August – 2012 – Brooklyn Bugle

Open Thread: The Best Pizza Pie In Brooklyn Heights

August 20, 2012

From Best Car Service to Best Handyman (which youse weren’t particularly willing to give up) to something a little more tasty…

What’s your bid for the Best Pizza in Brooklyn Heights? Digging the brand new Dellarocco’s of Brooklyn? Convinced that nothing beats Fascati Pizzeria? Wie-Pie on Remsen more to your tastes? Or do you swear by the culinary cardboard that is Jeno’s from the nabe Key Food? Taking all bids for the Best Pizza Pie in the Heights, BHB compatriots!

Please feel free to contribute ideas for future goods & services in this post.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45424

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights, Food

Brunch at Colonie

August 20, 2012

This past February at the Grace Church Winterfair Silent Auction my wife bid on, and won, brunch for two at Colonie, 127 Atlantic Avenue (between Clinton and Henry). We finally got around to doing it today. We arrived at around 11:30 (brunch there starts at 11:00) and found all tables occupied (Colonie only takes reservations for parties of five or more) but were offered seats at a counter facing the open kitchen. This proved to be a lucky circumstance, as we enjoyed watching the kitchen crew at work and later, when the pace of orders slowed, some conversation. My wife ordered the biscuit Benedict (see photo, and menu here–scroll down to brunch). Judging by the number of times I heard the sous-chef call out “Benny!” I take it this is the most popular brunch item. More photos and text after the jump.

My wife was pleased by her choice. The egg was, she said, the most perfectly poached she had ever seen, and the seasoning was just right. The biscuit was excellent. I took a sample, and my only dissent was that the “heritage ham” was less flavorful than I expected.

I chose the duck hash (photo at left) and had no regrets. The duck was sliced in thin strips, and very savory, the potatoes were done to the right degree of crunchiness, and the seasoning was just so. There was another of the perfectly poached eggs. I washed it down with a “bloody Caesar,” a bloody Mary made with Clamato juice.

Here’s the crew who made it all so well. As we finished our meal and the pace of orders decreased, we were able to have some enjoyable conversation about cooking and baseball. I call them the “anything but the Yankees” crew–note the Red Sox (to my wife’s delight) and Orioles caps.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/46074

From the Web

Photo Of The Day: Court Street Subway Station @ Montague Street

August 19, 2012

From The Heidelberger Papers America blog:

“One of the few well preserved of classic New York City transit minutiae. Taken at the Montague Street entrance of the Court Street subway station.”
(Photo: Matt Heidelberger)

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/46060

From the Web

Found: Keys To Your Brooklyn Heights Kingdom?

August 19, 2012

Via Craigslist: “Mysterious Keys found in Brooklyn Heights (Clark Street Station). I found keys on the platform of the Clark St Station on the Uptown 2/3 side. If these are yours, describe them.” The reply link is here.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/46057

From the Web

Events

USAF Thunderbirds Flyover This Afternoon

August 18, 2012

This in from Notify NYC:

Notification issued 8/18/12 at 12:05 PM. In conjunction with Air Force Week, the U.S. Air Force Aerial Demonstration Team, the “Thunderbirds,” will perform a coordinated formation flyover pass in their F-16D “Falcon” aircraft over Yankee Stadium, down the Hudson River and towards the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, today at approximately 4:05 p.m.

We’re hoping they’ll do a few loop-the-loops and other aerial maneuvers over the Statue of Liberty before heading off. They should be easily visible from the Promenade.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/46050

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights

‘Hail No’: Initiative To Bring Livery Cabs To The Boroughs Is A Bust (For Now)

August 18, 2012

In a rare defeat for NYC Mayor Bloomberg and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Manhattan Supreme Court Justice ruled Friday that the popular initiative to allow 18,000 livery cabs to take street hails from Manhattan to the outer boroughs and the upper reaches of the city is a no go. No doubt, this should have residents of Brooklyn Heights seeing red, since it can be next to impossible to convince yellow taxis to cross the Brooklyn Bridge late at night.

The decision by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron is also sour news for the city, which would lose $1 billion in revenue from 2,000 new medallion sales. NYC’s corporation counsel Michael Cardozo said he will immediately appeal the decision, according to The Wall Street Journal, saying city officials are “confident the appellate court will uphold” the law.

Taxi & Limousine Commissioner and Brooklyn Heights resident David Yassky also vowed to fight: “The court’s decision is a great loss to millions of New Yorkers outside of Manhattan, as well as for professional livery drivers whose ability to feed their families by providing a popular service their communities want and deserve is in jeopardy.”

The New York Daily News explains that earlier this summer, Engoron blocked the Bloomberg administration from selling the yellow medallions and taking applications for livery hail licenses after lobbyists for the yellow cab industry came up with the argument that the plan was illegal.

The judge determined that yellow cabbies would “suffer irreparable harm” if the plan were put into effect. Michael Woloz, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, told WJS, “Thousands of individual owner-drivers and hundreds of small-business owners in both the taxi and livery industries are breathing a sigh of relief.”

Mind you, this is the same industry that just celebrated a whopping 17% fare hike. After Labor Day, the starting rate will remain $2.50, but the meter will climb 50 cents instead of 40 with every click, after one-fifth of a mile or 60 seconds. The flat rate from Manhattan to Kennedy Airport will climb by $7, to $52, and the surcharge from the city to Newark will escalate from $15 to $17.50.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/46017

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights

Heights History: Cadman Plaza Public Library Branch, 1966

August 18, 2012

The Brooklyn Heights Public Library at 280 Cadman Plaza West & Tillary Street was full of book-smart promise when it opened May 31, 1962, offering modern technology and a streamlined system for checking out and returning books. The series of pics (below), taken in February 1966, in fact, reveal a clever conveyor belt that sent books from the main-level chute to the lower floor, where they were processed to return to the shelves. Pretty neato.

In all, the Brooklyn Public Library system is the fifth-largest in the nation, with 58 branches located within a half mile of every Brooklyn resident. It’s a safe bet that some 45 years ago, not only did the air conditioning work at the Heights branch, but there probably weren’t too many stabbings at the library, either. Curiously, the lobby area has changed little since 1966. (Photos: Museum of the City of New York)

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45817

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights

Brooklyn Heights ‘Signs’ Off On DOT’s Mixed-Case Lettering Mandate

August 16, 2012

Street signs in Brooklyn Heights will soon be following the letter of the law. The Federal Highway Administration has mandated that your tax dollars be spent on replacing 250,000 capital-letter street signs in New York City with mixed-case—specifically utilizing a condensed version of the Clearview typeface (licensed as ClearviewHwy).

So far, about 11,000 street name signs have been replaced around NYC’s five boroughs to meet national standards in typography and surface reflectivity, according to The New York Times—including some along Brooklyn Heights’ Montague Street. Brown historical signs will maintain their color.

Clearview was created in the 1990s by designers Donald Meeker and James Montalbano, working with the Thomas D. Larson Pennsylvania Transportation Institute and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. “With its crisp, clean design, Clearview represents exactly what its name suggests,” says city transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. “Whether through signs, markings or sidewalks, we’re bringing clarity and simplicity to street design.”

Developer Montalbano recalls about two years ago crossing the East River from Brooklyn—where he lives—coming off the Brooklyn Bridge and seeing a sign for “Chinatown” with an arrow in Clearview. About a month ago, he also noticed Clearview signs on Montague Street in the Heights. “It’s very exciting,” he told NY Times. “We’ve been working on this project for a very long time.”

A number of the new signs replace those scheduled for routine maintenance, as well as when streets are under repair or reconstruction. “But sometimes, the new signs appear to have replaced perfectly serviceable older signs with all-uppercase lettering,” the Times notes, which has meant of tirade of criticism directed toward the Highway Administration, an agency of the federal Department of Transportation. As a result, DOT has since eased or eliminated some 46 deadlines and/or mandates for dutiful compliance.

(Graphic/New York Times)

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45877

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights

Birthplace of Whitman’s ‘Leaves Of Grass,’ Cranberry & Fulton, 1949

August 16, 2012

This sketch of the “Birthplace of Walt Whitman’s ‘Leaves of Grass’” depicts the corner of Cranberry & Fulton streets (which is now along Cadman Plaza West heading to Old Fulton Street) dated September 11, 1949. It is signed by Josephine Barry.

Legend has it that the red brick print shop in Brooklyn Heights where Walt Whitman set the type for the first edition of “Leaves” in 1855—torn down years ago to build the Whitman Close co-ops at 75 Henry Street—was salvaged, with bricks embedded in the ground around a planter near the A train stop on Cadman Plaza West.

(Sketch: Museum of the City of New York/Planter: McBrooklyn)