2012 December – Brooklyn Artisan

Distilled in Brooklyn

December 13, 2012 by Bruce Campbell 1 Comment

Day Eight • 12 Sips of Brooklyn

kingscountybourbon

dec13 date stamp by Joy Makon Design

TODAY’S SIP TAKES TO HEART THE WORDS of the incomparable Ogden Nash: “Candy is dandy, but Liquor is quicker.” Instead of words, words, words, though, let’s cut to the headline: Brooklyn Brews Booze.

Kings County Bourbon (top) is distilled in the 113-year old Paymaster Building of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Check out Brooklyn Artisan‘s earlier coverage on a tour of the distillery. Kings County, one of the first small-batch distillers in the state, brews its mash with Scottish barley for authenticity, along with American corn. For true Brooklyn cred, the distillery has added corn picked from a small crop grown in the yard of the distillery into their batches. Best served neat—water breaks things!

dark-brew

Widow Jane Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey (above, left) is the most recent offering from Cacao Prieto in Red Hook. Released in October 2012 at a party there, Widow Jane is made with water brought from the limestone mine in upstate New York that provided stone for the Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building.

Industry City No. 2 Vodka (above, center) is produced in Sunset Park, where Industry City Distilling creates its sugar beet vodka. They document their progress in building a larger plant on their nicely designed, fun web site, which has videos, photos of the distillers and details about the distilling process. Wonder what happened to No. 1?

77 Whiskey, from Brueckelen Distillery (above, right) in Sunset Park is made from New York State wheat. The distillers were the subject of a beautiful Made by Hand video a couple of years ago.

New York Distilling is making gin (above, left) in Williamsburg, including a version named in tribute to Algonquin Round Table denizen Dorothy Parker, who definitely knew gin. They also have a full service bar cum tasting room next to the distillery called The Shanty.

Brueckelen also makes Glorious Gin (above, center) with New York Wheat, keeping it in the family.

Brooklyn Gin, despite its name (above, right), is actually fabricated in Warwick, New York, which makes it part of that region we like to call Outer Brooklyn. But we take the name as a gin-soaked compliment.

Kings County Distillery
63 Flushing Avenue, Navy Yard

Industry City Distilling
33 35th Street, Sunset Park
917-727-5309

Breuckelen Distilling
77 19th Street, Sunset Park
347-725-4985

Cacao Prieto
218 Conover Street, Red Hook
347-225-0130

New York Distilling Company
79 Richardson Street, Williamsburg
718-412-0874

Brooklyn Distilling Company
Warwick, New York

Many of these drinks are available for consumption at fine Brooklyn booze halls like:

The Drink
228 Washington Avenue, Williamsburg
718-782-8463

Fort Defiance
365 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook
347-453-6672

Photographs by Bruce Campbell. Date stamp typographic design by Joy Makon Design. The font is Shelley Allegro, by Matthew Carter, Linotype, 1972.

Filed Under: 12 Days of Brooklyn, Food/Drink, Winery, brewery, distiller Tagged With: 12 Days of Brooklyn, 12 Sips and Tastes, 12 Sips of Brooklyn, bars, bourbon, Brooklyn Distilling, Brueckelen Distillery, Cacao Prieto, distillery, distilling, Fort Defiance, gin, Industry City Distilling, Kings County Distillery, Red Hook, Sunset Park, tasting room, The Drink, The Shanty, vodka, Warwick, whiskey, Williamsburg

Pies, Glorious Pies

December 13, 2012 by Basia Hellwig 1 Comment

Day Eight • 12 Tastes of Brooklyn

We visited Felipa Lopez, co-owner of Pie Corps, selling pies at New Amsterdam Market this fall.

SAVORY PIES BRING YOU A WHOLE NUTRITIOUS MEAL in one perfect packet, which could come in mighty handy as the house fills up with guests and you have more meals than just that one Big Holiday Dinner to plan. Turkey, sweet potato and rosemary pie, lamb curry and pea, stout-braised beef, winter greens with white bean, feta and walnut—is your mouth watering yet?—Moroccan beef with chick pea and almond, red wine mushroom pie: Cheryl Perry and Felipa Lopez of Pie Corps hand make them all in their Greenpoint bakery. Specially for the holidays—still my beating Québec ex-pat heart—they are baking tourtières as well. And just as English miners carried Cornish pasties for a perfect portable lunch, we now have Pie Corps’ hand pies. Plus, of course, those irresistible bite-size Pie Pops—maple bacon, pear or apple cinnamon.

Pie pops are fun to eat!

Carefully sourced ingredients and creative combos are their trademarks. The pies are all made with organic flour milled in Lancaster, PA, butter from a Vermont cooperative of dairy farmers and fresh produce and meat from their farmer friends all around New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. You’ll find the pies at New Amsterdam Market on Sundays, or at their newly opened shop on Driggs Avenue in Greenpoint, where you can grab yourself a cup of Brooklyn Roasting Company coffee as well. Yes, Pie Corps also makes sweet pies—gingerbread custard among them!

And for DIYers, it has just started giving monthly baking classes: January 23 is “Savory Winter Pies,” $65. (At press time, one or two spots are still open in the December 18th class, too.) Hand pies, $6; savory 10-inch pies, $40; sweet 10-inch, $35.

Add lime slices and whipped cream to your pie, if you like. (Photo courtesy Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies)

Speaking of sweet, we head over to Red Hook, where, hallelujah, Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies is back in production again, after some serious flooding by Sandy. Baker/owner Steve Tarpin, who grew up in Florida, makes the pies by hand in small batches using 100 percent pure fresh butter for the graham-cracker crust and freshly squeezed key lime juice. Reconstituted juice may be OK “if you’re stripping paint or removing rust, but not not in a food product,” he insists. The key lime (citrus aurantiifolia) is much smaller than the familiar “Persian” lime, about the size of a ping pong or golf ball; he points out it’s not exclusive to the Florida Keys (it’s native to Southeast Asia), but was brought to the Keys and naturalized.

In addition to the elegant and aromatic key lime pies, you’ll want to try a Steve’s Authentic exclusive, the Swingle—a Belgian chocolate–dipped frozen tart on a stick. Wow. Steve delivers his pies around town, including to Union Markets in Brooklyn. Or he’ll sell you one at company headquarters on Pier 41. Walk-in hours vary throughout the week but with more certainty Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and weekends, 11 am–5 pm (at least). Call ahead to be sure. 10-inch pie, $28; 8-inch, $18; 4-inch tart, $5; Swingle, $6.

Pie Corps
77 Driggs Avenue, Greenpoint
917-721-3052 / 917-582-2769

Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies
204 Van Dyke Street, Pier 41, Red Hook
888-450-5463, 718-858-5333

Photographs by Basia Hellwig. Date stamp typographic design by Joy Makon Design. The font is Shelley Allegro, by Matthew Carter, Linotype, 1972.

Filed Under: 12 Days of Brooklyn, Food/Drink Tagged With: 12 Days of Brooklyn, 12 Sips and Tastes, 12 Tastes of Brooklyn, Cheryl Perry, Felipa Lopez, Greenpoint, key lime pie, meat pies, Pie Corps, pies, Red Hook, Steve Tarpin, Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pies, tourtiere

12 DAYS OF BROOKLYN: Good Porches Make Good Neighbors

December 13, 2012 by Anne Mollegen Smith 1 Comment

Day Eight • 12 Views of Brooklyn

Photograph by Joy Makon. See Who’s Who.

BROWNSTONE BROOKLYN, PEOPLE SAY – never mind that some of the rowhouses are brick or limestone, or interrupted by modern condos of concrete, glass and steel and the occasional larger pre-war apartment buildings. In mind’s eye, the long blocks between avenues have a rhythm or regularity that overcomes the variations. One can call the roll of neighborhoods: Albemarle Place, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Clinton Hill, Crown Heights…all the way up the alphabet past Prospect Park South and Sunset Park to Windsor Terrace, where among the low-rise blocks are two jewels: Howard Place and, seen here, Fuller Place. Thanks to careful stewardship by the Fuller Place homeowners, the line of contiguous front porches is as pristine as this new-fallen snow.

Filed Under: 12 Days of Brooklyn, Look Tagged With: 12 Days of Brooklyn, 12 Views of Brooklyn, Brooklyn neighborhoods, Brownstone Brooklyn, front porches, Fuller Place, Joy Makon Design, Windsor Terrace

Coffee Conscious

December 12, 2012 by Bruce Campbell Leave a Comment

Day Seven • 12 Sips of Brooklyn

The author relaxes at Café Grumpy in Greenpoint.

OUTSIDE THE CITY LIMITS, businesses and commuters rely on fossil fuel. Here in New York, we know the true engine of enterprise is coffee.

Years ago, while studying graphic design in Greenwich Village, I frequented a diner on Waverly Place that had a unique dispensing system for its coffee. Order a cup and the counterman would turn the tap on what looked to be an ordinary kitchen faucet sticking from the wall. Out came black java. How cool was that! I visualized this vast network of pipes running through the city parallel to the Catskill water lines, and plotted how to get it supplied to my kitchen. Eventually, I realized it was merely a clever positioning of their coffee urn in the kitchen behind, maximizing space in the limited serving area (my naïveté is best explained by two words: art school).

In the past two decades, coffee in the city has gone from commodity to connoisseur. On the one hand, there is the ubiquitous Starbucks, basically a slicker, upscale Chock Full o’Nuts. For mocha’s sake, there are Starbucks in shopping malls (!) and thruway rest areas. Good enough for a quick joe, but basically homogenized brown water dispensed by undertrained baristas. On the other hand are the coffee bars with more highly trained staff, higher quality product and various levels of design finish or stylish marketing as product differentiators.

I prefer my coffee from what I call the roaster/merchant. These shops work on the assumption that there is a market in consumers who want to drink their java not in some plush salon, but in the roastery itself. These are not your fancy wineries perched at the edge of the vineyard, with peacocks wandering about and classical music piped in. No, these are a few tables pushed up against bean bags hard by the coffee roaster. A certain industrial esthetic predominates.

Café Grumpy in Greenpoint is an excellent example of the roaster/merchant. Here you know the roasted beans are fresh, having travelled all of 20 feet from roasting to cup. Grumpy embodies a trend in the coffee trade that won’t be unfamiliar to other artisanal businesses. The menu in the shop provides some basic information about the origins (country and region—often down to the specific valley) and its website links to photos of the coffee growers in their plantations, taken by staff who are obviously inspecting the product and working closely with the farmers.

I think this trend appeals to a modern desire by sophisticated buyers to be conscious of where a product is from, who made it and how it was made. In another industry, Apple Inc. has lately been beset by bad press covering the working conditions at its Chinese contractors plants. There is a developing insight that our Western consumption practices have real world consequences for people thousands of miles away, and we want and need businesses to care about this.

Bkly-Roasting-sign Brooklyn Roasting Company is located on a cobblestoned street in DUMBO crisscrossed by old train tracks that used to serve the factories of an earlier era. Its shop has a hard-edged factory feel, with a gorgeous Loring Kestrel roaster and industrial drums under stark lighting at one end and café seating at the other. Its website quotes its “coffeelosophy,” a listing of coffee awareness buzzwords: “best quality Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, and Organic certified and sustainable coffees.” Currently, it also shows pictures of co-owner Jim Munson on a coffee expedition in Sumatra.

The roaster at Brooklyn Roasting Company

Today’s coffee houses are open about the details of their production, extending down to their care and concern for the small growers that supply them. That vision appears to go beyond mere coffee political correctness or a clever marketing ploy. The American Revolution (and the modern world) was hatched in the coffeehouses of Boston, London and Philadelphia. The concern shown by these new coffee merchants is for a sustainable future for the entire supply chain that leads to the consumer. That vision deserves to be central to any manifesto crafted in the coffeehouses of the artisan/maker movement growing here in Brooklyn.

For the anthem of the movement, I propose the KaffeeKantate by Johann Sebastian Bach, here performed in a coffeehouse by The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir:

Brooklyn Roasting Company
25 Jay Street, Dumbo
718-522-2664

Cafe Grumpy
193 Meserole Avenue, Greenpoint
718-349-7623

Photographs by Basia Hellwig. Date stamp typographic design by Joy Makon Design. The font is Gill Sans Ultra Bold, by Eric Gill, Monotype, 1928.

Filed Under: 12 Days of Brooklyn, Food/Drink Tagged With: 12 Days of Brooklyn, 12 Sips and Tastes, 12 Sips of Brooklyn, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Brooklyn Roasting Company, Cafe Grumpy, Coffee, coffee beans, DUMBO, espresso, Fair Trade, Jim Munson, Johann Sebastian Bach, KaffeeKantate, organic coffee, Rainforest Alliance

Ancient Craft, New Artisans

December 12, 2012 by Basia Hellwig 1 Comment

Day Seven • 12 Tastes of Brooklyn

Miche, Bien Cuit’s signature artisanal bread

ARTISANAL BREAD MAKING IS NOT FOR SISSIES. The baker’s day starts before the sun rises, and a small batch of handcrafted loaves can take up to three days to make, from start to finish, with repeated fermentation and kneading and rising stages. The natural yeast starter used is a living organism, combining yeast from the air with lactobacteria from the flour and the air to create a fermenting or leavening agent. It’s not called wild yeast for nothing—it can be temperamental, depending on which exact strains of bacteria develop, how they combine with a particular wheat flour, the temperature, and so on. It is the baker’s art to nurture their starter—the mother yeast (madre, if you’re an Italian baker)—like a baby, keeping it alive often for decades, for that is what gives each baker’s breads their distinct flavor and texture.

This was the way bread was made for centuries—and it’s a craft that is still being practiced in some special places in Brooklyn. So forget that 30-Minute Artisan Bread recipe.

Raisin walnut, baguette, olive—just a few of Bien Cuit's breads.

Raisin walnut, baguette, olive—just a few of Bien Cuit’s other breads.

Go instead to Bien Cuit in Boerum Hill or Settepani Bakery in Williamsburg where you’ll be hit by the most intoxicating smells as you walk through the door. Two of our favorite loaves:

MICHE, from Bien Cuit
This is Bien Cuit’s signature bread (pictured, at top) made from three wheat and three rye flours and fermented for up to 68 hours. It’s round and beautiful with a well-done (bien cuit) crunchy crust and very tasty crumb texture. Master baker Zachary Golper learned to bake on an Oregon farm at 19, where he watched and learned from a man who made bread by traditional European methods: building up the starter over a few days and baking the loaves in a wood-fired adobe oven. Golper went on to refine his craft, working in France and at the Bec-Fin in Philadelphia, until, luckily for us, he and his wife, Kate Wheatcroft, opened up a bakery in Boerum Hill. We’ve heard he never sleeps, and we believe it because starting at 7 am, baskets at the bakery are full of fresh bread, including the miche, $10 for a 1 lb loaf.

PANETTONE, from Settepani Bakery
These festive raisin-studded tall round loaves appear in bakeries and groceries around Christmastime, sometimes in beautiful elaborate gift boxes that look good enough to hold the crown jewels. Many are shipped from Italy, where the panettone was invented centuries ago in Milan. (Like all old Italian recipes, there seem to be a lot of tall tales about how it came it be.) But nothing beats a fresh-baked panettone, which is what you’ll find at Settepani Bakery.

Rows of Milanese panettone at Settepani Bakery in Williamsburg

Owner Nino Settepani (the name means “seven breads”—how perfect) was born in Sicily, but has lived here most of his life. A master baker trained at the French Culinary Institute, he’s been baking breads and pastries of all kinds for over 30 years now. Production of the panettone begins in the fall each year. The first step is to “wake up” the yeast starter that he uses year after year, refreshing it every day to make it strong and active.

Settepani’s chocolate panettone comes in a beautiful gift-worthy box.

By November 15, he begins making his first batch of panettone, a process that takes up to 30 hours—mixing the dough, proofing it overnight for 12 hours, mixing it again and letting it rise in a temperature-controlled steam box for another 6 or 7 hours. “It might come out at 2 pm, but lately it’s been 4 or 5 pm because it’s so cold,” he tells me. After that the loaves are baked very slowly for two hours. Each holiday season, Settepani Bakery produces more than 600 panettone of various types. The Milanese has raisins and cut dried fruit in it; the Veneziano, almonds, but no raisins. There’s also a chocolate one. They come in 1 lb, 2 lb and “baby” sizes. The Milanese is $16 for 2 lbs, $10 for 1 lb, $2.50 for the baby.

Bien Cuit
120 Smith Street, Boerum Hill
718-852-0200

Settepani Bakery
602 Lorimer Street, Williamsburg
718-349-6524

Photographs by Basia Hellwig. Date stamp typographic design by Joy Makon Design. The font is Gill Sans Ultra Bold, by Eric Gill, Monotype, 1928.

Filed Under: 12 Days of Brooklyn, Food/Drink Tagged With: 12 Days of Brooklyn, 12 Sips and Tastes, 12 Tastes of Brooklyn, artisan baker, Bien Cuit, Nino Settepani, panettone, Settepani Bakery, wild yeast, Zachary Golper

Joy’s Best of Brooklyn, December 14, 15, 16

December 12, 2012 by Joy Makon Leave a Comment

The bakers at famed breakfast haunt Norma’s, of Le Parker Meridien in
Outer Brooklyn, created the Hurri-Crane for the Gingerbread Extragavanza.
See Play With Your Food, below. (photograph by the Brooklyn Artisan photo pool.)

Shopping Opps • Play With Your Food • The Gift of Classes

SIX SHOPPING OPPS
1. Shop at a business struggling since Sandy. With the launch of the Support NYC Small Business campaign, New Yorkers and visitors can easily find ways to support places impacted by Sandy. At the campaign’s website, businesses that have reopened are indicated on the interactive map and include restaurants and bars, food and drink purveyors, shops, companies, as well as services. Just pick a neighborhood and go.

Two weekends worth of goods at Brooklyn Craft Central include Noble Goods wood and
resin housewares, MissWit ironic tees, Sour Puss Pickles, and SweaterToys animals.

2. Saturday and Sunday (and next weekend too): Brooklyn Craft Central Annual Holiday Market at Littlefield Performance & Art Space. Interesting roster of vendors include: Sour Puss Pickles, a small-batch pickling company; SweaterToys, stuffed animals made from recycled sweaters; MissWit, whimsical, satirical tees; Noble Goods, home objects created from solid wood and cast resin. Beware the drink specials: Woolly Knit (hot cider with bourbon), Hot Glue (coffee and Kahlua), and Shopaholic (gin, lemon, simple syrup, grenadine). Park Slope. 11am-5pm.

3. Saturday: South Slope Holiday Craft Fair, benefiting art, music and science programs at PS10. The PTA fair has come a long way. PS10’s selection of upmarket, original art, jewelry, clothing and more makes this event a worthwhile stop. >>At right, one-of-a-kind sculpture Barney, from exhibitor What the Folk Art. Free workshops for kids from Brooklyn Craft Workshop, a raffle and Kimchi Taco Truck snacks complete the afternoon. Park Slope. 11am-5pm.

4. Saturday and Sunday: The Degenerate Craft Fair, created for artists, by artists, as a sort of anti-art fair. Over 50 artists and designers have work for sale, most costing less than $50. On Sunday, the first 50 guests receive a tote bag of goodies. At The DUMBO Loft, DUMBO. Saturday, 12pm-9pm. Sunday, 11am-6pm.

5. Saturday: 6th annual 3rd Ward Handmade Holiday Craft Fair. Over 100 Bklyn-based vendors will offer handmade gifts to customize one’s iPad, along with kitchenwares, food and other interesting stuff. First 200 visitors will receive a 3rd Ward tote bag filled with goodies. Boerum Hill Northern Italian restaurant Rucola will offer up drinks and snacks. Williamsburg. 12pm-6pm.

6. Sunday: Kids Play, You Shop at Brooklyn Robot Foundry. Register, and drop off your 5 to 10 year old for three hours of open play time. They will be guided by Robot Foundry staffers and will get to design and build robotic projects using educational materials and toys. In return, parents will get a 10% discount on neighboring shops and cafes and a chance to have some grown-up time while the kids are entertained. Gowanus. Two sessions at 11am-2pm and 2:30pm-5:30pm.

PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD
Saturday: Gingerbread Ships! A very tasty Tools & Talent workshop at BLDG92, Brooklyn Navy Yard. The Brooklyn-built USS Monitor will be recreated in gingerbread by model shipwright Dan Pariser and the bakers from Fort Greene’s Le Petit Bakery. Participants will help assemble, decorate and “commission” in the atrium, and all kids will receive a gingerbread ship cookie to decorate. Bound to be popular, so advanced ticket purchase is advised, via website. Vinegar Hill. 1pm.

Sunday: 2nd annual Food Experiments National Championship presented by Brooklyn Brewery. Touted on the website as “The World Series, Super Bowl, Stanley Cup of amateur cooking competitions,” this event is the finale of 12 months of national food competitions in search of the ultimate home chef. Judges include Noah Bermanoff, owner Mile End Delicatessen and Coleman Andrews, editorial director, The Daily Meal. Advanced ticket purchase advised; admission includes food samplings and unlimited Brooklyn Brewery beer. At The Brooklyn Brewery, Williamsburg. 1pm-4pm.

On display through January 3, Le Parker Meridien’s Gingerbread Extravaganza in the 56th Street atrium. These are no ordinary gingerbread houses, as the theme of Landmarks Around the World inspired NYC-based bakers to erect monuments to Loch Ness and the Urquhart Castle, Chichen Itza, Toji Tower, The Lincoln Memorial, The Sphinx, and my favorite, Hurri-Crane [Le Parker Meridien is located across the street from the infamous 57th Street Sandy-damaged crane and was closed until the crane could be secured.] Vote for your favorite by purchasing a ballot for $1 with proceeds benefitting City Harvest. Outer Brooklyn, Manhattan.

More from the Gingerbread Extravaganza: Toji Tower, created by Kyotofu, a Hell's KitchenJapanese dessert bar; The Lincoln Memorial, crafted by Baked Ideas, a custom baker.

More from the Gingerbread Extravaganza: Toji Tower, created by Kyotofu, a Hell’s Kitchen
Japanese dessert bar; The Lincoln Memorial, keeping Abe warm with baby-blue mittens,
earmuffs (or Beats?) and bowtie, created by Baked Ideas, a custom baker.

GIVE THE GIFT OF CLASSES
Many businesses share their love of community and technique through classes. A gift certificate for a single or group of sessions would make a unique gift. Act soon, as classes often sell out quickly, and space is limited at most events. Four suggestions to get you thinking:

• Brooklyn Homebrew, Gowanus
A retailer devoted to all things necessary to produce and learn about making beer.
Discovering Yeast, a hands-on 2-hour session on the basics of brewing with yeast. Starting January 8.
Homebrew 101: A Beginner’s Class, will guide students through all the steps to making beer at home. January 10.

• Owl and Thistle General Store, Crown Heights
This urban mercantile specializes in local, sustainable and fair trade items and is run by Keri Cavanaugh, an independent clothing designer and former Peace Corps volunteer.
Meet Your Sewing Machine, a 2-hour introductory class. Starting January 5.
Introduction to Home Sewing, 3 sessions concentrated on working with patterns to create a tote bag, drawstring skirt or pajama pant. Starting January 7.

• Gowanus Furniture, Gowanus
A producer of well-designed, locally-made innovative products.
Custom Cutting Board Class, during 2 evenings, students will make a wood cutting board and enjoy wine and local snacks. Starting January 18.

• SideTour, various locations in Brooklyn and Outer Brooklyn
An online marketplace of classes and events that are hosted by locals experienced in topics ranging from individualized tours, chef techniques, wine tastings, and other unique opportunities—all vetted by the SideTour team. Gift certificates can be used toward any class or event on the site.
DIY Jewelry Making Session, 2-hours, 3 bracelets. DUMBO location. January 20.
Create Your Own Handmade Soda at Brooklyn Soda Works, January 16.

FOR YOUR SPRING LINE?
EMERALD. Pantone 17-5641 has been designated as the color of the year for 2013, allowing Tangerine Tango, Pantone 17-1463 to retire as 2012’s color. “The most abundant hue in nature, the human eye sees more green than any other color in the spectrum,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®.

Joy Makon curates Brooklyn Artisan’s Craft & Design coverage and creates the weekly Best of Brooklyn lists.
Send items for listings to brooklynartisan@joymakondesign.com

Filed Under: Craft/Design, Food/Drink, Guilds/Fairs, Joy's Best of Brooklyn Weekend Listings, Outer Brooklyn, Uncategorized Tagged With: 3rd Ward, Brooklyn brewery, Brooklyn Craft Central, Brooklyn Homebrew, Brooklyn Robot Foundry, Coleman Andrew, craft fair, Crown Heights, DUMBO, Food Experiments National Championship, Gingerbread Extravaganza, Gowanus, Gowanus Furniture, Handmade, Holiday Market, Hurri-Crane, Kimchi Taco Truck, Le Parker Meridien, Littlefield, Mile End Delicatessen, MissWit, Noble Goods, Norma's, NYC Small Business, Owl and Thistle General Store, P.S. 10, Pantone, Pantone 17-5641, Park Slope, Rucola, shopping, SideTour, Sour Puss Pickles, SweaterToys, The Daily Meal, The Degenerate Craft Fair, The DUMBO Loft, Williamsburg

12 DAYS OF BROOKLYN … And Some Are Rainy

December 12, 2012 by Anne Mollegen Smith 1 Comment

Day Seven • 12 Views of Brooklyn

Etching by Eric March in an edition of 25, at the Park Slope Gallery.

Etching by Eric March. Edition of 25, at the Park Slope Gallery.

OF COURSE THE STEEPLE IS FAMILIAR. If you’ve ever commuted out of Brooklyn and back to the Seventh Avenue stop on the B/Q line, then you know this view looking south on the avenue. But it takes the artist’s eye and the etcher’s touch of Eric March to show the delicate beauty of a moment when you or I would likely be preoccupied by wet shoes. Even if this particular spire is not on your route home, then almost surely you have one of your own, or two, for Brooklyn lives its nickname as “the city of churches.” How horrifying when the tornado of 2010 attacked not just our trees but our steeples, shaking their bricks and stones, rattling their slate roofs, shackling them to scaffolds for months and months. A few were even removed rather than rebuilt – like yanking a tooth – and still others were humiliatingly reduced. Of course we personalize these losses: Thrilling as the new towers of downtown Brooklyn may be, we know in our souls they are impersonal, godless, compared to our neighborhood steeples. (See Who’s Who.)

Filed Under: 12 Days of Brooklyn, Look, Uncategorized Tagged With: artist Eric March, Brooklyn "city of churches", Brooklyn steeple, contemporary etching, Eric March etching, Park Slope Gallery, Rainy day scene, September Rain Seventh Avenue

End-of-this-World Hot Chocolate

December 11, 2012 by Bruce Campbell Leave a Comment

Day Six • 12 Sips of Brooklyn

The spicy hot chocolate at The Chocolate Room.

The spiced hot chocolate at The Chocolate Room.

WHAT SHALL WE DRINK AT THE ENDING OF THE WORLD? What better way to honor the end of the Mayan’s Long Calendar (and the destruction of all we know and love) than by serving their favorite beverage: chocolate, preferably hot.

What with Niburu (or is it Planet X?) ready to carom off us in a celestial game of billiards, the impending total blackout, solar flares, devastating meteors and the reversal in the rotation of the Earth, things promise to get pretty busy around here soon. Even NASA is attempting to debunk the rumors, which should only encourage the anxiety: “Man, the government obviously knows all about this and they’re just covering it up to keep the citizens docile.”

So, to stock up for our ultimate Go-bag (in the event that we have to head for our mountain redoubt to rebuild the human race), we went over to The Chocolate Room in the Slope for some hot chocolate. The real star there is the Spiced Dark Hot Chocolate, only available during the cold season or until the collapse of civilization, whichever ends first.

Made with a blend of Belgian chocolate (60% and 72% cocoa), Valhrona (French) cocoa, sugar, cloves and cinnamon, the drink gets its spiciness from Ancho and Chipotle chilis, an authentic addition the Mayans would appreciate. Floating in the middle of the cup was a delicious chunk of artisanal marshmallow.

Spiced Dark Hot Chocolate bears as little relation to supermarket/diner/skating rink hot chocolate as a delay on the F train bears to a collision with a brown dwarf planet. It is rich and loaded with flavonoids and other antioxidants as well as mild stimulants. The science is still out, but there is evidence that chocolate may improve your mood and heart health (when taken in moderation). The chilis also are reputed to have medicinal effects. Of course, the scientists are all busy pooh-poohing the end of the planet, so you can take their advice with a grain of salt.

The Chocolate Room sells its Spiced Dark mix to go in a meteorite-resistant one quart tin for $20 (also available from the website). If you want some marshmallows with that, stay away from those awful pellets sold in the supermarket, and go for Whimsy & Spice’s confections instead. The Brooklyn makers produce marshmallows in cardamom, maple, passionfruit and other flavors. (Available online and from local stores for $6.50 a dozen.)

Jacques Torres Chocolate is a true Mecca for chocolate, in solid or liquid state. The classic hot chocolate is rich and creamy, and they also have a Wicked version with Ancho and Chipotle chilis. They’ve thrown down the gauntlet by stating that they never use cocoa powder in their blends, and the packaged version is $18 for 16 oz.

I’ll leave it to the chocolate makers to battle over the nuances of cocoa powder vs. no cocoa powder, I’m heading down to my Niburu-proof bunker for some hot chocolate.

The Chocolate Room
86 Fifth Avenue, Park Slope
718-783-2900
269 Court Street, Cobble Hill
718-246-2600

Jacques Torres Chocolate
66 Water Street, DUMBO
718-875-1269

Whimsy & Spice
646-709-6659

Photographs by Basia Hellwig. Date stamp typographic design by Joy Makon Design. The font is Goudy Oldstyle, by Frederick W. Goudy, Linotype, 1915.

Filed Under: 12 Days of Brooklyn, Food/Drink Tagged With: 12 Days of Brooklyn, 12 Sips and Tastes, 12 Sips of Brooklyn, Jacques Torres Chocolate, Spiced Dark Hot Chocolate, The Chocolate Room, Whimsy and Spice

Villabate Alba’s Famous Cannoli

December 11, 2012 by Basia Hellwig 1 Comment

Day Six • 12 Tastes of Brooklyn

Villabate Alba's pastry displays knock you over when you walk in the store. That's the cannoli, top left.

Villabate Alba’s pastry displays knock you over when you walk in the store. The cannoli are top left.

CANNOLI WERE TRADITIONALLY MADE IN SICILY for Carnevale, or Mardi Gras, a final luxurious burst of richness before Lent. But really, aren’t they perfect for any feast? I have to agree with Mediterranean cooking scholar Clifford A. Wright: “A freshly made cannoli is an extraordinary taste of celestial paradise, a perfect conclusion to a feast.”

Villabate Alba, a family-owned Sicilian pastry shop established three generations ago in Bensonhurst, is the place to experience that paradise—and other seasonal delicacies, too. As the Michelin Guide would say, “Worth a special journey” if you don’t happen to live in the neighborhood. (They also ship.) The cannoli have perfectly crisp shells and are filled with ricotta flown in from Palermo. Candied orange rind at one end and a cherry at the other perfect the package.

Marzipan fruits, good any time of year.

Villabate (named after the village in northern Sicily where the shop’s founders, Angelo Alaimo and his son Emanuele, used to bake bread) is bustling every time you go in. But at this time of year, lines form. You’ll find tables stacked high with panettone boxes and lots of special cookies and sweets traditionally made around Christmas.

Christmas cookie plates, ready to go.

They bake mostaccioli cookies, popular all over southern Italy—and Brooklyn—for the holidays. Apparently these used to be made with grape must (we’re talking back in days of the Roman Empire). They’re redolent of the spices of the Silk Road (think Italian gingerbread), filled with figs and topped with chocolate.

A pyramid of honey-soaked biscuit.

Rococò are crisp wreath-shaped cookies made with ginger and cloves, infused with almonds and studded with whole almonds. Honey balls stacked in a pyramid… The temptations are many. But be careful. You could go into a sugar coma just looking.

Villabate Alba Pasticceria & Bakery
7001 18th Avenue, Bensonhurst
718-331-8430

Photographs by Basia Hellwig. Date stamp typographic design by Joy Makon Design. The font is Goudy Oldstyle, by Frederick W. Goudy, Linotype, 1915.