boy did I get down and dirty.
The meal started off with what I thought was going to be a small tasting plate. Just something to tie me over as I waited for the rest of my party. It consisted of (Freedom) Fries shaken with jointrub ($2), Brooklyn Wings ($7) and Tips and Bits ($7).
Oh.
My.
God.
The jointrub on the fries gave it a nice spicy-ish flavor making it like "a BBQ potato chip, only better" as one diner commented.
The Tips and Bits were amazing. One of my favorites of the night.
The Brooklyn Wing were plentiful, I think I got 7 or 8 in my order, and flavorful but not very spicy. A quick dip into one of the hot BBQ sauces, Hollapeno or Hotbanero - I'm not sure which, took care of that little problem.
The above alone could have been a meal as it was quite a bit of food for the price.
But I'm here for BBQ and BBQ means Meat and by Meat I mean RIBS.
Pork Ribs.
Mmmm...Pork.
So I got a half slab of the Spare Rack ($10) along with the Corn on the Cob ($2).
The ribs are of the dry rubbed variety and cooked to perfection. There's a selection of BBQ sauces you can choose from, Ben was nice enough to bring our table a tasting of all of them for us to try, and I have to say that my favorites were the Jointsmoke and the Brown Sugar-Chile. While the hot BBQ sauces were good my personal preferences is towards the sweeter flavored sauces.
I tried some of the Baby (Got) Backs ($9) and I have to say I thought the Baby's were slightly better. A little smaller, a little leaner but a little more tender in my opinion. It's really close and neither one will disappoint but if I had to go with one over the other I'd get the Baby (Got) Backs.
At this point I was about to explode so some of the other meals on the table - the Brisket, the Hacked and Stacked Chicken sammich, the Hacked and Stacked Pork sammich along with the Mac and Cheese and coleslaw - I didn't get a chance to try but there's always next time.
And, oh yes, there will be a next time.
And since everything can't be positive...my complaints are that the napkins are kind of flimsy, you'd need like a hundred to get through a meal, and I would like a few wet naps afterwards.
And maybe a bib as I happened to get BBQ sauce all over my shirt.
The Smoke Joint 87 South Elliott Place Brooklyn, NY 11217 718-797-1011 www.thesmokejoint.blogspot.com
Just noticed this new awning on Fulton between Waverly and Clinton:
I did a little research, and discovered that they do original clothing design as well as sewing and pattern-making classes! Here's a post I found on Craigslist:
Interested in PATTERNMAKING or SEWING CLASSES, well read on......
We're starting our Fall/Winter '06 semester of fashion classes with an OPEN HOUSE!!
* A FREE Sewing lesson for Adults and teens * Demonstrations * Door Prizes and give aways * Tuition discounts (if registering during Open House)
Where ? ESAIE COUTURE design studio 915 Fulton Street, 2nd flr loft (btwn Clinton Ave & Waverly Ave) Brooklyn, NY 11238 718-284-2942
When ? Saturday October 14, 2006 12 noon to 4 pm Missed it or can't make it? Then call for a brochure and class schedules
About Us & our classes: Novice to experts are welcome. Adults and teens can sew and fashion design. ALL sewing skills are covered. There's also a separate class for flat patternmaking fundamentals. We will help you progressively build your skills, as each level’s lessons builds on the knowledge of the previous lessons.
Nothing is left out!
Our instructors are designers in the fashion industry working with Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Eileen Fisher, Beyonce Knowles, etc.
If you are interested in learning a skill, building on your skills, or fine tuning your skills...see you there on Saturday!
Registration is on a continuous basis. New classes open every 6 weeks.
Call to RSVP for the OPEN HOUSE.
Guess we missed the open house- crap. But I've been wanting to take sewing for years now. I'm going to investigate further.
There's a cool new site in town that allows you to check out latest posts from neighborhood blogs: www.outside.in
I haven't played around on it yet, but it seems you can enter your zip code and retrieve all the latest news provided by local bloggers.
Thanks, SetSpeed, for hooking your readers up with The Smoke Joint's new blog/website. BklnJay and I are scheduled to dine there tomorrow. YUM.
From the NYT: THE SMOKE JOINT This friendly cafeteria-style place in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, is owned by Craig Samuel, above left, and Ben Grossman, above right, who bring pedigree to pulled pork, hacked chicken, ribs and other smoky pit barbecue staples. Mr. Samuel is executive chef at City Hall and Mr. Grossman has worked at Picholine and La Grenouille. Seating is at bare wood tables inside and on a glass-enclosed porch. It opened briefly last weekend and will reopen to the public on Friday: 87 South Elliott Place (Lafayette Avenue), (718) 797-1011.
FINALLY!
After a minor delay, the owner of 67 Burger plans on opening sometime this week for friends and family! Hopefully the official opening won't be far off. Jay and I met a friend of the owner at Mullanes last week, who gave us a heads up on some of the menu items.
Sounds like they're giving a real shout-out to the midwest, and will be serving soda pop like A&W Rootbeer and RC Cola.
(In case you missed it, 67 Burger is in the LaFu -- Lafayette and Fulton.)
On Grand, just south of Greene: two new storefronts! They look fairly nice -- I like the doors. The window sign only references a permit for fencing. No visible clues as to what'll go in there.
Looks like an amazing roof deck thing on top. (insert jealousy)
Tips?
One of the nice touches is a separate dining area so people can still go there for dinner and avoid the Sports bar scene.
So as a place to watch the game, it's not so bad. You'll get a good view from anywhere around the bar and I'm sure they'll get it together eventually and put the games on in HD.
As with any decent bar they offer a good selection of beers on tap. Magic Hat #9 isn't something that you find in a lot of bars. The Blue Point is also a very good beer that not a lot of places have on tap.
I was quite impressed by the selection.
Great place to grab a beer.
There also weren't very many of them. I'm counting like, maybe, a half a dozen in the picture?
Maybe it's me but when I want wings I want to be able to, if need be, make a meal out of it. You'd have to get like 10 orders of Wings here to make it a meal.
Very disappointing.
So why are there Chick Peas in with the Mussels?
Ugh.
The Mussels were good once you picked out all the Chick Peas.
burger 1
burger 2
burger 3
Still, you might catch me in there from time to time.
I'm just probably going to have to eat before I go.
(When are Smoke Joint and 67 Burger opening again?)
We need a vote on what to name that area.
LaFu - is short and sweet. TriFuLa - the triangle between Fulton and Lafayette is what Mr. Set Speed wants to call it. TriLaFu - adding the Tri to LaFu to gives it that TriBeCa feel and I can still claim ownership. (Which is important for royalty reasons once the realtors pick up on it.)
Cast your votes.
A new sign in the 67 Burger Window:
Not bad, and I'm liking their designed materials. Bravo.
Also, Stuart & Wright is... gorgeous!!!! Sadly, I could not afford the beautiful $600 coat I looked at, but it sure is nice for browsing.
67 Burger opening TBD Lafayette at S. Elliott
BklnJay found a flyer for a new cafe in Clinton Hill called Head Over Heels Cafe! Of course we decided to check it out immediately. First, I visited the website.
The first thing that stuck out to me? The flash intro shows almost all Caucasian people dining! There's one Asian and one potentially African-American. Maybe I'm reading too into it, but for one of the most diverse neighborhoods in NYC, it's an interesting choice. The music is mildly irritating as well, and there's no way to shut it off!
Jay and I hopped on the Vespa, eager to explore a new haunt.
As we drove east, I realized that we had passed into Bed-Stuy. No, not THAT far, but still (and the site definitely claims Clinton Hill).
(irritation is building)
We arrive at DeKalb and Skillman, and see... nothing!! A few shuttered Mexican restaurants, but nothing else. No cute cafe, no signs, nothing.
Now I'm highly irritated.
Neither the flyer nor the website indicate that the cafe isn't yet open. Thank god Jay has the Vespa, because if I walked all the way there... grrrrr.
The upside is that the menu, which looks fairly tasty AND reasonably priced. I really admire that they're going to offer several breakfast options under $10. I can only hope if/when this place materializes it offers tasty comfort-breakfasts in a cute atmosphere. Another bonus: the HOURS! Sun-Weds 10am-midnight; Th-Sat 10am-2am. Halleluia!!
UPDATE: I just called them, and the guy who answered said they're open! Hmmm... wonder where they were at 11am this morning.
Anyone been yet? The man on the phone sounded superfriendly, so I'm willing to give it another go.
Head Over Heels Cafe 525 DeKalb Ave. (bt Bedford and Skillman) 718-624-4224
(the inconsistent opening times is a pet peeve of mine in the neighborhood. i prefer to patronize local businesses, but if i come by and you're not open when you say you'll be... annoying!
After BklnJay wrote about LaFu, I decided I needed to check it out for myself. When I first moved to CH, I spent quite a lot of time around that corner. It didn't hurt that I had friends who lived across from Moe's, and CH wasn't home to quite as much as it is today. However, in the last year I've been down there less and less. So I was surprised to see all the new stuff with my own eyes!
It seems that only male bloggers have mentioned the new Stuart & Wright boutique in Fort Greene, which led me to believe that it only carried men's apparel. But NO! I peeked inside, and definitely saw lots of lady-tops, high boots and peep-toe shoes!
SWOON! I love that they kept the old sign up outside.
Um, when did Fillmore open here?
And now for Mullanes. Well... I like the outside design a lot. The inside looks like... any Murray Hill pub. Here's the menu and the hours:
I do like that they're serving food. How many times have you been at Rope and gotten superdrunk because you haven't eaten dinner first? Um, OK, maybe just me (and a few other readers -- you know who you are).
On the OTHER side of the LaFu intersection, next to Academy, is THIS:
This looks cool. The exterior kind of reminds me of HK, in my former neighborhood.
I still haven't tried Le Bagel Delight. They're soooo witty!
At first, I assumed S&W was in the former cleaners closer to CH at Cumberland and Lafayette.
But no. Instead, there's a 7-11 moving in there!!!
Not sure how I feel about this. I'm sure it will be cleaner and bigger than any bodega in the area, and probably less smelly and stocked with more practical stuff (ie it won't have that entire aisle dedicated to those religious candles).
Looks like I'm spending my weekend in LaFu.
Clinton Hill Blog published from 2006 - 2010. Please enjoy these archives - a love letter to the neighborhood.
