Results tagged “stumptowncoffee”

The Houston Street DKNY mural wasn't the only thing painted brown in the last few days: a solitary worker has rolled a couple of coats on the squat Red Hook building where the Delightful Coffee Shop will soon open. The old “Eating and Art Conditioning” sign is gone, signaling that the Stumptown cafe (to be operated in tandem with the Frankies) is getting closer to completion. Stumptown plans to roast beans for their local clients in a cast iron Probat located in the same space.

Looks like Stumptown Coffee is not the only fresh off the bus, piece of straw-chewing newcomer to the city’s artisanal food scene: as of yesterday, pints of the acclaimed Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream are available at Foragers Market in DUMBO. Introductory flavors include Dark Cocoa Gelato, Salty Caramel, Pistachio (with Ohio honey), Bourbon Buttered Pecan, and Black Currant Yogurt. Owner Jeni Britton Bauer was the subject of a Food & Wine article last year that named her of the country’s best ice cream producers; following the seasons, pints contain fresh fruit and are made in small batches. Also, Jeni’s ice creams do not contain eggs—Britton Bauer adheres to the belief that “I love the taste of cream so much that I hate to cover it up with anything.” Pints are a steep $10 each at DUMBO's Forager’s Market; Columbus-based blog Restaurant Widow assures that each (roughly 20-cent) spoonful is “worth every bite.” Board up your windows and shove towels under your door now so the ice cream cannot get in.

If you've spent any time in gentrified Brooklyn lately, you've surely noticed a certain theme developing in what might be called "urban atavistic" restaurants, a sort of Brooklyn-by-gaslight aesthetic. Parlors, waistcoats, snuff boxes, and tie tacks have lined up like Lucky Charms; every new restaurant is at least 20% salvaged from the beams of some building that was once filled with dumbwaiters and people who started sentences with the words “I dare say.”

     

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.