Monthly Archives: May 2010

Eating Out

Southern-Style Seersucker Opens On Smith

1 Comment

There’s yet another new restaurant on Smith Street; Seersucker has just opened its doors with a Southern menu, complete with shrimp and grits and deviled eggs.

Seersucker Opens on Smith

I was in the nail salon next door this morning when an older lady walked in shaking her head and commenting on “the names they come up with for these places … seersucker,” she bemoaned.

Seersucker, of course, is a bumpy, woven cotton, often in blue and white stripes or checks, considered a summer mainstay for gentlemen’s suits, especially in the South, where the light fabric was favored in the hot, humid months.

Nevermind the name; it’s a nice-looking place and the menu will lure anyone in need of chicken and dumplings, pickled okra or pimento cheese. Personally, I want to try to the biscuit box:  3 or 6 biscuits served with seasonal jellies, preserves and butter.

Right now, the restaurant opens at 5.30pm for dinner but there are plans afoot to serve lunch and brunch down the track. Oh, and in the tradition of all popular neighborhood spots, Seersucker takes reservations only for groups of six or larger. It does, however,  buck the trend by accepting all major credit cards.

Seersucker takes the spot of Pita Grill at 329 Smith Street, near President Street in Carroll Gardens: Phone: 718.422.0444.

Eating Out

Bagels, Pizza for 3rd Ave. Wasteland

3 Comments
mmm bagelz

I am always happy to see my neck of the woods spruced up with things that will be useful to me, especially the spartan span of Third Avenue characterized by auto shops that I trek along twice a day to and from my children’s school.

Enter Tony Bagelz – the name alone makes me laugh out loud. Tony was a co-founder of Park Slope fixture La Bagel Delight on Seventh Avenue, honing his knowledge of the bagel business over the years. But as a local who seems to know everyone around, he wanted to do something for his neighborhood, and so his own bagel shop-slash-mini-mart was born.

The bagels are pretty good; the coffee is tasty; the service is super friendly and best of all for any clean freaks out there, it is nice and new and clean inside. Out back there is a large patio area with tables and umbrellas, which I can see becoming handy for local parents needing someplace to stop and feed their kids on the way home from nearby schools Rivendell and PS 372, The Children’s School.

Tony says he’s planning to install some sort of water feature outside, too.

The new spot is a stone’s throw from Crooked Tail Café but the vibe is so much cheerier, and comes complete with an ATM and last-minute necessities like milk, juice, toilet paper and Italian bread for the evening dinner, so I don’t see Crooked Tail snatching much business from Tony Bagelz.

Also on track to open very soon is a revived pizzeria on the corner of Third and Carroll streets, where Bella Maria was until a few months back before quietly pulling down the shutters and joining nearby landmark Monte’s Venetian Room, whose claim to fame was being the oldest restaurant in Brooklyn dating back to 1906.

New owners are moving into the Bella Maria digs, with a June 1stopening slated. The boys who’ve been toiling to empty the restaurant and get it ready for its new life say the place will be called Benvenuto, which means “welcome” in Italian. They also say there will be an adjoining Italian ice joint, which is going to make my daily stroll up Carroll Street a living hell each summer day as my kids beg for an ice.

Still, it will be nice to see some life back on that corner.

Tony Bagelz is at 284 Third Avenue. The new pizza spot is on the corner of Carroll and Third and Crooked Tail Cafe is at 272 Third Avenue.

Events, Raves, Style

Score! At Swap Til You Drop Pop-Up Store This Saturday

4 Comments

Ever wish you could clear out all of your old, unused, unworn, unread stuff and swap it for fresh things, be it books, clothes or cool homewares: Well, get thee to BKLYN Yard this Saturday, May 29 for the next pop-up “free store” Score!

Here’s how it works: you take your old clothes, books, electronics and tsotchkes and drop them at the door, where volunteers sort them and distribute them to themed departments. Then professional curators – this time Etsy, Brooklyn hackerspace AlphaOne, vintage fashionistas Market Publique and the bookish crew from Desk Set are among the all-star curating team – pulling it all together and merchandising the unwanted items into boutique-like displays.

Then, you get to go shopping for NOTHING. And while you’re loading up on freebies, there’s music and other artsy carryings-on to keep you amused. Anything left at the end of the day gets recycled or donated to charity.

Departments this year have been expanded to include clothing for men and women, books + media, electronics, music, housewares, bikes, crafts and a kiddie corner. Start clearing out that closet, because the last two Scores! have drawn more than 1,000 people apiece.

The only catch is there is a $3 cover with RSVP here; and $5 if you don’t RSVP. But hey, think of all the stuff you can offload and the new things to take home.

Score! is on this Saturday from noon to 6pm at BKLYN Yard, 400 Carroll Street, between Bond and Nevins. In case it rains, the rain date is Saturday, June 5.

Style, Wacky

Shaped Rubber Bands: Why Didn’t I Think of It?

4 Comments

I have these vague imaginings that I will someday invent something and make millions; something simple and practical that people will question how they ever lived without – like that piece of plastic that joins together bra straps to create a crossback and prevent ugly straps peeking out from singlets and sundresses.

I am stunned though at the craze for rubber band shapes. I saw them one day in a local toy store, and by the end of the next day I spied at least three of my children’s friends wearing them. By the weekend, my kids had a couple packs each of these fun money-wasters, and were begging for more.

In case you haven’t seen them, they are colored silicon rubber bands in the shapes of anything from fruit, to baseball players, zoo or wild animals, fairies, princesses, dinosaurs, sea creatures or rock band equipment. Some are multicolored; some have scents; and some are glow-in-the dark. They sell anywhere between $2.50 and about $4.50 for a pack of 12 of varying shapes and sophistication.

Beyond the visual appeal of the shapes, it seems kids love that they can wear them as bracelets or apparently as hair bands, though I think they would rip out hair in the process. When you remove the bands, they return to their original shape and are pretty sturdy, though not indestructible: as my 7-year-old found out, they can break with too much stretching. From a marketing perspective, it’s genius. They are for boys and girls, they can be traded just like Pokemon cards or baseball cards (remember them!), and they appeal to all ages, from five years old to college students and beyond.

I am guilty of grabbing packs of them to send to Australia to my young cousins; and picking some up for my own children, who have already begun trading shapes among themselves, and probably with their friends. My daughter wears them up her arm to school, but my son says his teachers have outlawed them in class, lest the already rampant toy-trading ring grows.

I’m not against the bands per se. They are kind of cool and certainly harmless, unless your vacuum chokes on a stray silicon strand caught in a rug as mine did. I just wish I had thought of it first, because somewhere out there is somebody making my millions.

Oh, if you feel the need to pad said creators’ coffers, and there is a bunch of brands out there from zanybandz to Silly Bandz to just straight-up shaped rubber bands, you can buy the bands in my Brooklyn neighborhood at Pizzazzz Toyz at 281 Court Street  and across the street at Classic Impressions gift and card store, and of course online at Amazon.com or even Office Depot, which I see is selling bags of 20 for just over $3, which works out to a decent deal. But I’m pretty sure any toy store worth its salt is doing a blazing trade in rubber bands right now.

Raves, Style

These Shoes Were Made For Talking!

6 Comments

Who knew that one pair of shoes could evoke so many memories and begin so many conversations. That pair of shoes being my Kork-Ease  Bette sandals in “luggage” with a suede-covered wedge heel. They are not especially fancy or expensive, but I love them all the same and have worn them on and off for the past two summers.

Kork-Ease wedges

This week I got to thinking what it is that makes a piece of clothing iconic and whether perhaps the classic Kork-Ease wedge meets the criteria? I must have met and chatted the past few days with at least a dozen people, mostly strangers – between Brooklyn and Manhattan, in stores, on the street and on the subway – about these very shoes.

This is generally how it plays out: firstly someone will point and comment to their friend or they’ll just come out and say “I love your shoes”; and then the stories begin. These wedge-heeled walks down memory lane have taken a bunch of my new acquaintances back to sixth grade or so when women recalled either wearing the exact pair of shoes, or begging their mothers for them.

One woman I chatted with on the R train revealed that she wore them somewhere around 1975; adding proudly that they were the first shoes she bought when she “left the projects”. Two older women on the F train and en route to the airport after a girls’ vacation in the Big Apple, said they’d considered buying my shoes during their stay but worried that the 4 1/4-inch heels and potholed sidewalks might land someone in hospital.

Kork-Ease, the company that started business in Brooklyn in 1953 as a “comfort” shoe brand, burst into the fashion scene as a must-have in the 70s. Outlandish fashion designer Betsy Johnson reportedly owned at least 10 pairs; entertainer and actress Bette Midler wore them; and to be sure, any hipster shy of 30 owned at least one pair. As the Kork-Ease Facebook page states, it was the shoe that stood in line at Studio 54.

Well, Kork-Ease is back making its famed wedges as well as an ever-growing range of comfortable sandals and shoes. They’re a little more pricey than in the 70s when they retailed between $25 and $40 but still much cheaper than designer rivals. The Bette heels that garnered so much attention were about $149 online, and pretty much all the big online shoe stores from Zappos and Shoebuy, to Online Shoes and Amazon offer at least some of the styles.

Surely if a pair of shoes can unite strangers, evoke fun memories of one’s youth, and still be current and stylish today, they deserve icon status?

Rants, Style

Where Do Designs For the Masses Wind Up …

Leave a comment

Where do cheap designer duds go once the buzz is over? To the clearance rack, that’s where.

I traipsed over to the Target store this week, after following my own advice and dropping two bulging bags of clothes at the Salvation Army on Atlantic Avenue. My Target mission was two-fold: to check out the Zac Posen collection in person, which was unveiled a week ago, and to see what was left of other recent designer collaborations, including  the much-hyped Liberty of London for Target range and Jean Paul Gaultier’s collection.

Well there they were, the remnants of both designers’ clothes, piled high on the clearance racks. Needless to say there was no buzz there. No styling. No huge “get it while it lasts” graphics; nary a coat hanger even for these forgotten clothes. They were crammed onto a couple of racks, hanging haphazardly or trodden underfoot beneath the 50%-off and 30%-off banners.

These were the same floral dresses and saucy swimsuits that people lined up for just a few weeks ago, though admittedly the choice of sizes was limited to very small or very large. Quite a contrast from Liberty’s fanfare introduction to the masses at a pop-up store in New York, that came with an enormous ad campaign, spring flowers and even hyacinth scent wafting through the air. Jean Paul Gaultier would be no less thrilled, I’m sure, to see what’s left of his collection shoved unceremoniously onto the bargain racks.

Somehow even the deep discounts  couldn’t make this mish-mash of frocks and bathing suits and tunics appeal; everything looked unloved, cheap and garish.

That leads me right to Zac Posen’s collection, which is still very much front and center, having been in store only since April 25. I was disappointed it didn’t show better than I expected. The fabrics had that cheap sheen; the red tulle party dress didn’t live up to my hopes; the cherry-red leather jacket, the most pricey of the clothes at just under $200, looked plastic and glaringly bright; and some of the prints were just plain tacky.

Needless to say I left empty-handed and even more resolved to buy only what I love from now on.