Promising Beer Garden Receives Kiss Of Death Before It Opens, Gets Called A Hipster Bar

By on September 20, 2012  Food & Drink
Sep 202012
 

The Hipster Line Of Demarcation was imposed in 1494 by Pope Alexander VI to give real Iberian Peninsulians refuge from the rapidly-expanding Spanish conhipstadors. (Source: DieHipster.com)

The Bay Ridge Courier’s Will Bredderman wrote yesterday of a new beer garden that will open soon on 5th Avenue at 92nd Street. Run by the Casatellis of Kettle Back and Ho’Brah fame, the new Lockyard (named in part for the Bridgeview Locksmiths that last held the address) will be ready to cater to Bay Ridge’s Hipster set, a demographic that Thomas Casatelli says has already made its beachhead in the neighborhood.

“A lot of different-looking people have been coming into the Kettle Black and they are definitely not from Bay Ridge… We’re getting people from Nebraska, Ohio, California, and they were all wearing the hipster uniform,” Casatelli told Bredderman.

Yuck.

No, wait – let me clarify that.

I actually like Hipster bars. I like Hipster bands. I like Hipster restaurants, so long as I don’t get price-gouged and have to read Time Out New York to know about the “secret” meny. I like a great many of the things that have popped up in North Brooklyn, particularly Williamsburg and Greenpoint, since the Hipster Kids started moving in.

I just don’t like Hipsters all that much.

Now, as I said a few weeks ago – I’m trying not to be the judgmental, holier-than-thou dbag that I’ve been in the past. (Though by some accounts on Twitter, I’m as big of a dbag as they come.) (They’re probably right.) (I digress.) So I shouldn’t be joining in on the Hipster H8r bandwagon. Right?

Nope. Sorry. I like the company of adults. Or, if I’m going to hang around people who act like kids, it should be because they’re actually kids, and not Brooklyn’s perennial Seventh-Year Seniors.

So to that end: Dear Casatellis – love what you’ve done with 3rd Avenue and 87th Street. Did you know that Ho’Brah is my new favorite taco place? I love the flour tortilla, so that’s saying a lot.

I’m looking forward to Lockyard. A lot. I wish you luck. I’ll see you there.

And once you open, please post this picture of the Hipster Demarcation Line in the front window.

Dine In Southwest Brooklyn Runs Through August 26

By on August 14, 2012  Food & Drink
Aug 142012
 

While the relatively new and trendy restaurants in Northern Brooklyn have gotten much of the mainstream media’s attention in recent years, many of our borough’s best and most established restaurants remain south of the hipster demarcation line.

In fact, even many of the newer additions to our food scene have recently reaped the fruits of their labor with some worthy critical acclaim. Just ask the Village Voice.

So in the spirit of other successful restaurant promotions such as NYC Restaurant Week, and Dine In Brooklyn, over the next two weeks local newspapers Home Reporter and Brooklyn Spectator will be sponsoring Dine In Southwest Brooklyn.

The event, which includes 15 participating eateries, is meant to “encourage local residents and those from beyond the neighborhood to explore the fabulously diverse culinary options in Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights and Sunset Park,” according to an announcement in Home Reporter. “The papers are launching their own Restaurant Week, which will run for two weeks, from August 13 through August 26.”

Restaurants on the list run the gamut from upscale seafood and down home American to Italian and Indian cuisine.

Here in “real Brooklyn,” a more homegrown type of culinary diversity is readily apparent – Unlike in Brooklyn’s trendier quarters, where the umpteenth New American menu strains to seem fresh and new when it’s simply not.

From taverns and soda fountains to white table cloths and exotic spices, there seems to be a table for everyone’s taste – and price range.

All restaurants will either be offering prix fixe menus or other special deals. Please call for details.

As per Home Reporter, here’s a list of participating restaurants, along with their phone numbers, after the jump: Continue reading »

“This Is Not Holland” – Bike Lane Culture Clash Continues

By on April 30, 2012  Traffic & Transit
Apr 302012
 

Depending on which side of the bike lane debate you fall on, you may see it as a simple matter of self-absorbed yupsters trying to force their radical anti-car beliefs on salt-of-the-earth New Yorkers. Or maybe you view the issue as another case of close-minded old cranks standing in the way of progress?

An online urban journal recently documented the ongoing struggle between bike lane advocates and long time residents over control of the traffic lanes that crisscross all five boroughs.

Next American City reporter Brian Browdie used last year’s fight over a proposed bike lane on Bay Ridge Parkway – one which ended with Community Board 10 voting against it – as a textbook example of just how wide transportation preferences can vary among residents of different neighborhoods. And while those opinions may indicate larger socioeconomic and generational gaps, they are often formed as a result of geographic rather than cultural factors, such as the population density and the distance from Manhattan of a given area. Continue reading »