Results tagged “williamsburg”

Just when it seemed like the hoopla over bike lanes in Williamsburg had come to a close, Gothamist has learned that the Department of Transportation is planning to remove a 14-block section of the Bedford Avenue cycling route. A spokesman said that the agency will remove the "small portion" of the bike lane between Flushing and Division avenues in South Williamsburg "as part of ongoing bike network adjustments in the area."

NY1 reports that two people are in the hospital after a Brooklyn car crash last night: "Police say they saw a Toyota Corolla run a red light a little after midnight. They then followed the car, and a few seconds later, the Corolla slammed into a Lexus SUV at Lee Avenue and Rutledge Street in Williamsburg." The Post adds, "The witness said the car apparently being chased was going at least 45 miles per hour." The cops are apparently investigating whether the Corolla's driver was drinking.

Narcotics investigators seized more than $800,000 and 61 pounds of cocaine worth nearly $1 million in a Williamsburg apartment yesterday. The drugs were hidden under the seat of a portable sauna, and officials say—wait, portable sauna?! Is that really a thing? Turns out yes, it is! It's also one of the last places anyone would want to "chill" while ripping rails, so the suspects probably figured nobody would ever think to look in there for cocaine. Oh well.

Now that Williamsburg has become a popular destination for tour groups and fashion students, the hipsters who took over the neighborhood years ago are losing their precious Pool Parties. Circle of life. We're told that with the deadline quickly approaching to find a new spot, there's no agreement in place and "the end could be near." As such, Senator Chuck Schumer is requesting that the community show some support—this summer the very same Senator Schumer pledged to the audience at one show that the free concerts would be back on the waterfront in 2010.

While some might claim the worst Post Office in Brooklyn is in Park Slope... the Williamsburg USPS worker bees are working the hardest they've ever worked to steal that title away. The South 4th Street outlet is known for slow service and a blatant disregard for customer service... and sometimes technical difficulties! A reader tells us that those on line this past Saturday got the added treat of being told "there was a problem getting the computers started and there would be a delay for the windows."

       

Last week we noted the opening of a charming new restaurant/cocktail lounge/jazz bar called The Manhattan Inn in Greenpoint (located on Manhattan between Bedford and Nassau); but as you can see this place is so good looking it merits its own feature. This weekend we were actually lured there twice; the first visit was occasioned by our desire to wait out the Saturday afternoon rain and read over cocktails. The back room was uniquely suited for our purposes, and the Manhattan's Manhattan ($9) was as big and inviting as a heated private lap pool. (The classic specialty cocktail menu is from James Endicott, formerly of Per Se and Allen & Delancey, and there is also wine and craft beer on tap.)

Earlier this year a reader spotted a tourist group coming off the Bedford Avenue L in Williamsburg. So it shouldn't come as too much of a shock that there's now a course at FIT called "Williamsburg, The New Style Frontier." Or at least, there was on October 24th.

      

Click on the images for the scoop on Bar Henry, Sushi Uo, Mermaid Oyster Bar, Manhattan Inn, Northern Spy Food Co., and Má Pêche.

In a real world example of supply and demand economics, the proliferation of Southeast Asian eateries on and around Williamsburg's main commercial street has hurt business, according to neighborhood restaurateurs. The pad thai business is ailing in a three block area centered around Bedford Avenue and North Sixth Streets, where four Thai and three Asian fusion restaurants compete, according to the Brooklyn Paper — which dubs the enclave "Brooklyn's Little Bangkok."

Early Sunday morning Brooklyn musician Jerry Fuchs died after falling down an elevator shaft at 338 Berry Street in Williamsburg. As we mentioned yesterday, Fuchs was attending a benefit party there thrown by the Uniform Project, and it was around 12:30 a.m. that the manual freight elevator in the converted loft building became stuck between the 4th and 5th floors. A friend jumped off to safety, but when Fuchs followed his clothing became stuck and he fell down the shaft.

At around 1:15 this morning a report came in over the newswire that a male had fallen down an elevator shaft at Broadway and Berry Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. A reader sent in photos shortly after, and the building the incident took place in is actually at 338 Berry, between South 4th and South 5th streets — a former noodle factory converted into various multi-use spaces, including residential lofts. The victim was at a party in the building being hosted by the Uniform Project. After the fall he was in serious condition, unconscious and unresponsive. We'll update when we get more details.

The brazen drive-by shooting in Williamsburg yesterday apparently started as a dispute between motorists. A gunman in a green Nissam Maxima fired at 38-year-old Ramon Blas, hitting the victim once in the side as he sat inside his car sometime after 2:30 pm. Wounded, Blas managed to drive his gray BMW SUV a few blocks before colliding with a parked car at the corner of Lorimer and Ten Eyck streets. He then "staggered into the driver's compartment of a slowly moving UPS van," the Post reports. The UPS driver ran into a nearby packaging store, shouting: "Someone just got shot inside my truck," according to the Daily News.

A gunman in car shot and killed a 38-year-old driver on Lorimer Street between Ten Eyck and Maujer streets in a shockingly brazen slaying in Williamsburg this afternoon. The perp pulled up beside the victim — described by police as a Hispanic male — at around 2:30 pm and fired into the his car, hitting him in the side, according to police. The wounded driver crashed his car and exited the vehicle before being transported to Woodhull Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

If you've been looking for the silver lining in the recession, here it is: Thanks to plummeting industrial real estate values, the Brooklyn Brewery will be able to stay in Brooklyn. Just last summer, the Williamsburg-based lager-makers feared they couldn't afford to stay in their increasingly costly neighborhood when their lease expired, but dwindling property values and receding interest from non-manufacturing interests allowed the Brewery to sign a 15-year lease.

Last year around this time we got word that the East River State Park in Williamsburg would be shutting down for the winter months to save up some money. This year shows less signs of a stalled waterfront park, as the Daily News reports that a playground is being constructed and will open in Spring.

       

Nestled between a Williamsburg condo construction site and another building occupied by a battalion of fashion models, the swank new tapas restaurant Bar Celona seems poised to cash in on (and advance) the neighborhood's steady drumbeat of gentrification. At first glance, one might assume this chic place is just a tad out of step with the still slightly scruffy South Side, but let's not forget that the well-appointed Dressler is just a few blocks away, and Aurora isn't exactly a dump, either. Bar Celona's interior design may be seductively or surreally luxurious, but that doesn't take anything away from the stellar cocktails or chef Jordy Lavanderos's first-rate menu. Also: fireplace.

Thanks, Government! Last week the state gave Brooklyn Brewery a grant for $800,000 to help their $6.5MM expansion through Williamsburg. They money will go towards converting 13,500 square feet of vacant distribution space into a fermentation facility, and upping their production from 8,000 to 50,000 barrels a year. Brooklyn Brewery Founder Steve Hindy tells the Post “Support like this is vital to growing manufacturing jobs in New York City. These funds will enable us to complete a six-fold capacity expansion, adding 15 full-time jobs with benefits, and further expanding the Brewery’s green initiatives.”

If you spend enough time in Williamsburg, sooner or later you'll be passed by a man driving a red Subaru, blasting oldies and singing along at the top of his voice. That's just how Anthony Delia, aka Subaru Dude, rolls. Filmmaker Russel Fong recently rode around with Delia for Free Williamsburg, and the guy is exactly as ebullient as we always hoped. Take a look at Hipsterville through his happy eyes:

This weekend there were reports of a bomb going off on South 3rd Street in Williamsburg, during the early morning hours of Sunday. Now the Daily News has more details, confirming that the block between Roebling and Havemeyer was the stage for an explosion around 12:30 a.m. on Sunday.

A little bit before 1 a.m. word came across the newswire that at 221 South 3rd Street, at Roebling Street in Williamsburg, there was a search in progress for "secondary devices" in regards to an explosion. There was a bomb squad on the scene and a staging area set up for EMS at South 5th Street.

   

Click on the images for details on Scarpetta's new five course tasting menu, The JakeWalk's new fall food and cocktail menu, and Dokebi's Korean tacos and weekend brunch.

Are you ready to hear 16 hours of Beatles tunes live... on the ukulele? Well, you have over a month to get ready. This December 5th and 6th, a two-day benefit for Yoko Ono will take place, featuring 185 Songs (the entire Beatles catalog), 60 Singers, 40 Musicians and 16 Yokos.

According to this Twitter update, farm animals are super in right now amongst the skinny jean set. The witness twote, "I just saw a hipster walking a sheep on Bedford Ave. So hot right now!" People, please take photos next time.

The largely successful campaign to slow the proliferation of bars in downtown Manhattan has spread to gentrifying Williamsburg. Last week a small but insistent group of Brooklyn residents gathered at a Community Board 1 meeting to fight enemy #1: the owner of Custom American Wine Bar, who is seeking liquor license approval to open his establishment at Driggs and Metropolitan. Some locals have actually argued that the presence of a wine bar will increase gang activity. Also, those obstreperous oenophiles will keep them up at night with their cacophonous quaffing.

Unsubstantiated! However, one Twitterer recently twote that she "Just found out cops in Williamsburg call hipsters marshmallows because we are white and soft." Whether or not this is true, we would like to recommend that everyone use "marshmallow" going forward — it is much less amorphous than the H word.

Move over, Colonial Williamsburg; the tourists are now flocking to Brooklyn's 'Burg to see what all the fuss is about (what is the all fuss about again?). A tipster sends us this photo, saying, "This was a tour group that got off the subway at Driggs and North 7th. There was a person directing them and explaining where they were. The tour guide gave instructions to meet back at the subway entrance at a specific time and directed them to Bedford Avenue." Oh the things they must have seen!

Adding to the mix of venues and restaurants in the neighborhood, a new (gorgeous) space combining space focused on food has opened in Williamsburg. The Rising Tide is a new culinary and events loft that was built over the summer and is now open to the public. This is the same space that will soon be seen on IFC's Dinner with the Band (starring chef Sam Mason). "The Rising Tide is a unique production and events studio, located in a two story loft in Brooklyn." Measuring in at twelve-hundred square feet, if you aren't looking to film a show (because, you probably aren't), it can even host dinner parties for up to forty people.

Cops were breaking out the heavy machinery again and revving up the chainsaws—it's bike removal time once again on Bedford Avenue. Greenpoint resident Ben Running started shooting video of the cops removing bicycles in another fiery scene on Bedford and North 8th in the heart of Williamsburg. Police make it clear that they don't want him shooting because as Running says, "They don't want you to videotape and put it on the internet." So like any decent citizen journalist, Running did just that.

The drawn out saga of the Williamsburg Power Plant may be coming closer to an end; Curbed notes that TransGas Energy Systems lost its latest bid for the "right to build a new power plant on land earmarked for Bushwick Inlet Park." While the company can still appeal, it does look like gentrifiers will be suntanning on the former Bayside Oil site soon enough! (For those keeping track, that's on Kent and North 12th.) More fine print here.

Since it would be a shame if you missed this and walked around Williamsburg like a fool without a coconut, here's the latest NY Times style piece about walking around Williamsburg with a coconut. Although we share NYMag's apprehension of this "trend," as we've actually never seen anyone doing it, and even if we did, there's allegedly no alcohol in these coconuts; we are simply not interested in your virgin trends, Gray Lady.