Monday, November 8, 2010

Neighborhood Exploring #1: Greenpoint, Brooklyn

On a cool late summer night, two friends (ES and es) and I decided to meet at the intersection of Greenpoint and Manhattan Aves for a little neighborhood exploring. At a later date ES and I would travel to the exotic locales of Red Hook and Gowanus, which I will blog about soon, and tonight we're exploring my neighborhood: the East Village. In preparation for this third adventure, I think it's very important to record the earlier two.

E had made a list of a restaurant, two bars, a lounge, and a club. After some google maps searching, I've managed to regain a list of those establishments. The three of us were utterly unfamiliar with that area of Greenpoint, and we arrived just as the sun was setting. While I waited for them, before I knew where we were going, I walked west on Greenpoint Ave almost to the river. Historic Greenpoint is really lovely. There was a dying small town feel to it, except it's not dying at all. Not any more than anywhere else in New York City, I imagine. There are abandoned storefronts and buildings in between uses, lots of red brick, and tons of neighborhoody restaurants and cafés and bars and coffee shops and retailers. Lots of signs in Polish. It was adorable.

First on the list was Paulie Gee's - "A Greenpoint Pizza Joint." Super cute. They just opened in march, and they weren't serving booze yet (they are now), but we didn't mind (remember, we had four drinking establishments to visit after this). And if I remember correctly, we got the Gates of Eden Salad (gorgonzola, walnuts, dried cherries, pear and red wine vinaigrette - yum) and maybe another salad that was on the specials. Then we ordered two pizzas: the Greenpointer and something from the specials that I wish I remembered the name of because they name their pizzas beautiful names like Anise and Anephew, or Brian DeParma.

The Greenpointer was loaded with baby arugula, and the lemon was such a pleasant experience with the fior di latte and parmigiano reggiano. The other pizza we ordered was incredible: figs, honey, gorgonzola, proscuitto (on half). It was divine. The dessert menu on their website is remarkably different from the options we had at the time, thankfully, because we were unimpressed, but that's because the option we chose was sorbet made by another company in champagne, rosé, and sangria. Ho-hum. It was fine. Overall, we had a great time and I would love to go back. It's a beautiful all-wood space with interesting and eccentric touches. We got to compliment the chef himself, and he seemed impressed that we had made the journey all the way to Greenpoint from three very different neighborhoods (East Village, Upper West Side, Prospect Heights) all for his pizza. I would do it again.

Bar #1: Black Rabbit. Again, super cute. It was an off night (probably a Monday), so there were only a few patrons, and they were playing Jenga with the bartender. We ordered a Sixpoint brew (I don't remember which) and I think I had a Franzikaner Hefeweis, which is kind of silly because I always forget how readily available they are. Anyhoo. It was nice. Really nice bartender, great space, nicknacks and interesting touches.

Bar #2: Habitat. Kind of a trek, and I forget if now was the moment or if we started noticing how odd some of the houses were later. Either way, the architecture in this neighborhood can be really funny. There are these mid-century, vinyl siding, lace curtains houses right next to super modern, super slick minimalist condos, and then the next house will have ivy climbing all over it, and then one with thin dark wood shingling. It was exactly like being in Vienna except nothing like that at all.

Habitat was the kind of place that when you walk in everyone turns to look. It's a neighborhoody bar. Which is great if it's your neighborhoody bar, but a little unnerving if it's not. It's a feeling easily gotten over. Again, super cute. Everything about Greenpoint is adorable to me, apparently. There was art on the walls for sale. The menu looked good, and the food looked good, but we were full of pizza, so all I can tell you was the beer was tasty. We got a flight. I have no idea what the beers were. I think one was a hefeweis, one was super hoppy (probs an IPA), and one was maybe a stout. It was a nice quick drink.

Lounge: Next was t.b.d., a spacious lounge with an even more spacious beer garden. I think it was closed or we had forgotten about it because we just chilled on one of their comfy couches. Sixpoint beers again if I'm not mistaken. (What a great brewery they are. I am in love with the Apollo, and I'm not just saying that because we have it at work.) Like I said, it was probably a Monday, so t.b.d. was kind of a big empty space when we were there, but that was fine.

Club: Last on our list was the Diamond. I'm calling it a club, but it's sort of just a bar. Not just a bar, but you know. They have shuffleboard and I think there was a dj, although it might have just been loud and dark. It was fun. We got to try three different beers (and maybe a cocktail?), which meant that over the course of the evening we tried a bunch of different beers, which is always fun and informative.

And what I failed to mention thus far was that everything was remarkably inexpensive. (I will say the same thing about cocktails in Red Hook.) A pint at each of these places was five or six dollars. Our dinner for three at Paulie Gee's was probably under 50 bucks. (I will probably not say the same thing about our nibbles tonight in the East Village, but that's also because I know we're doing a little tapeando.)

And the best part about Greenpoint is that it's not Williamsburg, but it's close enough to walk to Williamsburg. Which is exactly what we did.