Joy’s Best of Brooklyn, November 9, 10, 11

November 7, 2012 by Leave a Comment
A chance to recharge, support and giveback: theater discounts, house and history tours and it’s Meat Week NYC with events to benefit Sandy recovery

Best of is glad to be back with more eclectic things to do in Brooklyn and Outer Brooklyn.
BE SURE TO CONFIRM with each event or venue as schedules and availability continue to change for many things.

Miguel Cervantes in the classic Giant, performed at the Public Theater. (photo by Karen Almond.)

Through Sunday: Off Broadway post-Sandy Discounts. Playhouses big and small were dark last week and as an enticement to get audiences to return, many are offering $20 tickets. Among the offerings: “A Summer Day” featuring Karen Allen, at the Cherry Lane Theatre, and $15 tickets at The Public Theater for three shows. NYTimes lists participating theaters.

Through Sunday: Meat Week NYC, celebrating the farmers, markets and chefs who bring sustainable meat to our tables. Tastings, parties, butchering and cooking demos, market tours, talks. Updates to scheduled events will benefit Sandy relief efforts. Brooklyn and Outer Brooklyn locations, check the website for specifics.

Friday: The Shooting Gallery, part of Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 30th Next Wave Festival. An interactive installation in which the audience will trigger short video and audio clips with lasers while circulating through the theater. “Creating something like a group gestalt,” according to director Bill Morrison. BAM Fisher Fishman Space, Fort Greene. 7:30pm and 9pm.

Friday: Broads for a Cause—An art benefit for Planned Parenthood. Opening reception and silent auction of artwork from over 45 female artists and tattooers. Sponsored by Coney Island Beer and Cupcakeland. At Eight of Swords Tattoo, Williamsburg. 7pm-11pm.

Saturday & Sunday: International Passive House Days. Four Brooklyn residences will be open for tours: two landmarked homes, two new construction. All use construction methods that meet Passive House standards: comfortable temperatures year round, affordable to build, energy savings, renewable. Various locations, check the website for information.

Saturday & Sunday: 21st Annual Quilt Show “Cool Quilts”. This annual exhibit showcases some of the most interesting quilts made in the area. This year’s show takes inspiration from the word cool. Lefferts Historic House, Prospect Park. 12pm-4pm.

Bldg92 at Brooklyn Navy Yard is on the tour on Saturday.

Saturday: Brooklyn Navy Yard by Bus: the Past, Present & Future of the Yard. Voted 2012 best tour by New York, this tour packs almost 400 years of city history in a little over two hours. At its peak, the Navy Yard employed tens of thousands of workers, but then stood idle for almost 30 years. In its current resurrection as a haven for artists and entrepreneurs, the Yard is becoming a model for sustainable urban industrial parks. Included in the tour is a closer look at the dry dock that’s been in use since before the Civil War, a hospital frozen in time, and the nation’s first multi-story LEED Gold-certified industrial building. Advanced ticket purchase is advised. Vinegar Hill. 2pm.

Saturday: The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival. A one-day series of events featuring artists and publishers displaying and selling publications; lectures and conversations on comics; exhibits.
• Free public exhibition. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, Williamsburg. 12pm-7pm.
• Events and talks throughout the day, such as a Q&A with Roz Chast at 2:30pm. The Knitting Factory, Williamsburg. 11am-4:30pm.
• Screening of two documentaries about cartoonists Joann Sfar and Ben Katchor. Followed with a discussion by filmmaker Sam Ball and subject Ben Katchor moderated by WFMU’s Benjamen Walker. At Union Docs, Williamsburg. 7:30pm.

Saturday: Farmy Folks Soiree Markets Fundraiser and Volunteer Appreciation Ceremony sponsored by the Hattie Carthan Community Farmers Market. You are invited to join in on a home-grown family-style feast, live eco and folk performances, locally grown/produced wines, local bread, more. Tickets required. Bedford Stuyvesant. 6pm-10pm.

Puppetmaking workshop at BAM, Sunday.

Sunday: Great for families The Sweatshirt Sheep Puppetmaking Workshop, Brooklyn Academy of Music. Part of BAMcinématek series Puppets on Film. Make your own puppets and then perform your creations in front of a camera. Be sure to check out other puppet programing throughout the weekend at BAM, Fort Greene. 11am, 2:30pm.

Sunday: Open Studio and Gift Sale by watercolor and ceramic artist Sally Mara Sturman. Paintings, illustrations, drawings, prints and pottery, old (really cheap!) and new (not so cheap).

Illustrated Ceramic Bowl by Sally Mara Sturman, Open Studio and Sale, Sunday

Sally’s Etsy site All Things Painted is also on sale [use coupon code: HOLIDAY1 for 20% off]. To visit her Lefferts Garden Open Studio, contact Sally for exact address. Please mention Brooklyn Artisan. 2pm-7pm.

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

Filed Under: Architecture, Collectives, Community, Coworking, Craft/Design, farms/gardens, Galleries, Guilds/Fairs, Innovation, museums, Outer Brooklyn, Uncategorized, urban planning, Winery, brewery, distiller Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Was Your Business Hurt by Hurricane Sandy? Where To Start

November 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment

THE INITIAL SHOCK OF STORM DAMAGE may be passing only to be followed by feeling daunted. Don’t give in, however. Start the process of recovery as soon as you can. NYC Small Business Services and NYC Severe Weather have issued these guidelines:

  • Contact your insurance broker/agent immediately. Make sure you get the proper forms to file a claim.
  • Survey any damage, but exercise caution; enter a severely damaged building ONLY after local authorities have deemed it safe to do so.
  • Document damages and losses: Photograph/videotape any damage to your business and set up a system to save receipts for replacement items or repair work. Keep track of ALL expenses with receipts and make notes with explanations. These will be essential when you need to show proof of these expenses. [Read more…]
Filed Under: Community, Guilds/Fairs, The Business Side

Feeding the Powerless: NYC Food Truck and JetBlue Roll Out

November 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Throwndown sponsored by jetBlueTODAY, FRIDAY NOVEMBER 2, post-Sandy lower Manhattan will get a break – a breakfast, lunch or dinner break, that is – as an estimated 11,000 meals are given away at more than a dozen lower Manhattan locations, thanks to the combined forces of the New York Food Truck Association and JetBlue. (In a considerably lighter mood, the airline sponsored the recent Food Truck Throwdown in Boston.)

If you’re among the power-out citizens of lower Manhattan, look up the locations on New York Street Food. The list will be updated throughout the day. Or check them out via Eater’s handy but preliminary list.  Eater offers an interactive map.

Throwndown sponsored by jetBlueWhile we’re on this subject, the New York Food Truck Finder might be worth a bookmark for its day-in, day-out locator services.

For the very picky eater, though, the Zagat food truck finder, which promised to filter locations by two-dozen cuisines, is still in Beta. The two dozen listed under “cuisine” (but not activated) include not only Asian and Asian Fusion, European, Greek, Korean Barbecue, Moroccan, Turkish and Taiwanese, but also such international favorites as Soup, Ice Cream, Pizza, and Hamburgers.

Filed Under: Community, Food/Drink

Joy’s Best of Brooklyn for October 19, 20, 21

October 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment

♥ Walking tours that help you work off the eating

Friday: Launch party for Widow Jane Whiskey, a single barrel bourbon. Cocktails, BBQ, Live Bluegrass music, whiskey distillation and white lightning from the still. At Cacao Prieto Distillery & Chocolate Factory, Red Hook. 7pm-10pm.

Friday: Celebrate Cider Week NY with Cheese and Cider at BKLYN Larder. Demo by Eve’s Cidery plus cheese and cider pairings. Park Slope. 5pm-8pm.

Saturday & Sunday: Electronic Waste Recycling in Brooklyn, sponsored by the Lower East Side Ecology Center
• Saturday: Flatbush Food Coop, Cortelyou Road, Flatbush. 10am-4pm.
• Sunday: PS29 at Baltic Street, Cobble Hill. 10am-4pm.

Painting by Frangiou Fotini,
BWAC, this weekend.

Saturday & Sunday: Last weekend for Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC) Affordable Art Auction. Red Hook. Silent auction until 4pm each day. Winners can take art home by 6pm.

Saturday: Events in Bed-Stuy:
♥ Brownstoners of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Inc. 34th annual House Tour. Self-guided tour from 11am-4pm.
• Bed-Stuy Bazaar featuring merchandise from Fulton Arts Fair members. 10:30am-3:30pm.
♥ BeSAA 9th Annual Studio Strut. Self-guided tour of local artists in their studios, homes, galleries and area businesses. 3pm-7pm

Saturday: Prospect Park Food Truck Rally. To date, 16 trucks including: Bongo Brothers, Cupcake Crew, Eddies Pizza, Green Pirate, Kimchi Taco Truck, Mexicue, Milk Truck, Nuchas, Phil’s Steaks, Red Hook Lobster, Rickshaw Truck, Schnitzel & Things, Souvlaki GR , Taïm Mobile, Wafels & Dinges. Sponsored by Prospect Park Alliance and the NYC Food Truck Association. Grand Army Plaza. 11am-5pm.

Brownstones in Bed-Stuy and mansions in Bay Ridge will be part of walking tours on Saturday. (Photo courtesy
of the Historic Districts Council.)

♥ Saturday: Bay Ridge walking tour led by Victoria Hofmo, founder of the Bay Ridge Conservancy. The tour focuses on some of the neighborhood’s most pressing preservation priorities. 10am

Saturday: 2nd annual Tastes of Brooklyn. Top Brooklyn chefs partner with farmers and seeds in the middle of the Greenmarket at Borough Hall. 11:30am-3pm.

Sunday: 3rd annual Havemeyer Sugar Sweets Festival. All-donation bake sale and baking competition to raise funds for The City Reliquary museum and civic organization. Baking Smackdown schedule: The most decadent vegan, 11am. Best fall-flavored treat, 12pm. Best sweet slice, 1pm. Best booze-infused, 2pm. Best In Show, 3pm. Williamsburg, 10am-4pm.

Sunday: Pickling Canning Workshop, one of a series of classes in practicing the skills of sustainable living. Everyone who attends will get a jar of something to bring home. Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, Park Slope. 1pm-3pm.

At MAD: Basket. Jeremy Frey, 2011. (Image copyright
©2012 Ari Plosker, all rights reserved)

Sunday: 3rd annual MAC-OFF, a no-holds-barred competition to find the best version of the All-American classic macaroni and cheese. With complementary Ommegang BPA. Huckleberrybar, Williamsburg. 5pm-8pm.

Sunday in Outer Brooklyn: Closing day for Changing Hands, Art Without Reservation 3. Contemporary Native North American Art from the Northeast and Southeast. Museum of Art and Design. “MAD” explores the blur zone between art, design, and craft today. MAD’s history of honoring the relationship between materials and maker is evident in their architecturally-fascinating space at Columbus Circle. Manhattan. 11am-6pm.


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

Filed Under: Architecture, Community, Craft/Design, Food/Drink, Galleries, Guilds/Fairs, museums, Outer Brooklyn, Uncategorized, urban planning, Winery, brewery, distiller Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ask the Experts: Food and Drink Entrepreneurs Dish About the Hard Times – and the Good

October 15, 2012 by 1 Comment

WHAT’S IT TAKE TO TRY TO MAKE IT AS A SMALL FOOD MANUFACTURER in New York City? That was the theme of a panel discussion last Tuesday at Leonard Lopate’s popular annual event series about the New York food scene. Three entrepreneurs came together with the broadcaster at WNYC’s Greene Space in Manhattan: Steve Hindy, cofounder of Brooklyn Brewery, Mark Rosen, a family member from the second of three generations making Sabrett hot dogs, and Anna Wolf, founder/owner of My Friend’s Mustard.

Lopate and Locavores: Discussing the ups and downs of running a food or drink business in NYC, with (from left) Steve Hindy of Brooklyn Brewery, Mark Rosen of Sabrett hot dogs and Anna Wolf of My Friend’s Mustard.

Later in the evening, Scott Bridi of Brooklyn Cured gave a lesson in sausage making, and Siggi Hilmarsson demo’d how to make Siggi’s Icelandic strained yogurt.

Sometimes, you do want to see the sausage being made. Before launching his company, Brooklyn Cured, Scott Bridi ran Gramercy Tavern’s charcuterie program for two years, then moved to Marlow and Daughters butcher shop in Williamsburg. Born in Bensonhurst, Bridi says “the borough with all its diversity is endlessly beautiful and important to me.”

The evening’s conversation frequently circled back to two pressing issues: distribution and struggles finding the right space to work in. Here are some snippets from the conversation:

How’d they get started?
Anna Wolf began making beer mustard as a hobby “for fun, shopping it out at the favorite watering hole,” she said. ‘You’ve gotta’ try my friend’s mustard,’ the bar owner would tell his customers. Hence the name. “He became my partner. We did a Kickstarter campaign. I made my first kitchen batches in March 2009, and we delivered them to the first six customers in his jeep.”

Steve Hindy was a foreign correspondent in the Middle East, where he worked in Beirut and Cairo for six years. It was in Cairo that he met American diplomats who were avid home brewers—a skill developed “out of necessity” when they were posted in Saudi Arabia. Hindy got interested. Back home in Brooklyn, he began to brew beer at home with his young downstairs neighbor Tom Potter, who had an MBA. They founded Brooklyn Brewery in 1987. “We raised $500,000 from colleagues and friends, but that wasn’t enough to build a brewery. We contracted out to a brewery in Utica and then trucked it down to an old warehouse in Bushwick. We went out in a van with our name on it and delivered to our first five customers.”

Mark Rosen is part of a family business started in 1926. Founder Gregory Papalexis, Rosen’s father-in-law, was the son of a baker who also had a hot dog business. Sabrett now manufactures 45 million pounds of frankfurters a year out of two plants in the Bronx, selling them up and down the east coast and wherever “New Yorkers are hiding out throughout the country,” said Rosen, but most visibly from pushcarts with the iconic blue and yellow umbrella all over New York City.

Their biggest challenges?
Hindy: “It took a lot longer to get licenses than we planned—six months instead of three—because NY State hadn’t approved a brewery in decades. There used to be 48 in Brooklyn alone, but the last one closed in 1976. To get approved, our investors had to reveal their deepest, darkest financial secrets, they had to be fingerprinted, which turned a lot of people off.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Encore, Food/Drink, Guilds/Fairs, The Business Side, Winery, brewery, distiller Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Littlest Makers at Maker Faire

October 13, 2012 by 1 Comment

FOR A MOVEMENT THAT THE ECONOMIST magazine has declared may “herald a new industrial revolution,” there appears to be an inordinate amount of fun in the maker world, at least in the examples on view at the recent World Maker Faire 2012. Apart from the rolling cupcake-mobiles and the explosive “science” involving Diet Coke and Mentos, there were robots dancing Gangnam Style, a range of steampunk gadgetry and clothing, and a large number of—not to put too fine a point on it—toys.

Play appears to be a central value for makers, for many it may be a blast of fresh air from the spreadsheets and word processors of “adult” worklife. Get in your garage, create a robot or an autonomous helicopter, assemble a music machine that uses sunlight to generate music, put some flashing lights on your t-shirt that advertise your heartbeat. Why not?

Robot makers engineering the future at the booth of Brooklyn Robot Foundry.

In fact, of the many perspectives on fun at Maker Faire, the one from sub-four-feet was ever-intriguing, as thousands of children can attest. Brooklyn Robot Foundry was a substantial presence at Maker Faire, winning two Educator Awards, [Read more…]

Filed Under: Craft/Design, Encore, Guilds/Fairs, Handmade, Outer Brooklyn Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Live from Gowanus Girls Indie Mart

October 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment


It’s a beautiful day and the crowd is fun. We’re enjoying The Fat Beagle pulled pork and brisket sliders, along with squash soup, sangria and Brooklyn brand East India Pale Ale. Site is right by the Carroll Street Bridge—will walk over that next just as soon as we finish the red velvet twinkies from Trois Pommes. Today and next Saturday.

Filed Under: Craft/Design, Food/Drink, Guilds/Fairs, Look, Uncategorized

Move Fast! 50% Off Basic Rate at 3rd Ward Right Now

October 12, 2012 by 1 Comment

URGENT UPDATE: The Good News: Will Sansom of 3rd Ward has confirmed with brooklyn-artisan.net that people who join as new Basic Plan (usually $99 a year) members today through midnight, Monday night, October 15, can get a special rate of 50% off. Mention Brooklyn Artisan when you inquire.

The Not-so-good News: Thursday night’s session on using Kickstarter to raise funds for your business project was so packed that even people who’d registered in advance, like us, (but arrived two minutes late) were unable to squeeze in even to stand among the spillover crowd in the back. Craning our necks to peer around the corner, we could see the edge of a chart on a slide, couldn’t hear a bit better, and did become an annoyance to the people we were leaning on to get a peek.

Speaking of numbers, though, here are some stats on 3rd Ward. (Also, scroll or click down to our earlier story, below.)

Member transport: Bikes locked to the radiator along a 40-foot hallway.

It’s a story of 2’s. 3rd Ward recently took over Floor Two of the warehouse building, doubling their space overall (to about 30,000 square feet). Staff? Around 20 people. Courses offered? About 200. Membership? 2000. Members who work there fulltime? 200. How long has Will himself worked there? 2 years. Doing what? A lot of construction such as putting down plywood patches on the strip oak floor upstairs.

Insider's View of Bathroom Door

A somewhat, er, collegiate aesthetic on a bathroom door.

So all of the old wood strip floors upstairs are rough and patchy, yes, but still kinder underfoot than the gleaming polished concrete downstairs.

You can pay less now, but soon get more. Sansom also outlined expansion plans, some visibly under way, others still under (plastic) wraps. A members’ cafe. More classrooms. An expanded shop for metalworkers, to match the new woodshop. A brand new sculpture room. And new, better bathrooms are promised, forgoing the, um, old college radio station aesthetic. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Community, Craft/Design, Guilds/Fairs, Handmade, Innovation, Manufacturing, Method/Materials, The Business Side Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

The Makers Find Their Way to Brooklyn’s 3rd Ward

October 11, 2012 by 2 Comments

SOME PEOPLE ARE MAKERS, SOME ARE TAKERS: We’ve been hearing that a lot from the top of the Republican ticket this fall. But however you plan to vote, there’s no denying that the hive of activity that is 3rd Ward comes from the makers. It’s a school, it’s workshops, it’s a hangout space. The membership is diverse in age, ability, and skills, but they all come to the repurposed warehouse in Williamsburg to work, to learn, and usually to share. Brooklyn Artisan visited on a recent Sunday evening and the place was buzzing.

3rd Ward customer service specialist Erica Eudoxie

Customer service rep Erica Eudoxie has worked at 3rd Ward for 18 months and taken 13 courses. Her long-term interest is jewelry making.

The only takers, if you can call them that, are the folks taking the classes that range from an intense one-day session up to courses that run over eight weeks. You can take Embroidery 2.0, or choose one of 20 offered in Fashion, or 8 in Welding & Fabrication, or 20 in Woodworking, or 10 in Web Design, or 16 in Drawing, Painting & Illustration.

One category is called simply Bike = Love. offering Basic Bike Mechanics, Intermediate Bike Mechanics, and Badass Bike Lights. (“With the right components, you can build your very own bike light which outshines all the others. In this class, you will make your very own hi-power LED bike-light which runs off a 9v battery.”)

For 3rd Ward members, the pricing structure is an incentive to commit to the community for the long term. (Basic membership, $99 for a year; co-working, $149 a month, or $119 at the annual rate – for the longer stay, you get a lower rate).  There are work stations as simple as library carrels, shared computer stations well equipped with big-screen Macs, conference areas, and even dedicated office spaces for micro businesses. My favorite presently on-site is Susty Parties, which sells colorful party goods made from sustainable materials, of course. (You can see why the business owners might like having this frou-frou stuff  Out. Of. The. House. Please!)

Like wallflowers at the eighth-grade dance, dress dummies huddle against the wall between classes. The sewing room serves some other purposes, too.

The  wood and metal makers’ professional spaces have recently been separated from the student spaces. To work in either area, you must pay the Pro rates ($599 a month, or $479 monthly at the annual rate) and demonstrate your skill level to a shop manager so that you are not a danger to the high-powered tools, to other workers or to yourself.

The metal shop includes a large work area with metal cutting and welding tools and shielded work stations. The even larger woodworking loft has materials-storage racks, table saw, lathe, drill press, mortising machine, an advanced dust-handling system, plus shop brooms and industrial size dustpans neatly stowed in plain sight. Separately vented yellow lockers stash potentially toxic and fume-producing wood finishing chemicals; a covered can that’s emptied every night takes care of oily rags.

Business training is available as well, both in structured classes and in informal, water-cooler consulting. Small-business bookkeeping. Using social media in marketing. Presentation skills for attracting investors.

Erica Eudoxie explains why she has taken so many courses herself: 13 and counting. “It’s not just the typical ADD skill set,” she says, laughing. “It’s the impulse to make something. I have it, and most people here do. It’s why they come.”

Have there been any big stars to brag about, any bold-face names who’ve passed through 3rd Ward on the way to success? “It depends on how you define success,” Erica says. “If it’s being able to quit your office job and make a living with your craft, then yes, definitely.

“And I’d say there are a lot here now who’re on the trajectory to success.”

 
Filed Under: Community, Craft/Design, Guilds/Fairs, Handmade, Innovation, Manufacturing, Method/Materials, The Business Side, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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