Results tagged “redhook”

Perhaps crazier than the mystery of where 5th and Broadway was in Williamsburg... the blogger at Pardon Me For Asking dug up an old map showing something called Yellow Hook. Indeed, there was a Yellow Hook! The NYPL (where there's currently a great exhibit mapping New York's shoreline), has some more evidence of this magical land, which was south of Red Hook.

Decades back, few — if any — would oppose a plan to open a concrete plant in industrial Red Hook. But today, it's a different story. Residents of the quickly gentrifying neighborhood have petitioned and picketed in attempts to stop U.S. Concrete from opening a factory this month that they fear will scatter airborne particles "to the yellow-and-blue Ikea next door, heavily used baseball fields across the street, and a 2.75-acre farm nearby on a former playground," according to the Times. Community activist John McGettrick laid it out for the paper of record: “There’s a certain irony that we have a mayor talking about no smoking in parks, but he has no problem allowing the construction of a concrete plant that would shower cement dust on children in the park,” he said.

The notoriously Luddite NYPD—they still use typewriters for most paperwork—has a technological visionary in their midst. Though most people know the Internet is just a passing fad, crazy Capt. Kenneth Corey at the 76th Precinct in Brooklyn thinks it should be used to communicate with concerned citizens. So he frequently sends electronic mail, or "e-mail," to a growing subscriber list, informing them of local crime news. But is the NYPD brass going to stand for this? What do they pay spokesman Paul Browne for?

Red Hook residents held a demonstration Saturday to protest a concrete factory poised to open between a park and the Red Hook Community Farm, one of the city's largest urban farms. The protesters are worried air near the plant will be polluted, and the organic produce will be coated with concrete dust. But the site, located by the Beard Street Ikea, is zoned for heavy industry, and the owner of the company assures the Daily News his plant will have "a lower carbon footprint than most of the concrete being made today." That doesn't placate pint-sized protester Matilda Armstrong, 11, who volunteers at the farm. She tells Brooklyn Paper, "Putting a cement plant right next to a park — how stupid can they be? They should put it in the desert so it doesn’t affect anyone." An aide to state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery is less cute: "I don’t think they appreciate the density of this area and how litigious New Yorkers can be. If you’re opening a cement plant in an area with a 40-percent asthma rate, you’d better open your pocket book, because you’re going to be spending a lot of time in court."

The DOT has brought some newly commissioned artwork to the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, unveiled earlier this week and up for 11 months. 1010Wins notes that it features "barrels as seats with birdhouses above"—which sounds like a pretty risky design for the humans! However, the DOT sent us these photos and it doesn't really look like the old wine barrels are made for lounging about. If you wanna give it a shot, however, you can find the Atom Cianfarani installation at Columbia and Halleck streets. We're sure the squirrels and pigeons will are having a field day over there. The NY Post has a photo of another DOT piece that was unveiled in the Bronx, "an abstract sculpture made of plywood and resembling a stack of children's building blocks and star-shaped toys," and they note that three more sculptures will go up this year (on the UWS, Queens Plaza and Lefferts Gardens).

Red Hook is getting another big name, but this time it's not a Big Box store. The NY Times reports that the once corrupt waterfront location is getting classed up by Christie's Auction House! They'll be moving into "an enormous, high-tech warehouse with security worthy of James Bond, all to protect the multimillion-dollar artworks, manuscripts, furniture and even rare cars." The luxury storage facility will be housed in one of the former New York Dock Company loft buildings, which is being renovated, and by January "will boast infrared video cameras, biometric readers and motion-activated monitors, as well as smoke-, heat- and water-detection systems," as well as private viewing galleries. This sounds primed for an art caper, Hudson Hawk style. The lofts were originally going to be luxury apartments, but the developer has said, “I still think it will be a fantastic residential conversion, but with the economic climate being what it is today. it may make sense to do a Christie’s-like commercial deal and treat it as a bond—you, know, put it away for 30 years, let my children see what’s happening 30 years from now.”

Groups have been lobbying for a trolley comeback for years, and Monday night Mayor Bloomberg noted his interest in bringing them back to growing waterfront areas, according to NY1.

The divorce is happening, kids. The MTA has confirmed that the rumored B61 split will take place in January next year, with one half running from Red Hook to Downtown and another from Downtown to Queens. In a statement we received, NYC Transit President Howard H. Roberts, Jr. also noted: “We recognize that there are rapidly growing new residential areas along the Williamsburg waterfront. The B62 will also provide convenient bus and subway connections for these customers to the Williamsburg Bridge Plaza transit hub which is served by six bus routes and the Marcy Avenue JMZ subway station.” The 9.7 mile long route split into two shorter ones will, allegedly, make for less delays; last year there was a 74% increase in ridership on the line, with only a 7% boost in frequency. And the MTA confirmed for us that the transfer will be free, so the trip will still "only" cost $2.25.

The big bad Big Box IKEA is the latest to ostracize breastfeeding moms from their establishment. One Brooklyn mom tells her recent story of being banished to the bathroom when she tried to feed her 6 1/2 month old something other than Swedish meatballs at the store:

On Wednesday I was in IKEA Red Hook in the middle of breastfeeding, fully covered, when I was told I had to stop doing "that" and go to the nearby family bathroom. The IKEA employee and security guards were extremely rude to us. I was hustled off to the bathroom and then had to wait because someone else was using it. I was humiliated, my daughter was upset from being interrupted in the middle of her feed. When eventually I gave up and headed for the car to finish feeding, the security guards who had seen the entire event insisted on checking my receipts. I'm putting together a formal complaint to IKEA. I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else?

When Red Hook residents were fighting to stop IKEA from opening up in their neighborhood, one of the deal-sweeteners offered by the Swedish retailer was a promise that locals (and all New Yorkers) would be able to take advantage of free Water Taxi service back and forth to Manhattan, even if they never spent a dime in the store. Well, it's been just over a year since the grand opening, and already the bait has been switched. The Brooklyn Paper reports that on weekdays the Water Taxi will start charging riders $5 each way, unless they spend $10 in IKEA. Manager Mike Baker says, "We have implemented this policy because our customers are using the Water Taxi service, but the cost is such that we cannot continue subsidizing it during the week as a commuter service for those who are not IKEA customers." Compare that with last summer, when an IKEA rep said, "We support mass transit, and if people are using our services and not going to IKEA, that's fine with us as well." Now they tell us the Water Taxi service will still be free on the weekends, but how can anyone ever trust Sweden again?

O' Barone: A few months back, some new activity was spotted taking place in the old 360 restaurant on Van Brunt Street in Red Hook. Italian language cookbooks popped up in the front window, only to be replaced a few weeks later with a copper zabaglione pan with a clip-on electric mixer and a map of Piedmont. It turns out all the props were really just hints of menus to come: an Italian chef named Fulvio Leone has gotten together with a few close friends and finally reopened the restaurant as O'Barone. The short menu features small plates, salads, and fresh pasta dishes, and there's also a full wine list. A sampling of salumi and cheese is $14, and a plate of melted tomino and pancetta over grilled radicchio is $8. The salads—like barley with tuna, tomato, and celery ($8)—favor lighter, summery flavors. Getting heavier, a plate of casarecce with sausage Bolognese is among the entrees. The sausage comes from nearby Carroll Gardens pork institution Esposito and Sons. Prices are typically $8 for appetizers and $12 for mains; nothing costs more than $16. 360 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook; (347) 599-2758 (Hugh Merwin)

    

The place is still waiting for a liquor license, but bar and restaurant Fort Defiance has opened up for business on Van Brunt Street in Red Hook. There's even a flag hanging out front, so you know it's ready. Proprietor St. John Frizell told us last month that he plans to serve cask beer and unfussy, solid cocktails once the license comes through. For the time being, however, the restaurant has eased into its morning routine: a menu of Counter Culture coffee drinks, pastries from Park Slope's Colson Patisserie, and a few sandwiches. The kitchen is small and accordingly, the menu is being kept to five items or less by chef Sam Fiorino a Good Fork alum. It includes a painstakingly researched, Central Grocery-style muffuletta sandwich for $9.

New Yorkers have been taking full advantage of the freebies offered by those friendly Swedes in Red Hook, where the city's first IKEA location opened in 2008. Their free buses and Water Taxi service have long been enjoyed by the locals, many of whom use the services without even stepping foot in the store, just to get from the subway to their homes/methadone clinics. Another popular free service is IKEA's in-store daycare center, where you can unload any minor from 36 inches to 50 inches in height. The catch? You must collect them within 45 minutes on weekdays and 30 minutes on weekends. Staten Island mom Jean Taylor tells the Daily News, "I love it. I wish you could leave them here for two hours." The kids get the use of a ball pit and an arts and crafts station, while the parents get time to lounge around on the furniture in air-conditioned comfort. But those Swedes insist they're not chumps; IKEA spokeswoman Lorna Montalvo says, "The parents who come back over and over again know what's on sale." And surely they'll buy something someday?

Consider the unusual conditions underscoring the opening of the new Red Hook bar/restaurant Fort Defiance and it becomes clear that something unusual is going on: Owner (and writer) St. John Frizell’s general contractor is the Argentine artist Rafael Bueno and the place is essentially being put together by Frizell’s friends from the neighborhood, notably including Barry O'Meara from Bait and Tackle—another, potentially rival bar located just down the street.

There's been chatter of a giant salt pile growing over at the Red Hook Marine Terminal, and word is there's an emergency meeting regarding the nuisance tonight. A reader residing on the Columbia Street waterfront in Brooklyn told us, "Salt is flying all over the neighborhood as trucks ride on top of it 24hrs a day. Everyone's cars, apartments (if your windows are open), bikes, and yards now have a salty film on them. Breathing in our neighborhood cannot be healthy, and many neighbors have developed a cough and talk about the constant salty taste in their mouths." Allegedly no one addressed the community about the pile, and now 311 has been bombarded with calls complaining about it, especially after the tarp was removed in recent months.

Red Hook, the Brooklyn neighborhood on the brink of perpetual change, is about to see some lobsters move into the neighborhood. Pardon Me For Asking has the scoop on the soon-to-open Red Hook Lobster Pound, a new business at 284 Van Brunt Street that will deal in retail sales of live Maine lobster at around $10-11 a pound.

After a few hiccups, Anselmo’s opened in Red Hook on Friday afternoon. Keeping it simple, the pizza place will serve only pies and calzones baked in its brick oven.

Well, whaddaya know: An unauthorized track bike race on slick Red Hook streets Saturday night ended with zero crashes, injuries or arrests. Proof that it's still possible to have a little reckless fun in this town was demonstrated by some two dozen cyclists who raced their brakeless bikes around a three-quarter-mile course at 11 p.m. Colin Moynihan covered the so-called Red Hook Criterium for the Times, and reports that after a half hour, 24-year-old management consultant Neil Bezdek finished in the number 1 slot. But the absence of spectacular pileups makes this video from the race sort of boring, and even the NYPD presence didn't add any drama to the evening. Organizer David August Trimble tells Bike Blog NYC, "By the end of the night [the police] were some of the most enthusiastic spectators. The cop stationed in turn 1 would honk his horn each lap and command us to 'DIG' over the loud speaker." Cyclists and NYPD peacefully co-existing? What's next, cats and dogs living together? Mass hysteria?

At 11 o'clock Saturday night—while the bourgeois sheep are filing their nails watching whatever season of Mad About You Netflix delivered to keep them meek and complacent—a group of cyclists are going to be living life to the fullest by competing in a gnarly unauthorized brakeless bike road race through Red Hook. According to Bike Blog NYC, the 2nd annual Red Hook Criterium will be held on a "quarter-mile course which features several hairpin turns, a fast sprint through the parking lot of a chain retailer, a cobblestone stretch, and a sprint finish." Organizer David August Trimble elaborates: "Last year was perfect. Not too big but the racing was intense but safe without any crashes. I couldn’t believe the pace that we completed the race at." The winner after 16 laps gets $300, but because "bus and automobile traffic on the course... is a near-certainty, " anyone who survives should be considered a winner. As for the exact location, you'll have to do some digging, or just follow that distinctive bike messenger smell. (And study this crazy video for a warm-up.)

Defonte’s, the sandwich shop institution of Red Hook (since 1922), just opened a second outpost in Gramercy. If you notice from the photo here, the original Defonte’s is all waterfront industrial charm: bricked over windows, a touch of barbed wire accent; everything painted over a shade of green that otherwise belongs slathered across a municipal bridge railing. Defonte’s Red Hook interior is adorned with autographed 8x10s of actors in wiseguy roles and far flung beauty queens, like Miss Delaware 2008. The corner building is a stone’s throw from the Battery Tunnel, so a lot of Defonte’s customers drive a truck, carry a badge, or do both. They work quickly, open early, and close early—the ten person steam table sandwich brigade is usually all but cleaned up around 3 p.m.

     

Last week, we wrote that two Red Hook establishments next door to each other on Van Brunt Street—LeNell’s and small plates restaurant Tini—are both closing. In light of the news that the mother of all shopping malls is probably coming to the old Revere Sugar Refinery Dome site, it would seem that the waterfront neighborhood is definitely in a transition phase, one that goes something like this: independently owned shops and restaurants are losing the battle against massive, commercial real estate development plans.

     

Check it out, check it out! Red Hook may have lost its iconic Revere Sugar Refinery Dome, but look what the neighborhood is gaining on that mostly-cleared parcel of land adjacent to IKEA: A 376,000 square foot shopping mall with a massive BJ's, the discount big box wholesaler you can find all over the United States of Generica! These renderings leaked to Curbed/Racked reveal the vast breadth of the project (first hinted at last September), which would be the largest retail development in over two decades. If you build it, they will shop?

As The Real World Brooklyn airs on MTV, and many of the roommates are scattered about New York, real estate vultures are honing in on the Pier that housed the eight strangers. The Brooklyn Paper reports that the historic Pier 41 warehouse may "become a catering hall run by renowned restaurateur Buzzy O’Keeffe." The news comes from Fairway developer and owner of the site, Greg O'Connell, who "announced the proposal for a high-end wedding hall on Tuesday at the Brooklyn Real Estate Roundtable, a regular gathering of industry powerhouses." While the deal isn't final, he is involved in negotiations that could soon allow you to say your vows in the house of Viacom. Don't expect to see any of the IKEA decor however, it's been sold off on Craigslist.

Feeling a pang of nostalgia for the former Revere Sugar Dome and factory in Red Hook? The site may have been leveled, but the spirit of it lives on. Gowanus Lounge received a photo (above right) from Adam Suerte of Brooklyn Tattoo, along with the story of a man and his wife who were leaving their home in Red Hook for Puerto Rico. "One of their favorite views down by the water was of the Revere Sugar Refinery. So, being a fan of my style, he asked me to do a drawing of the refinery, then tattoo it on him. And so it was." What demolished building would you have permanently placed on your skin?

Plans to move the old Cheyenne Diner from its current location near Penn Station to a new home in Red Hook have fallen through, as many feared last week. Michael O’Connell, son of Red Hook developer Greg O'Connell, who bought the old prefab gem after it closed last April to make way for a condo, says it's too big to transport over the East River bridges. O'Connell considered moving it by barge, but that "proved 3 times as costly as traditional figures a year ago," according to a press release from Michael Perlman, a New Yorker who's become The Fixer when it comes to relocating doomed diners.

While we all wait for This Old House's first ever New York City project to air (being filmed in Brooklyn right now), we'll have to focus in on another house. The MTV Real World Brooklyn house is in Red Hook (as you already know, like it or not); this is their 3rd time filming the series in New York, but the first in the borough. While filming has ended, much of the cast (none of whom are New Yorkers) have decided to stay. Here's the first episode, which aired last night, in its entirety.

Late last year it was announced that the city dumped plans to redevelop the Red Hook waterfront. Now the Brooklyn Eagle is reporting that the "Economic Development Corporation (EDC) is returning to Red Hook’s Atlantic Basin with a symbolic hat in hand, but also with a new development plan that is ready to be executed." The new plan is allegedly less glamorous, but one key business that could rise from the ashes of the old is (appropriately) Phoenix Beverages—a major beer distributor of Heineken, Guinness and Smirnoff Ice! It looks like it would be housed at Pier 11, and NYMag points out that under the new plan they'll be joined in the neighborhood American Stevedoring, "a docking facility for harbor-operated boats, a cultural institution, and a green space." Sadly, this means that "there is no space for Brooklyn Brewery, which hoped to move to Pier 7."

When the vintage factory-built Cheyenne Diner near Penn Station closed last April after 68 years in business, widespread dismay was quickly replaced with hope when a Red Hook man bought it for $5,000 and promised to move the prefab gem across the East River. But it's been almost nine months since the closure, and the diner's gone nowhere because, as it turns out, it's too big to be moved over the Manhattan Bridge, even in two pieces.

The Real World Brooklyn cast continues their media frenzy with a new piece in Time Out New York. Some highlights: cast member Baya was asked why Red Hook bar owners banned them, to which she replied, "They knew that we were coming and didn’t like the idea of it. It’s understandable. When you go to a small place, it’s really intrusive to have a huge camera crew come in." Meanwhile, with much of the cast still here, Ryan tells of their big city New Year's Eve plans, saying, "I thought, Hey, let’s all get together. We want to do the whole Times Square experience. I know it’s going to be crazy. I’ve heard horror stories. But I’m looking forward to doing it" (TONY clues them in on locals not ever doing that). But Mormon Chet continues to steal the spotlight when he asks the mag: "What’s that show, where the girls are doing the kick-ups? They’re very limber. Very limber. And that’s very important to me. The day I have sex I’m hoping it’s with a girl who has a little maneuverability." (*Shudder*) Watch out Rockettes! The season starts airing on MTV next month, but for now let's all take a look back at The Real World Hoboken.

Red Hook has been on a rollercoaster ride for quite some time, with redevelopment, gentrification/degentrification, IKEA, small businesses closing up shop, the Real World moving in...but could it be on its way up again? NY1 takes a look at the current state of things, and Steve Tarpin, owner of Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pie Bakery, comments on the transformation from violent to cozy, saying "You know a neighborhood has changed when people are running down the street because they want to, not because they have to. Red Hook would definitely fall into that category." Of course, the artists are being credited for the rejuvenated hood, but so are the Fairway, IKEA, water taxi service, and others. Residents still say it's not for everyone (read: they want to keep it a secret), with one comparing its diamond-in-the-rough status to "a hot chick in overalls." Meanwhile, a Corcoran realtor warns that housing prices will continue to go up in the neighborhood, because even if there's still no subway stop, there's plenty of space.