Four Downer Weekends Begin Tonight

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No G service at all for the next FOUR weekends.  Of course, there'll be a shuttle bus.  But still. Looks like the A is running on the C line this wknd, so at least that's running.  Last wknd we had a shuttle down the Fulton corridor, which sucked (especially since the 2,3 was also screwy).

Not related to Clinton Hill specifically, but if you happen to be a web developer, the MTA just made their meta data available.  Maybe someone in the 'hood can come up with an app that makes tracking this stuff easier.

Wayfinding at BAM

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Noticed those green decals on the sidewalks in Fort Greene?  The DOT and BAM are behind the project, aimed at helping people find their way to our local cultural institutions. I think they look pretty neat.  Plus, I still get confused going to the Harvey theater.  If only they could direct me to the best subway entrance for each line.  It gets so confusing down there, with the Q, N, B, D at different platforms.

Y: Going Downhill?

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Is it just me, or has the Bed-Stuy Y gone downhill?  Don't get me wrong- it's still a great value.  But when I joined, it was cleaner, less machines were broken, and you could actually ask the front desk staff a question.  Now the place is bursting at its seams (and it's not just the New Year Resolutioners- it's been packed for months now).  I can never even get a class schedule since the wait at the front desk takes ages, they're out of paper towels, stuff is duct-taped together, and the locker room is smelling like a musty, moldy pool.  Maybe they were overwhelmed with new members in the last year?

Lunchtime With Tillie: Thai 101

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Now that award season is over, it’s time to get back to business!
Hey everyone and welcome back to your regular Lunchtime With Tillie presentation. This time, yours truly and Lil T went to Thai 101 on Myrtle Avenue.

Now as shown by them receiving the coveted “Best Bang for Your Buck” honor at last week’s LWT Awards, it’s obvious we’re fans of Myrtle Thai at our homestead. As a matter of fact, I had never even tried Thai 101 before. I was always kind of leery about it – with its name and signage, it just reminded me of a place you’d come across in a mall or something. And the eating’s never really that great in a mall.

Anyway, Tillie and I went there last Friday, you know, when there was that wintry mix thing going on throughout the day. That necessitated us finding a place within a two-block radius from home, and as we’ve hit nearly everywhere else around for LWT, Thai 101 was duly elected. I packed her up some shells and cheese, just in case, and we were off.

When we got there, the waiter told us feel free to sit anywhere. The aisle separating the restaurant was kind of narrow and I didn’t want Tillie’s stroller to get in his way. I ended up sitting kind of close to the front door and he suggested that it might be too cold there for the baby with people coming and going. So we ended up getting settled in closer to the back of the place.

The waiter brought Tillie and me glasses of water, and I started going over the menu. I had an idea already of what route I was going to take: red curry with chicken. You see, when I go to a place I hadn’t been before, I like to order a dish that is or is comparable to my favorite at a similar restaurant. I figure if they get your staple dish right, then you can feel free to explore other menu options. What can I say? I’m just a staples-comparing kind of guy!

With my plans mostly set and the lunchtime options so affordable, I decided to delve further into the menu and see if I can sneak something else in for me and T. In addition to the red curry with chicken lunch special, which I got with a bowl of soup, I ordered the chicken curry puffs for an appetizer. Granted, a good amount of food, but as always, Tillie and I were up for the challenge.

As we were waiting for our first courses to come out, Tillie was pretty chill. She was savoring her water, which to you and me might not seem such a great drink option, but to her it was quite refreshing!

The soup and the chicken curry puffs came out at the same time, and I took the obligatory first bite of puff to make sure it wouldn’t be too hot for Tillie to handle. I determined it was OK and gave her a little piece of the pastry filled with ground chicken and potatoes. That seemed to be a good enough combination for her and me too. The puffs were so tasty, in fact, I ordered another round! My soup, while not anything super-special – broth with carrots, cabbage and Thai basil – was also tasty.

Then the red curry came out, and if anything, I thought the presentation of it was very appealing: The curry sauce and chicken lined the bottom of the bowl, with a heaping mound of rice on one side and vegetables on the other. It was almost too pretty to eat – almost. It wouldn’t be LWT if I didn’t eat the food! I took a bite and thought it tasted good, but not great. It was a little spicy, but I went ahead and dished up some for Tillie: She likes food with some kick to it! Really, it ended up just being some rice with an essence of sauce on it, with a lot of carrots and green beans thrown in for good measure for her. She’s a growing girl after all!

After the food was all done we bundled back up and got the check. The tab was pretty decent as the lunch special is only $5.95 for an entrée and soup or salad. We probably would’ve stumbled upon the deal of the decade, but we got some food to go for Tillie’s mom and had the exorbitant amount of chicken curry puffs! I think those little pastries, combined with the good service and friendly vibe of the place, will bring us back again.

Washington Hotel Reno

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Received this in the inbox: Hi - do you know anything about the Washington Hotel (on Washington & Greene)?  There seems to be some renovation going on recently. Is it a legit hotel?  I heard it was a brothel not too long ago.

I've wondered about this place for years now, and CHB readers have told me it was a brothel more than once.  And it does look like it is undergoing some sort of condo conversion.

Art at Tillie's: Reflections

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January's Artwork at Tillie's: January 4 – February 6, 2010 Reception Friday 1/8/10, 7 – 9 p.m.

Brooklyn-based artist David Macaluso achieved international recognition last year with his portraits of Barack Obama painted with used motor oil, a medium he’s been using since 2005. He regards this technique, one of many at his disposal, as a means of recycling while also serving as a metaphorical undercurrent in his work. The portraits prompted ExxonMobil to become a client. In October 2009 the "Barack Obama: Made in Motor Oil" portraits were published in a hardcover edition called Hope: A Collection of Obama Posters and Prints.

The artist states: “I regard my work as part of a vast and enigmatic evolutionary continuum, a verse in a powerful play.  Each work I create, and the body of my work as a whole, seems guided by some overarching vision which is hard for me to define and is often fragmentary.  My work rarely seems to fit neatly into any distinct category, but is more like an urge, one that is simultaneously constructive and deconstructive, pushing toward a deeper awareness.”

David Macaluso has studied at Hunter College, the New School, and Parsons School of Design. He has shown his work at the Athens Institute of Contemporary Art in Athens, Georgia; at the Deborah Martin Gallery in Los Angeles; and at Artists Space, the Paula Barr Gallery, and Art Gotham in Manhattan. He was featured in the Saatchi Gallery online and is a member of the Brooklyn Arts Council.

Recent Neighborhood Scam

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Received this from a reader, detaining a recent scam taking place on the eastern side of the hood: I just wanted to let you know about this scam I've stumbled upon in CH. A few weeks ago a friend of mine was walking around Franklin & DeKalb, and from what I understand some guy bumped into him while carrying some plastic bags. After it happened he held one of the bags up to my friend, and told him that whatever liquors bottles he'd had were now broken, and that my friend needed to pay for them. He followed my friend to his door, and some awkward standoff ensued, until a more savvy stranger intervened and told the guy "accidents happen," at which point the person with the broken bottles left.

Last night, the same exact thing happened to me. I was walking on Franklin & Monroe, and a guy turned the corner sharply, bumped into my brother, and suddenly he was reaching down to open one of his bags. I waited until he shook the broken glass pieces, and I told him that nobody broke his bottles, and that someone tried this scam on a friend of mine weeks ago. He got very confrontational. Some kind of "almost-fight" happened, and he said something about how he works for a living, and how he was going to a New Years' Party (apparently on the 28th). I told him "This is ridiculous. I'm leaving." My brother paid him $2 and he walked away. Anyway, the guy is in his mid-30s, dark black, sort of thin & wiry, average height, really angular face. Hopefully the more people know about this scam, the less it will work. Oh, and we went back later to look at the "bag" he'd left on the ground, and it contained the tops to two bottles of hennessy, and the rest of the glass was literally pulverized. If anything about his story was valid, my brother would have had to've taken his bag and stomit for a few minutes for the glass to get so broken. Oh, and there was no liquid spilled on the sidewalk.

Have you encountered the glass bottle scammer?

Be a Bone Marrow Doner

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A customer of Fulton Street's dress shop, Michael Shane Bridal, is in need of a bone marrow match, and this Saturday the shop will hold an event for people willing to register for the bone marrow registry.  Hopefully this young lady will find a donor locally. Apparently you don't even need to give a blood sample to determine if you are a match - just a swab with a q-tip on the inside of your cheek.

Lunchtime With Tillie: The LWT Awards

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Happy New Year everyone! Hope you had a good holiday season. It’s Van and Tillie here and before we embark on a new season of lunchtime escapades, we thought we’d send off ’09 properly with the first LWT Awards!

I started my mealtime mission with Tillie back in June and she has gone from eating Cheerios to becoming a mini-foodie in her own right.

We’ve had some great dining experiences over the past few months, and the LWT Awards recognizes the best of those and all that went into them. And, oh, here’s a disclaimer: The awards just represent the places we’ve visited, so if I list a “best burger,” it’s just from LWT-visited places. Got it? Good! So without further ado, we present the LWT Awards!

The envelopes please …

Best bacon cheeseburger: Why not start off with a personal favorite category? I am doing all the writing, after all! Anyway, if you’ve been following LWT, then you know there were a lot of those eaten by yours truly! It was close, but the winner is Maggie Brown. The cheese smothering the bacon is a technique more places need to take up.

Best bang for your buck: I never realized there were so many lunchtime specials in the neighborhood, until I started frequenting the places more. There are plenty of good deals, but the food might not be up to snuff. This award takes into account food quality and price with the leading contenders being Myrtle Thai, Kinara and Mojito. We’re going to have to give the prize to Myrtle Thai, as Tillie enjoyed the green curry and rice there more. We were both able to eat off the one dish there and walk away full.

Best food but not the best experience: This one has to go to the previously mentioned Mojito. The food was amazing, but in all the places we went, this was the only one that radiated that, “Aw man, a baby’s here” vibe.

Best outdoor setup: Remember back in the old days when it used to be warm? When you could sit outside and enjoy a meal? Ahh, memories! Well, this award recognizes the perfect place to take advantage of that, and after some serious consultation with Tillie, we have to say Anima deserves this one. Its backyard space makes you feel like you’re dining out at a café in Italy.

Best innovation by me to get Tillie to eat her veggies: With Tillie being a baby and all, sometimes it gets tricky with her eating habits. Well, this award recognizes a stunt that I had to pull off to get out of a mess I created. The scene was Brooklyn Public House and I gave T some french fries in the middle of her eating her butternut squash soup I brought along. After tasting the fries, there was no way she was going back to the soup. So I came up with dipping a fry in the soup, putting it in her mouth and pulling it out so she got the soup, while simultaneously inventing a french fry spoon! She finished the soup and I was able to land an exclusive deal with Ore-Ida: Look for the french fry spoon at your nearest grocery store in 2012.

Best LWT guest: We did have a great time at Umi Nom with Tillie’s friend Amira and Amira’s pop. But this award has to go with the woman responsible for the LWT team: Tillie’s mom! She made it out with us to Zaytoon’s and 67 Burger, and on the former visit, she even picked up the check. You gotta love that!

Best entertainment for Tillie: Wow, all these categories are so tough. There were the toy trains at Square Root Café, the menus at various restaurants, the straw baskets at Castro’s, the airplane outside Madiba and the fish tank at Sapolo. Trains are always great, T says, but for her money, it has to be those fish. It feels like we spent hours looking at them to me, but she couldn’t get enough.

Best pizza: You’ve heard me rant and rave about how much I love pizza, and how I plan on shaping Tillie to be the same way. We’ve had plenty of it over her little lifetime, and we agree the best pizza we’ve come across doing Lunchtime With Tillie has to be the mini tomato pizza at the 3 Luigi’s. I’m telling you now: Go there and get one! And give your kid a slice or two – they’ll thank you for it!

Best shock to my system, food-wise: Never in a million years did I think I would go there, but after getting knocked around for my bacon cheeseburger habit (see above), I decided to go the complete opposite route and hit vegan restaurant Red Bamboo. I never thought soy chops and collard greens with vegan ham could taste so good!

Best shock to my wallet, but it was worth it: T and I were walking around one fine afternoon when we stumbled upon Luz. I always thought it was closed on the weekdays. We went in and I got the arepas for Tillie, while I had the salmon. It wasn’t the cheapest of lunches, by any means, but it was definitely worth splurging on.

Best after-lunch treat: There are no other competitors here: Ice cream from the cart outside The General Greene made many a sunny afternoon for me. My favorite combo? A scoop of honey vanilla and one of salted caramel – delicious! Tillie didn’t get to have any, but maybe next year!

And with that, Tillie and I say thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed the LWT Awards. We’ll pick up with your regular Lunchtime With Tillie presentation next week!

Tree Disposal

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Stuck with a tree in your apt and don't know what to do with it?  The Department of Sanitation will pick trees up at the curb Jan 4-15.  Remove tinsel, ornaments, etc! If you have the means to drag your tree to Fort Greene Park this Saturday or Sunday, you can partake in Mulchfest, where trees are mulched and recycled in the park.  If you have a yard yourself, you can take home a bag of fresh mulch!  It's a nice way to contribute to our local park.

More info from 311 here.

New Year's in the Nabe

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Here's a (incomplete) Fulton-focused roundup of some of the parties and special offerings happening locally next weekend to ring in 2010: To Prep: Greene Grape: Free sparkling wine tastings [Dec 29 and 30, 5-7 pm)

Dec. 31: Stonehome Wine Bar: Prix Fix 4 courses for $55

Olivino Wine Bar (Fulton bt Vanderbilt and Clinton): Free glass of bubbly at midnight

“The Castle @ Fulton Street” Platinum New Year’s Eve Gala: 8:00pm December 31, 2009 93 Irving Place (corner of 1057 Fulton Street) Host: Wellington Sharpe Cost:  Single $45, Couples $80 Complimentary Champagne as the ball drops, Noise Makers, Party Hats

Music by D Exclusive…. Let’s Welcome 2010 with Gratefulness & Togetherness For tickets call 917-709-3462 or 917-743-1684 or 718-230-0011

Family Friendly: Pratt Steam Whistles (which I have still never seen!)

Know of more?  Add 'em in the comments.

Nearby in the Blogosphere

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I'm trying to come up with a catchy name for my recurrung series of checking up on other local blogs.  Anyhow, here's what else has been going on:

  • Myrtle Ave Holiday Window contest winners announced! [Myrtle Minutes] (My favorite window won second place!)
  • Red Bamboo to start serving meat, rename self Poppa's Place [The Local] (There are plenty of places for meat-eaters (me) in the 'hood, so this is neither here nor there for me.  But I will say that I am generally not a fan of non-meats overseasoned and masquerading as meats, so I will def be trying their new menu.)
  • Pratt Coffee Shop reno ongoing [Brownstoner] (Strangely, I had never been in the Pratt Coffee Shop.  Guess I always assumed Mike's was superior based on the lines out the door.)
  • Images for Life moves to Myrtle Ave [Myrtle Minutes] (CHB first wrote about them when they were on Franklin Ave)

Brooklyn Totes, Made in Clinton Hill

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It's getting a little late for Xmas shopping, but I know some of you out there need to wrap things up (so to speak). Here's another suggestion- this adorable tote, made here in Clinton Hill by two local residents: artist Caroline Hwang and designer Bryn Smith.

spoonme_tote

$15, http://www.spoonmeloveme.bigcartel.com/

Maybe we can convince them to make a"Spoon Me Clinton Hill" tote.

Lunchtime With Tillie: Sapolo

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Hello neighborhood, hope you’re enjoying your holiday season! Welcome back to Lunchtime With Tillie: We missed being around these parts! As Lesterhead mentioned last week, the family was felled by a stomach bug.  (Don’t worry, no local restaurants contributed to that!) Tillie and I are back now in fine eating form and would like to thank those who sent along get-well-soon thoughts. For our return, we decided to try and play it simple by going to the recently reopened Chinese and Spanish eatery Sapolo, located on Myrtle Avenue. I say “play it simple” because of the fact that it’s directly across the street from our house! And this was a good thing because the day we went was that brutally cold and windy one we experienced last week, so a trip with little travel time was definitely appealing.

After all this time in the area, I had never gone to Sapolo, primarily because of the whole “two separate cuisines” thing that I’m always leery about, which I mentioned when Tillie and I went to Mexican and Italian restaurant La Stalla. Why, oh why, can’t these places just do one or the other? Or maybe they could just go all out and do some kind of fusion thing, I don’t know: The separate menus always present a frightening prospect to me.

I put aside my concerns and rationalized Sapolo was our best bet, with the weather and all. We got in and the place had the feel of one of those big, modern-type diners, which I found comforting in a way. Tillie and I were shown to a booth and instead of strapping her into the high chair right away, I walked around with her some. I’m sure it’s just in my head, but whenever she’s all bundled up in her winter gear I think she must feel a little claustrophobic. But what do I know about little kids, winter clothes and what they think? I’m from Alabama!

Anyway, as we were walking around, I showed Tillie the aquarium at the front of the restaurant and the exotic fish inside, and she loved that! She was squealing with delight, tapping on the glass, you name it: If she could’ve gotten in there with the fish it would’ve made her day!

lwtsapolo-tillie

When we got back to the table, there were glasses of water waiting for us. I gave her a sip or two, but Tillie still had fish on the brain. She kept pointing toward the aquarium, but I had to tell her, “Tillie, this isn’t Sapolo Aquarium, it’s Sapolo Restaurant so let’s get ready to eat.” (Yeah, right, that really did the trick! I just had to ride out the “look-at-the-fish” wave.)

While Tillie was wishing she was anywhere but in that high chair, I took a look at the lunchtime menu. There was a number of options, all grouped by price. I decided to get the General Tso’s chicken with chicken-fried rice and wonton soup to start: decent options for Tillie to try, I thought. The soup arrived almost instantaneously and it was fine, nothing too special about it. I tried to get T to have a taste, but she was uninterested. I did manage to give her a couple of sips in between her yelling at me to bring her back to the fish tank.

Then the main course arrived: a heaping mound of rice with what appeared to be about a whole chicken. I mean, it was a lot of food – plenty enough for me and Tillie. The waiter brought out a small plate so I could dish her up some of it. I took a bite of the food first and it wasn’t worth writing home about. The rice was bland, and I don’t know if you’ve encountered this with General Tso’s chicken, where underneath all that sauce, the crust is pretty hard and the chicken is bone-dry. Well, that was the case here, totally overcooked.

lwtsapolo-food

I put some of the rice on the little plate for Tillie and she was barely going for it when I was using the plastic spoon to feed her. I switched from that to using my fork, which I guess makes her feel like she’s eating as the grown-ups do (a little trick I picked up from Tillie’s mom). I took my broccoli and cut it up into tiny pieces for her, which she enjoyed.

I was kind of “ehhh” about the meal myself. I kept trying to find a moist, tender piece of chicken – just one! – but couldn’t do it. I ate enough of it, though, to say I at least put something in my stomach!

When we were finally done eating, a waitress brought Tillie and me some fortune cookies. We had a bite, then I brought her back up to see her little finny friends, which she got a kick out of. I got the check, paid the bill, bundled Tillie back up (which isn’t really the most fun of tasks, for either of us!) and we were out.

Now about Sapolo: Would I go there again? Believe it or not, especially how I said I wasn’t enamored with the food, that’s a tough one. The service was excellent – I don’t even know if I give Tillie that much attention! And the prices were pretty good, except for the $1.75 for the canned Coke. Plus, there are those fish in that big tank up front. I guess I’ll have to find something on the menu that I like – or I could just take Tillie to the aquarium!