Wine Glasses: Napa Style

I don't know how many of you watch the Food Network, but I occasionally tune into Michael Chiarello's show, which is mainly about party food. The other weekend when I was visiting my in-laws in CT, we drank out of these really great wine glasses and now I have to order them too.

They are on his Web site, NapaStyle.com, which has all sorts of stuff available for purchase online. My mother-in-law liked the glasses because they reminded her of the small ones they give you at Pastis in the city. I do really enjoy drinking wine out of the smaller glasses. He has a lot of great recipes on his site too.

NYT on Proposed DUMBO Historic District

Came across this post today on NYTimes.com's CityRoom blog.

They set out to profile the architecture in DUMBO amid the proposed historic district plan and found several folks rushing through construction (assumed because of the plan). In particular, the post focuses on 215 Plymouth, which was proposed to be included in the plan.

From the post:

The building, she explained, was included in the proposed historic district. (Like numerous structures around Dumbo, it retains a hand-painted sign on the brickwork, badly faded but still legible: “Peerless Paint and Varnish.”) Ms. Ryan said she suspected the owners were trying to get a step ahead of regulation by doing the work before the historic district is formally established by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Sure enough, at 215 Plymouth, two workers were jackhammering a small area of the ground-floor facade. They kept at it while City Room snapped away. A front-loader appeared to cart the pile of rubble from the sidewalk.

Off Topic: Popularity Dialer

I saw this in my DailyCandy e-newsletter today and had to do a post! It's a free online service called Popularity Dialer. Basically you can use the service to make yourself look popular, get out of a bad situation or avoid having to talk to someone.

We had a very annoying coworker who would go on about personal stories at length to the point where we had to fake phone calls to get some quiet time. This would have come in handy!

You can even choose what kind of call you'd like to receive:

• popularity call
• female popularity call
• affirmation call
• return to the office call
• cousin in need call
• new! band practice call
• new! male english lover call

F Train Voted Dirtiest

Gothamist offers a recap of the annual state of the subways report from the Straphangers association.

Why am I so not surprised to learn that the F was voted the dirtiest? Everyday I marvel at the strange subway river of dirty water that is constantly flowing through the middle of the subway tracks at the York St stop. The best was once I was on the subway and out of the corner of my eye I saw a cockroach walking downward toward this lady's head. I quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her away. I am sure there are many more that aren't visible... eeeeek.

Can they also vote on worst exit? I think it would have to be the F at 63rd street and Lex, or the York St stop, based on the combo of uphill walking and stairs. I guess it's good exercise, right!

And while the M & W ranked worst on frequency of service, and the 5 ranked worst for regularity of service, I was surprised that the F did not receive an honorable mention for worst weekend service? I cannot count how many times my friends have had to take cabs to Brooklyn because the F wasn't running on a weekend.

What do you think?

Justin Timberlake's NY BBQ Restuarant

People Magazine reports on the opening of Justin Timberlake's new BBQ restuarant, Southern Hospitality, in NYC:

"Inside, Southern Hospitality is homey, decorated with antiques from Memphis flea markets. The restaurant is not Timberlake's first: He had previously owned a chic Chinese restaurant called Chi in West Hollywood."

According to the article, JT recommends the fried green tomatoes and pulled pork. YUM!

My husband and I are fans of Blue Smoke, but will definitely check this place out.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle Posts Blogger Copyright Law

Very interesting and first time I've seen such detailed copyright instructions regarding blog postings (hopefully I've not violated this law by posting it!):

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
All materials posted on brooklyneagle.com are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast, posted on Gotham Gazette.com or any other blog without written permission, which can be sought by emailing arturc@att.net.

The BDE has a lot of great content. If anything, I would think that blog postings would help drive traffic back to the site. I have no problems going through the process to obtain permissions, but in all honestry, it's an annoying extra step.

25 top-earning towns - CNNMoney

My hometown of Greenwich, CT must be seriously slacking not to have made CNN/Money's Top 25 towns based on wealth.

We moved to Greenwich, CT when I was 12-ish so I could get a great education for free, (go Cardinals - think that was our mascot), rather than continue to have our family savings drained by Spence, even if it was worth every penny). Editor's note: I don't fit into the sterotypical "snooty" Greenwich persona and neither do my friends.

Never fear, many Greenwich's wealthy suburb neighbors did make the list, including Darien (media home price of $1.4 M!!!), New Canaan and Wilton, in addition to the towns of Chappaqua and Scarsdale and Briarcliff in Westchester.

Off Topic: New Glamor Blog

I just came across this blog written by a staff writer Christine Coppa at Glamour.

She's been "knocked up" and it offers the most hilarious, witty commentary on what it's like for a woman in her mid-twenties to go through the experience of getting pregnant. She jokes about having finally gotten out of the house and now finding herself having had to move back in with them, and on how people react to the infamous "bump."

I would recommend it to any woman, pregnant or not. Enjoy!

Gawker: Video User Guides for Williamsburg and Park Slope

Gawker offers a satirical video travel guide to Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood. Nothing too informative here, more just cheap shots at the neighborhood and the stereotype it's become. The guide notes that while adults are mainly the homeowners in Park Slope, it is actually dominated by children with names like Olive and Farley. I really don't find Park Slope that pretentious?

There is also one on Williamsburg, but since I've only been there twice I can't really comment.

(UPDATED) This Weekend in DUMBO: Strange Constumed Folk

Did anyone see the large group of people walking through DUMBO dressed in red goth-ish costumes? Many of the women had red fairy wings while the men were dressed head to toe in red and black.

UPDATED:

Thanks to dumbonyc for offering a report and photos! Check it out.

It was One Night of Fire, which began at Brooklyn Bridge and went to Coney Island.

Our New Family Member: Lucy

Say hello to our new kitten Lucy! She's enjoying the view of the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan.

A Lovely Day in Central Park

Yesterday we went to Central Park with our friends. Living in Brooklyn (and even Manhattan) it's easy to sometimes forget about the lovely parks available to you. We headed to Sheep Meadow in the 60s on the West Side for a little sunning and Frisbee. It was a gorgeous day, although the sun was very strong.

When we arrived at Noon, the park was relatively empty. By the time we left around 3, the place was packed. It was great to see everyone out and having a great time enjoying the day. Everyone once and a while you forget where you are and then look up to see the skyscrapers and it brings you back to reality. There was also a weird guy in a cape and mask organizing a 1 pm water fight. Not sure if it was supposed to be some sort of flash mob to garner media attention for supersoakers, but everyone who participated seemed to be having a blast.

Thumbs Up: The Good Fork in Red Hook

Last night we went to The Good Fork in Red Hook for dinner (391 Van Brunt Street) upon our friends' recommendation. Not thinking we'd have to make a reservation, we called the day of and left a voicemail requesting a table for four at 7:30. We received a call back later that afternoon offering us a table at 8:30, but that we needed to call back quickly to confirm as there was a waiting list.

We took the 8:30 table and ate in the front room. Parking was easy on Van Brunt. The place is very unpretentious, with romantic lighting and rustic features. The garden seating area was also beautiful and I would definitely request to sit there next time we go for dinner. There is a middle room that seems fine as well, but our friends sat there previously and didn't like the atmosphere.

The menu is small compared to other restaurants in the city, but we found ourselves having a hard time choosing based on the wide variety of tasty looking dishes (and two tempting specials). One of the things the restaurant's menu is built on is accessible ingredients. On the menu, several dishes are marked with an "AV," which stands for Added Value which is the name of its local organic farm, only two blocks away (luckily not next store, which looks like a trash yard).

For drinks, there was an ample wine selection and my husband ordered his favorite drink, a Dark and Stormy, which he became a fan of during our rainy honeymoon in Bermuda. I had a sojito, a take on the mojito, traditional with lime and mint.

Three of us started with the AV Green Salad, which had a lovely vinaigrette dressing. My husband had the crispy cornmeal (i.e. friend) oysters, which was accompanied by greens and beets that were really good.

Then for main courses, the boys ordered the signature dish "steak and eggs" korean style (grilled skirt steak, kimchee rice, fried egg for $18), I had the crab cakes as a main course (with mashed and asparagus) and my other friend had the grilled shrimp special (served with mashed fava beans - a really tasty surprise, similar to hummus). My crab cakes were especially good as they had little to no breading. I enjoyed them, but think I slightly prefer the crab cakes from Henry's End. But it would be a close edge.

For dessert, we had Steve's Key Lime pie, a Red Hook staple my husband has been dying to try for a year now. We definitely we NOT disappointed. It was delicious!

Definitely try The Good Fork for dinner sometime soon or you'll be missing out on a great new Brooklyn edition! Service was great as well.

Another DUMBO Building to Go Condo

An industrial building located at 37-45 Bridge street in DUMBO (actually Vinegar Hill) will be turned into 53 condo units. The property was bought by private investor Baruch Singer for $13 million, or approximately $205 per square foot.

Oven Debuts on Henry Street

Restaurant row in Brooklyn Heights now has a new addition. Oven (60 Henry St., at Cranberry Street), owned by Chris Fehlinger, has finally opened for business. I will definitely have to sample the goods for myself, but in the meantime, here's a review from The Brooklyn Paper:

The thin-crust pizzas range from old-time favorites to the inventive and a bit out there — but all go well beyond the traditional Margherita pie. A chicken curry pizza is topped with cashews, green peppers, red onions and mozzarella, baked in a curry flavored tomato sauce and topped with a yogurt mint sauce. An eggplant pizza is topped with an assortment of cheeses and pine nuts, a surprisingly crunchy and complimentary combo. And there’s even a roasted asparagus pizza with Vermont goat cheese and oven-roasted Roma tomatoes, served on a creme fraiche base ... Oven focuses on specialty pizzas and an extensive wine list — over 180 bottles and more than 40 half-bottles..."

Trader Joe's to Cross East River

I just heard that Trader Joe's is coming to Brooklyn. I'm not a huge fan of the store, but I do like their wine store on 14th street in the city. The line in the food store is way too long. Hopefully they will have a similar side-by-side set-up.

Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush

In a Newsday review:

"Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush" lays it on thick - heart-tugging music and all - but that's the way the team's partisans remember it, as a glorious era ended by epic tragedy. It isn't so much that there's anything new in this production. It's that the pain still remains. So does the undying affection.

What: An HBO special, "Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush"

When: Tonight, 8-10 pm

Where: HBO

Edited: Child Stars All Grown Up

Winnie Cooper (a.k.a. Danica McKellar) from the "Wonder Years" (for some reason I had Growing Pains here before...thx to those who corrected me) looks exactly the same, just slightly more womanly. Check out other pictures of your old favorites here.

My favorite topic

Lobster Roll is one of my favorite things to eat and make. I was just reading an article in New York Magazine that rated Lobster Rolls in NYC. Surprisingly not on the is BLT Fish's lobster roll, which is really good in my opinion. Mermaid Inn's LR is also good.

I think my Lobster Roll is the best, but here Jasper White, chef-owner of Summer Shack in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and author of Lobster at Home, offers some advice as to what makes a real lobster roll.

1. A good amount of meat. A lobster roll should contain the meat from a one-pound lobster, about 3.5 ounces during the summer.
2. A flat-bottomed, or “top-loading,” hot-dog bun, butter-griddled like a grilled-cheese sandwich.
3. The right dressing. Hellmann’s is great, but mayo isn’t enough. Try a little mustard and a dice of cucumbers instead of celery. (BE Notes: Add old bay seasoning and some lemon juice, not too much though. And mix it first before adding to the lobster meat. I find celery is good, but make sure to get some of the light green stalk in there too, chopped, the part you find in the celery heart.)
4. On the side, some kind of pickle is important to add a little acidity; potato chips are nice. (BE Note: Whip up a salad of corn, shelled edamame, diced jalepeno, cucumber, split cherry tomato as a side dressed in a little EVOO, apple cider vinegar and lemon juice.)
5. Eat with your hands. You can get away with a knife and fork in a restaurant, but if you tried that while sitting around a picnic table anywhere in New England, the locals would probably beat you up.

Fireworks and Hot Dogs

The July 4th fireworks are supposed to kick off tomorrow night around 9:20 p.m. dumbonyc has a nice photo from last year. Every year my family, me and my husband go to the Hamptons, well actually Amagansett, which is near East Hampton. It's so beautiful, but this year we convinced my parents that the fireworks in DUMBO were much better and that we should all hang out here first.
Aside from fireworks, the Coney Island hot dog eating contest goes hand-in-hand with July 4th. I just read that the champion is suffering from jaw pain and may not be able to compete this year.

Takeru Kobayashi, the six-time defending Nathan's hot dog eating champion, received a chilling diagnosis that could end his Fourth of July roll: a creaky jaw.