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Real Estate

Halstead Property Expands Presence In Cobble Hill: New Court Street Locale

March 22, 2012

Halstead Property has purchased two smaller firms in Cobble Hill and Park Slope, where it is expanding its Brooklyn business, according to The Real Deal. With the purchase of Cobble Heights Realty and Heights Berkeley Realty, Halstead now has five storefront offices in Brooklyn.

The new outposts “secure us two wonderful locations,” Trish Martin, Brooklyn director of sales for Halstead told the real estate pub, saying that Halstead has quickly outgrown its other Cobble Hill location, at 162 Court Street. The new office in Cobble Hill will be located at 206 Court Street, between Wyckoff and Warren streets.

The expansion brings Halstead’s total number of brokers in Brooklyn to 70, as they absorb 15 additional brokers from the newly acquired offices.


Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/6946

From the Web

Daniel Radcliffe Films In Carroll Gardens As Beat Poet Allen Ginsburg

March 20, 2012

Now that he has finally shaken off Harry Potter, actor Daniel Radcliffe is ready to play some meaty grown-up roles, including the curly-headed lead in upcoming film “Kill Your Darlings,” where he is taking on beat poet Allen Ginsburg. With co-star Dane DeHaan, filming has been taking place around Carroll Gardens this week.


Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/6940

From the Web

Arts and Entertainment

CBS New York Posts Bids For The Five Best Bars In Cobble Hill

March 16, 2012

CBS New York has posted on its website bids for the five best watering holes in Cobble Hill. Sounds like a good reason for a bar crawl, huh?

The list—which you can see with full descriptors here—was compiled by Jonathan Pogash, a.k.a. The Cocktail Guru, a beverage consultant, writer and educator. He notes, “Cobble Hill, with its well-kept brownstones and vast dining selections, is also a hot-bed of activity in regards to beverages.”

Pogash’s top five are as follows:
* Last Exit Bar, 136 Atlantic Ave.
* Downtown Bar and Grill, 160 Court St.
* Watty & Meg, 248 Court St.
* Henry Public, 329 Henry St.
* Waterfront Ale House, 155 Atlantic Ave. #A


Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/6937

From the Web

Real Estate

Residential Brokerage Aptsandlofts.com Joins Court Street Corridor

March 16, 2012

Residential brokerage Aptsandlofts.com is opening a storefront in Cobble Hill, its first outside of its Williamsburg, Brooklyn base. The 2,000-square-foot retailer will launch by the end of June at 236 Court Street, says Crain’s New York Business.

Aptsandlofts.com’s founder and president David Maundrell says that the new office is part of his plan to double the size of the 45-agent firm, with room in the Cobble Hill location for around 40 agents.

“Court Street is amazing. It is a good central location and is a busy street with a lot of foot traffic,” Maundrell told Crains.

The firm joins a growing crop of brokers along the neighborhood’s Court Street corridor. Last month, Prudential Douglas Elliman announced it would be moving into a bigger storefront on Court Street. Its new 1,500-square-foot space at 327 Court St. will be twice the size of its current location at 189 Court St.

Maundrell says he had been eyeing the street for some time for Aptsandlofts.com and “jumped at the opportunity to lease 236 Court St. because of its unobstructed frontage. Because there is a fire hydrant right out in front, no cars can park and block the view from the street.” As well, “The office will be an advertisement for the company in the neighborhood. There’s marketing value in having a lit up storefront.”

In the last five years Aptsandlofts.com has sold $260 million worth of real estate, mainly units in new condominium developments in Williamsburg, downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights. Recently, the decade-old firm has expanded into townhouse sales.


Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/6929

From the Web

Events, Tech

Mingle with the Brooklyn Bugle and Discuss Social Media December 14 in Brooklyn Heights

November 26, 2011

Brooklyn Heights Blog and The Brooklyn Bugle present a holiday mixer December 14, 6pm at Vineapple!

Share some holiday cheer and then join us at 7:30pm for a special panel discussion: Flossing Your Personal Microbrand: Using Social Media Wisely for Self-Promotion. For anyone interested in using social media to raise awareness about their business, a project or anything else this is a must-attend event.
We have assembled a group of digital thought leaders to drive the conversation. Continue Reading…

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Books

Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: Courtney E. Smith Discusses Record Collecting for Girls

November 18, 2011


Author, music maven and former MTV programmer Courtney E. Smith discusses her book Record Collecting for Girls: Unleashing Your Inner Music Nerd, One Album at a Timein the premiere edition PacMan Sessions. Smith has enraged some feminists with her book while also garnering praise for encouraging young women to enjoy and embrace music beyond their comfort zone.

Find out why you should never date a Smiths fan and why musicians make lousy boyfriends to why Boz Scaggs should never be on anyone’s playlist all while the author tackles a game of PacMan.


From the Web

Life

Where’s Brooklyn’s Best Car Wash?

November 4, 2011

If you live in Brownstone Brooklyn, you have to be nuts to own a car.  But for our pals in Bensonhurst or Gerritsen Beach for example, you gotta have wheels.  But no matter where you live in the BK, having a nice clean car is one of the few affordable luxuries you can have these days.  So, where is Brooklyn’s best car wash? More importantly, is it the one owned by a former NBA star?

Over at Yelp, where everyone is an “expert” they’ve identified these as Brooklyn’s top 5:

Golden Touch Car Wash – Park Slope
296 4th Avenue
Reviews here seem legit and many claim of a magical $30 detailing package.

Auto Bath Hand Car Wash – Bath Beach
164 Bay 19 St
Comes in second, despite only 3 reviews with one from a dude who totally disses Golden Touch. Ah! Social media, you are so “reliable”.

Williamsburg Hand Wash and Detail Center – Williamsburg
646 Lorimer St
Lots of raves, but we’re always a little suspect of reviews that overtly shout out the owner or staff.

Manhattan Bridge Car Wash – Downtown Brooklyn
275 Flatbush Ave Ext
Red flag for two negative reviews that are so poorly written they have to be real… right?

Oakley’s Carwash – Brighton Beach
25 Neptune Ave
Former NY Knick Charles Oakley owns the place and sometimes he can be seen buffing cars.

Where do you get your car washed? Like it? Love it? Comment below!

From the Web

Food

Oy Vey! GQ Declares Brooklyn “The Coolest City on the Planet”

October 21, 2011

Cripes, where do we begin with this one?

GQ Magazine has declared Brooklyn “The Coolest City on the Planet.” This, apparently is due mostly to our culinary offerings. Yeah, with places like Spumoni Gardens, La Bagel Delight and Junior’s this is a slam dunk, no?

No. We’re talking places like the Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare a place you gotta reserve a seat at SIX WEEKS IN ADVANCE.

Well, maybe we’re being too hard on the joint. What’s GQ’s fancy food writer Alan Richman have to say about it:

The Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare is, in Michelin’s words, “worth a detour.” In luxury, intimacy, and decadence, it is nearly unsurpassed. Sure, you’ll sit on unpadded bar chairs, but that’s Brooklyn, now so confident of its dining appeal it offers a destination restaurant that isn’t easy on the ass. The food is almost entirely seafood, the expensive kind, like madai, Japanese snapper from the Tsukiji fish market. Le Bernardin, I’ll bet, has taken notice. There’s a sommelier—a sommelier!—from Per Se. Chef César Ramirez stands before you, sending out as many as thirty small courses, all exquisite. That makes him the only celebrated New York chef not in the sushi business who personally prepares every dish for every guest. Ramirez lives in Brooklyn. His business partner runs a grocery down the block. The restaurant is all Brooklyn, with limitations—you wouldn’t want him trolling for seafood in the Gowanus Canal.

Ooooofah! That didn’t help much. But their roundup of Brooklyn’s other great eateries makes things a little better. If only for the mention of Lucali’s:

The longest five days in recent Brooklyn history? When Lucali shut down after owner Mark Iacono got stabbed in the gut by a reputed mobster. He was soon back at the oven, turning out the blistered-crust pies that led GQ’s Alan Richman to name Lucali’s the second-best pizza in America.

Mob beef? Great pizza? Whew! That’s our Brooklyn!

From the Web

Music

Brooklyn Bugle Sessions: We Are Augustines

October 21, 2011

Our latest session features Brooklyn based We Are Augustines.

Billy McCarthy and Eric Sanderson formerly of the critically acclaimed Pela formed the group with drummer Rob Allen. Their debut album Rise Ye Sunken Ships was released in June. The collection chronicles the emotions and challenges faced by McCarthy over a year where he lost his mother as well as his brother James. In our interview, he tells the story of how his James’ struggle with schizophrenia led him deeper into the complicated web of the criminal justice system.

McCarthy also discusses working with Emmy Award winning director Matt Mills on their video for “Chapel Song”.

The band is playing several CMJ 2011 showcases this week before heading out to the U.K. to support Glasvegas on their tour.

Also out this week is the video for the band’s next single, “Book of James” which tells the story of McCarthy’s brother.

From the Web

Music

Catch The Kin and other Brooklyn Bugle Sessions Bands This Week at #CMJ2011

October 17, 2011

The CMJ Music Marathon is this week and while other folks are racking their brains about which bands to see, we here in the Brooklyn Bugle newsroom have it all figured out. You see, we’ve already featured many of the best artists playing this week’s fest in our Brooklyn Bugle Sessions.

First up – The Kin. The NYC based trio featuring Aussie brothers Thorald and Isaac Koren along with percussionist/legend Shakerleg (he’s Kanai Dutta meets Buddy Rich while channeling Animal) have the distinction of being our most viewed Brooklyn Bugle Session.

The band have also been generating quite a buzz recently. Along with We Are Augustines, they made the NY Daily News’ list of 15 Bands to See at CMJ 2011. Last week, Thorald and Isaac staged Dinner with Thieves, part dinner theater and part showcase at Australian restaurant Kingswood in Manhattan.

Bon Appetite writes about the experience:

Guests, who had signed up in advance, were told to order a special drink at the bar, at which point they got a packet of papers with a warning not to open and to await further instructions scrawled on the outside. It may have been the drink working its magic, but by the time the band burst in from the back stairs, angrily strummed an acoustic guitar, and demanded that its hostages march down to the basement (or else), I was actually down for some musical spectacle (rare for one as grumpy as I).

And they did not disappoint! No pyrotechnics, since that’s usually a bad idea in basements, but during and between courses, the band managed to happily distract me from the serious business of eating with an interesting mix of storytelling and songs. Their music, driven by acoustic guitar and two-part harmonies, fit the intimate space well, and they didn’t even make us help solve a murder mystery.

Also in attendance at the dinner, legendary producer Tony Visconti best known for his work with David Bowie and T-Rex. Seems that he’s got a thing for gifted musicians with a theatrical side – he’ll be producing The Kin’s new album. Not only that but Visconti, who regularly took bands to his mother’s Brooklyn home for dinner must also appreciate the fact that the Koren boys feature their mother in their performance piece.

The Kin

The Kin perform at Rockwood Music Hall Saturday (10/22). Details here.

One of our favorite sessions was with John Michael Rouchell aka MyNameisJohnMichael. The New Orleans based singer-songwriter usually appears with his full band – featuring a brass section – but his stripped down performance here will have you thinking about Tom Waits or Tim Buckley in their heyday. MyNameisJohnMichael perform at the Living Room on Friday (10/21). Details here.

Locksley lit up our studio with a performance of their hit “The Whip” as well as a Bob Marley cover song. They’ll be playing CMJ 2011 Wednesday (10/19) at the Rockwood Music Hall. Details here.

Brooklyn Bugle Sessions: We Are Augustines from The Brooklyn Bugle on Vimeo.

Last but certainly not least is We Are Augustines. Our interview and other music from the band will be posted later this week but we couldn’t hold back on sharing their performance of “Strange Days” with you right now. They’ll be performing Wednesday (10/19) at the Ace Hotel. Details here.

Are you hitting CMJ this year? Who are you seeing? Comment below!

From the Web