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Entries tagged with 'Greenpoint'
Posted May. 2, 2008,
Bar of the Week: The Habitat
By Elizabeth Thompson
Bars with outdoor seating are rare creatures in Greenpoint, but The Habitat, with its blue and green walls, hanging plants and porch-style seating, brings the outside in. The kitchen, where chef and co-owner Ashley Engmann (formerly of Park South and Lotus) serves up small plates like mac and cheese, empanadas and waffle fries, has been transformed into a little house with a façade of cedar siding and antique windows shipped from Maine. A few tables and built-in benches on an attached porch, made with pine salvaged from Williamsburg's Moon River Chattel, add to the illusion of being in the great outdoors. Just ignore the flat screen TV above the bar. Drink specialties include lazy afternoon classics like pink lemonade made with Absolut Citron and cranberry,($7) and an enjoyably potent rum punch. A dozen beers on tap, including Blanche de Bruxelles ($7) and Coney Island Lager ($6) leave plenty of options for the brew-drinking crowd (i.e., everyone there the night we visited), with red and white wines by the bottle and glass for the rest of us. When kicking back on a cozy deck isn't an option (fire escapes don't count), Habitat's a reliable go to. Extra! Bike-riders who take it to the max in the Five Boro Bike Tour can stop in this Sunday for Beers for Bikers, a $1 beer and empanada special. 988 Manhattan Ave., Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 383-5615.
Posted Jan. 11, 2008,
Bar of the Week: Black Rabbit
By Melissa Seley
Following the now de rigueur English hunting-lodge aesthetic, gilded portraits of leering gentlemen alternate with taxidermied animal busts and rococo mirrors at Black Rabbit. Behind the dark walnut countertop, liquor bottles are shelved in curio cabinets laced with playful knickknacks: a jar of corks, framed high-school portraits of strangers, and a chortling-on-the-half-hour cuckoo clock. In fine weather, the library garden out back hums with collegiate-looking chatter and inside, a working fireplace promises to blaze on frostier days. But the pub’s self-promoted claim to fame is the private booths that line its front room, sealed by swing doors, overhung with antlers like sprigs of bony mistletoe and marked by push-button red-light bulbs. When illuminated, the bulb signals the staff that your sequestered posse is ready for another round. With 10 beers on draft, signature cocktails that change daily -- we sampled the cactus berry cooler and a whiskey smash ($9) -- and hearty fare such as Welsh rarebit over tater tots, there’s plenty to mull. At the time of the tavern’s opening, however, its parts didn’t quite match up: The lights were too bright, the bartenders decidedly lackluster, the libations sloppy and the walls too sparsely bedecked to achieve proper bric-a-brac coziness. The curious-minded are encouraged to check back in January, when the crackling fireplace and merry decorations ought to satisfy. 91 Greenpoint Ave., Brooklyn, (718) 349-1595.
Posted Sep. 28, 2007,
Bar of the Week: The Diamond
By Matthew Schneier
On a quiet and bar-less stretch of Greenpoint's Franklin Street, beer-obsessives can now satisfy their passion for the obscurest of microbrews and artisanal ales. The Diamond, a beachy little sea-blue alcove, takes its hoppy mission to the extreme, offering "sessions" to the initiates who are diehard enough to know what "to session" is. Luckily for the rest of us, a PhD in brew mastery is not required to enjoy the easygoing, yacht-deck atmosphere. Play a round or two of shuffleboard with your thick, chocolatey Troubadour Obscura, a tasty Belgian stout ($8), or hang out in the beautiful, bi-level back garden, Schneider Weisse in hand ($6). For those with domestic allegiances, the IPA-ish Tomahawkus Ale from Vermont's Rock Art Brewery is a respectable choice ($6). Of course, for a session namedrop-worthy enough for your sud-snob friends, you'll have to consult with one of the able bartenders: This reviewer tried to maintain focus on the curriculum, but ultimately lost concentration to the lure of quoits, a variant of horseshoes that you can play in the garden. Thankfully for poorer students, a night of booze on draught is perfectly lovely and an evening of studied note-taking isn't required. At The Diamond, unlike at quoits, everybody wins. 43 Franklin St., Brooklyn, (718) 383-5030.
Photo from nymag.com
Posted Jul. 24, 2007,
Reality Bites: Top Chef's Camille Becerra
By Jon Boschetto
Welcome to Reality Bites, our new blog feature in which we'll be checking in and catching up with some of our favorite stars of the reality television circus. For this first installment, PAPERMAG roving correspondent Jon Boschetto interviewed Top Chef's Camille Becerra. Bon appétit!
Camille Becerra, one of this season's recently eliminated contestants on Bravo's Top Chef, is one tall glass of water. A tall glass of pretty, cool, and sometimes tart hibiscus-scented water. The Elizabeth, NJ, bred chef-entrepreneur fumbled this season with a bite-sized pineapple upside-down cake, but lucky for us denizens of New York's outer boroughs, Camille is back in the kitchen at her urban American boîte Paloma in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Camille took a few minutes from her busy schedule to dish out some goodies to PAPERMAG about her time in Miami, what she's up to now, and her take on the Brooklyn scene.
Jon Boschetto: Hey Camille, thanks for talking to us!
Camille Becerra: Of course, I love PAPER!
JB: And we love you. And reality TV. I heard that you never watched Top Chef before you were on it. That's crazy!
CB: Yeah, it was a surprise. It was a whirlwind. It started off with just getting a phone call from a friend who works the velvet ropes at Marquee, and he told me all the producers were in the club. And the next day I was talking to the casting directors about food and television, I went to LA for a couple more interviews, did a short film, and then I was in Miami, surrounded by cameras and all the other chefs from Top Chef!
Posted Jun. 4, 2007,
Shop of the Week: Alter
By PAPERMAG Editors
On the eve of Tom Ford's entree into menswear, all of Manhattan was buzzing with anticipation for what would no doubt be a stickler-perfect collection. When are Tom's lapels not straightened and when is his ascot not knotted just so? But if such gold standards are a little lofty for you, Greenpoint's newest boutique, Alter, offers a bit of relief. Alter's co-owners, Tommy Cole and Roy Caires (who also design This Old Thing, the house brand), are experts at de- and reconstructing everything from lumberjack flannels to neckwear. Their pleated tie ($28) is a smirky little gem, even if some of their altered pieces, like a cropped trench coat, will make you look like an overgrown, albeit fashion-forward, ogre. Luckily, the boys have crammed their tiny shop with some local and not-so-local curiosities, like sterling necklaces by Fetty of Brooklyn ($45 and up) and hand-screened T-shirts by L.A.-based Rxmance ($58). Though they may be seen as trigger-happy with the scissors, Cole and Caires usually know when to leave well enough alone, and pristine vintage pops up throughout, like a perfect YSL vest (for an unheard of $36). A one-stop shop for both ragged and rare? Even Tom couldn't object. 109 Franklin St., Brooklyn, (718) 784-8818. Matthew Schneier