Tag Archives: Brooklyn

Urban Renewal: “The Brooklyn Bridge Forest” Wins Design Contest (2020)

Brooklyn Bridge Forest reimagines the bridge as an icon of climate action and social equity, improving mobility while respecting the landmark structure. The historic wooden walkway is expanded using planks sustainably sourced from a “partner forest” community in Guatemala that protects a 200,000-acre rainforest. 

A dedicated bike path and reclaimed traffic lane create new space for cyclists and low-carbon transit, while biodiverse “microforests” at either end of the bridge bring nature to New York City and serve as green spaces for underserved communities.

Website

Arts & Culture: “Must-See Museum Exhibitions In January 2020” (Sotheby’s)

Later this month, Jacques-Louis David’s Neoclassical masterpiece of Napoleon crossing the alps will travel to New York for the very first time. Displayed at the Brooklyn Museum alongside Kehinde Wiley’s contemporary reinterpretation, both works in this unprecedented pairing reflect the unique conditions of their respective times.
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It’s just one of January’s must-see exhibitions, chosen by Tim Marlow, the Design Museum in London’s new director and CEO. Don’t miss this and other exhibitions opening this month in Basel, Cornwall, and Los Angeles.

Restaurants: “Hometown Bar-B-Que” In Brooklyn Is NY’s Best BBQ (Bon Appétit)

https://hometownbbq.com/

While New York City may not be a city known for its barbecue, Hometown Bar-B-Que stands apart as a truly great spot to meet your smokey meat needs. We sent Alex Delany to go try one perfect bite of every item on the menu at this joint, and we also sent his buddy Brad Leone along for the ride.

Restaurant Reviews: The “Pilar Cuban Eatery & Bakery” In Brooklyn – “Authentic Delicacies”

From a New Yorker online review:

Pilar Cuban EateryChief among these delicacies is Cuban lard bread, which is what inspired the opening of Pilar Cuban Bakery: Ricardo Barreras, the owner of Pilar Cuban Eatery, next door, decided to start baking it himself, using dough, shipped frozen, from a trusted supplier in Florida. When he realized that his kitchen wasn’t big enough for the operation, he figured he might as well open a second place.

On a recent morning in Bed-Stuy, a young boy pressed his face against the glass case at Pilar Cuban Bakery and began to moan. “Mom, Mom, Mooooom. I want this!” he declared plaintively, pointing to an enticingly glossy Key-lime pie, sliced into neat wedges. “And what about this?” he exclaimed, moving on to the coconut-chocolate bars.

To read more: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/11/11/the-auspicious-treats-of-pilar-cuban-bakery-and-win-son-bakery

Top Restaurants: “Miss Ada” Is “Mediterranean With A Twist” (Brooklyn, NY)

From a New Yorker online review:

Miss Ada Brooklyn RestaurantThe tantalizing combination of brown butter and fried sage may have its origin in Italy, but it turns out to work just as well with pita as it does with pasta. At Miss Ada, a restaurant in Fort Greene, it gets spooned, nutty and fragrant, over a sweet but earthy carrot hummus, and again over a bowl of fluffy whipped ricotta. The pita—warm, puffy, chewy—goes perfectly, too, with a rich, stretchy stracciatella cheese, its milky surface marbled with little golden ponds of olive oil and topped with, depending on the season, heirloom tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, and red onion, or snap peas, blood orange, ground-cherries, and kumquat.

“Mediterranean with a twist” is how the restaurant describes its food. The chef and owner, Tomer Blechman (late of Bar Bolonat, Gramercy Tavern, and Maialino), is originally from Israel, and the menu is rooted in the traditions and flavor profiles of the Middle East. Sometimes the twist is Italian, sometimes it’s Mexican—the sauce beneath the short-rib skewer is described as “Israeli mole” (made with Middle Eastern spices, chocolate, and harissa), and the Dead Sea #2 cocktail (guava, mezcal, mint, lime) is basically an Israeli margarita—and sometimes the za’atar-crusted salmon is accompanied by Japanese eggplant.

To read more: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/10/21/miss-ada-and-goldas-modern-spins-on-middle-eastern-cooking

Top Non-Fiction Books: “Brooklyn – The Once And Future City” By Thomas J. Campanella (2019)

From a Princeton University Press online release:

Brooklyn - The Once and Future CityAmerica’s most storied urban underdog, Brooklyn has become an internationally recognized brand in recent decades—celebrated and scorned as one of the hippest destinations in the world. In Brooklyn: The Once and Future City, Thomas J. Campanella unearths long-lost threads of the urban past, telling the rich history of the rise, fall, and reinvention of one of the world’s most resurgent cities.

Spanning centuries and neighborhoods, Brooklyn-born Campanella recounts the creation of places familiar and long forgotten, both built and never realized, bringing to life the individuals whose dreams, visions, rackets, and schemes forged the city we know today. He takes us through Brooklyn’s history as homeland of the Leni Lenape and its transformation by Dutch colonists into a dense slaveholding region. We learn about English émigré Deborah Moody, whose town of Gravesend was the first founded by a woman in America. We see how wanderlusting Yale dropout Frederick Law Olmsted used Prospect Park to anchor an open space system that was to reach back to Manhattan. And we witness Brooklyn’s emergence as a playland of racetracks and amusement parks celebrated around the world.

To read more: https://press.princeton.edu/titles/13671.html