Store of the Day: Love My Bagels

This is a new feature we are trying. As we run across many interesting places in our travels in the neighborhood we decided to add some of them to the blog. Pictured above is a relatively new Cafe and Bagel place that could give Starbuck's a run for it's money. It doesn't have WI FI at the moment but I bet that if you go in and ask for it maybe the owners will get the hint and install it. Who knows, it could become a new watering hole for those of us with laptops that hate having to go to MacDonald's or trekking over to Starbuck's in Bay Ridge. Drop in and visit them. They are located on 4th Avenue near 58th street. Let's patronize our local businesses.


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Last week's fireworks a whimper..

Some of you out there may have been sadly disappointed in the fireworks display as seen from the vantage point of Sunset Park. Apparently we weren't the only ones. As is always the case in this city, everything happens from a Manhattan centric view. We tend to elect governments of Manhattan when election time comes around and that is where most of the city money is spent. In any case, I ran across this piece over at The Brooklyn Rail that expressed the sentiments of those at the park on the evening of July 4th.

EZ Laundry and Cleaning, well, makes laundry and cleaning easy!

If you're like me you have little time in a busy schedule as it is. So many things to do, so little time. How do you fit 16 hours of work into a mere eight hours? Doing laundry is a necessity but not on top of my priorities list. So when a place exists that allows you to drop off your dirty underwear and socks or sometimes even picks them up and have them ready for you at a set time. Well, you just have to jump at that one. Fitting laundry time into my schedule is simply not my thing. Being single I don't have one of those female servants they call wives to do my laundry. How often do you find yourself having to do laundry in the graveyard hours after midnight at one of the few places open that late? And after you're through with washing and drying folding pants and socks at 2:30 in the morning is just simply not how I want to spend my shuteye time. Enter EZ laundry, they will pick your stuff up and have it ready when you need it. They are environmentally friendly and use safe soaps and cleaners. To boot all their work is done on premises so your stuff can't get lost in transit. Since they also do cleaning you have the advantage of getting stuff that needs to be pressed done as well at the same time. That is their specialty and their preference as a business and they are quite good at it. What more could you ask? They serve most of northern Sunset Park (also known as Greenwood Heights) and southern Park Slope. You can give them a call and inquire if they will pick up where you are.  You just might want to give them a try.



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More In Search of Dumplings in Sunset Park.

Being a creature of habit sometimes has it's advantages and sometimes not. One of the more popular posts from a while back was my review of the only two dumpling places at the time.  Prosperity Dumpling has been open for just over a year. I remember making a mental not to myself that I would have to drop in there at some point and try their dumplings. I only live three blocks from the place so I really should not have had an excuse to avoid it. But life sometimes isn't a planned thing and I never got the chance to walk in there until this last week. I had read the few reviews of the place in Yelp (and BTW they have the nabe wrong) and though them intriguing. Well, I can report I was not disappointed. The dumplings were great. the place is clean and has a more restaurant look than the other two locations in the nabe. I decided to get 12 dumplings for $3 and what a full plate that was. The dumplings were not as greasy as one would expect. The soy sauce they use at the tables is a bit vinegary much the same as they use at Family Dumpling. I would have hoped that they would have a choice of soy sauce without vinegar but nevertheless I found the dumplings fresh, tasty and quite filling. I have not tried their sesame cake yet but will next time I drop in. Now I have no excuse to avoid the place. perhaps when I'm there I can recommend that they put plain soy sauce on the tables.  Oh, and BTW it's located on the corner of 44th street and 8th Avenue.







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Sunset Park is Still Best spot to watch the Macy's Fireworks Show !!

Tomorrow for those of us stuck in the city the only consolation will be that we will have one of the best Fireworks shows in the country. The Annual Macy's Fireworks show will send up rockets galore over the Bay. One good spot to watch it from but always crowded every year is the 69th street pier just over the border in Bay Ridge at the end of Bay Ridge Avenue. Sunset Parkers are fortunate that they have the second highest natural point in the borough in Sunset Park. From this vantage point you can pretty much see all of New Jersey and the southern tip of Manhattan as well as much of the bay.  The fun starts at around 9:15 PM. You should however, be at the park at least forty minutes earlier so you can pick a spot. The park fills up pretty quickly as the time approaches for the show to start. You might want to have a fold able chair and bring a radio so you can hear the background music that goes along with the show. Sunset Park always fills up really fast during these fourth of July shows and believe it or not a lot of people from out of the nabe show up as well. For other links and spots to watch the show you can follow this link here. You can also visit Macy's official page Here  Can't make it to Sunset Park? Try this link for other spots to watch it from.  I hope to see you all there tomorrow.

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Greenmarket back in the neighborhood.

The yearly Sunset Park greenmarket that has become a yearly summer tradition in Sunset Park has returned. It actually started last week on June 26th at the corner of 4th Avenue between 59th and 60th streets. It will be an ongoing enterprise every Saturday from 8 am till 3 pm. until November 31. You can find out about other greenmarkets in New York City by visiting their website here.


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BABA'S DELI a hybrid delight with a coffee shop too

Baba's Deli located just over the border in Park Slope has joined our roster of eateries in our website mall. What makes Baba's rather interesting is that hidden in the back is a patio with chairs and tables giving it a relaxed air as you sip your coffee and perhaps read a paper or cruise the web on your netbook. Baba's joins a number of other rather eclectic hybrid coffee shops opening in our area and creeping up towards the direction of Sunset Park proper. The owner has told us that he intends to install WIFI in the very near future to service his clients and patrons. With the lack of any Starbucks and Mc Donalds recent introduction of free WIFI more places like this are needed in the neighborhood. So if you happen to be in the are, drop in and say hello and tell them you saw them on this blog and on our website. Remember, only your patronage can keep our local businesses open and competitive in this economy.

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Sunset Park (the park) faces budget cuts

The Brooklyn Eagle has an article on a report by the New Yorkers for Parks, and its report “Supporting Our Parks: Alternative Strategies for Revenue Generation.” The report outlines different ways in which the community could raise funds to help maintain the park in this period of budget cuts and economic adversity. It is well worth reading if at least to give some active local residents some ideas on how to become involved and perhaps organizing to keep the park a vibrant part of the community and preventing it from deteriorating as it has in past times of economic adversity.


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Dollar vans in Sunset Park may be here to stay..

According to a piece at Streetsblog those dollar vans that clog up traffic in the mornings along 8th avenue and 7th avenues will likely increase in their operational scope.According to the article :

Mayor Bloomberg announced a new pilot program to provide livery van service for transit-starved neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens, a proposal stemming from his 2009 campaign transit platform. The push to provide more mobility options in the wake of MTA service cuts is to be applauded, as is the administration's willingness to experiment with something new.


That's all well and fine, but as anyone in the neighborhood knows those vans are a pain in the *ss. The only reason they exists is not to supplement the MTA, it's because they provide direct service to the other Chinatowns in New York. They skirt the law by picking up passengers just as taxis are supposed to do driving slowly up the avenue and stopping whenever it suits them to pick up passengers. The result is a commuting nightmare if you happen to be driving by in the morning as I do. The reason there has been no enforcement of the taxi laws is purely political so as not to aggravate interests in the community. The vans only benefit those whose destination is the other Chinatowns in the city. How will this alleviate the problem for other residents of Sunset Park who need transit to other parts of Brooklyn or Manhattan. Are they going to clog the streets with more expanded dollar vans? And who is going to inspect these vans insofar as safety and other issues? Are we going to set up another bureaucracy while we cut the MTA budget to oversee the problem? What about liability? If you think are streets are clogged now, wait till this brainchild takes off. I personally think it's a bad idea who's time hasn't come.

The problem with our city is that too many agencies have come to exists to provide jobs for political cronies. The reason our MTA is in the red is because it was not designed to make a profit as it is constituted now. It has become a machine to provide employment and n expanded membership base for transit unions who are powerful backers of the politicians in city hall. Aggravating the problem by "legalizing" these dollar vans is not the solution to our transit problems. If the MTA was run as a private enterprise the cuts would not come in service, it would have meant lay offs. Nobody wants to make sacrifices in this town any more, or for that matter in the rest of the country either. The result is that we are broke, robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Commuter vans, like this one in Sunset Park, could become a more common sight on New York's streets. Image: The Brooklyn Ink.

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Casa Vieja joins our roster of restaurants

Mariachi bands Play every Sunday Evening to accompany your food.

Casa Vieja has been open just over a little more than a Year and has picked up a good reputation among the locals. It now joins with a select group of restaurants that can be found on our online mall. She has an inspiring story that was covered by the new York Times and more recently by Chowhound relating the story of owner Lourdes Pena and her husband who in a previous life were street vendors in Red Hook. If you want  to try authentic Mexican food her place is the go to.This coming Sunday Jun 27, Casa Vieja will be featuring their Hometown team Mexico as it takes on Argentina in the World Cup..


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Copa Mundial means World Cup here in Brooklyn

Watching the USA game at the Black Horse Pub

As the World Cup enters the second final elimination faze two of or favorite teams have made it into the semi final. The neighborhood is a buzz of beehive activity as our locals favorite teams have made it into the semi finals.A couple of local places will be featuring the coming soccer games. The Black Horse Pub above @ 16th street and 5th Ave. just over the edge of our nabe. Casa Vieja Mexican Restaurant will be showing the Mexico vs. Argentina game this Sunday @ 2:30 PM. For some other places to watch the games check out the following article in Crain's. This article is subject to revision as people might want to contribute other spots or we discover them.

 
Casa Vieja will show the Mexico vs. Argentina game.

T-shirts of the teams on display at local businesses.

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An immigrant dream and Monsignor's Italian Restaurant

When Rafael Aranda arrived here in Sunset Park from Mexico in 1993 his first job was as a dishwasher at Gotham Bar and Grill. Barely a year after, he was given the position of chef specializing in Italian cuisine. So for over ten years he slaved away over a hot stove making Fettuccine Alfredo, linguine and many other dishes at Gotham, all the while honing his skills and improving his repertoire. He always had a dream that someday he would open his own establishment. As the neighborhood improved and gentrification began to move south from the Slope it seemed to Rafael that there was an opportunity for an Italian restaurant and so, less than a year ago he saw an opening with the availability off the present location ideally situated equidistantly from the Slope and southern Sunset Park and thus Monsignor's was born. It is the path that previous immigrants have taken to these shores.If you haven't dropped by yet do so.

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Village Voice rates 10 Best Sunset Park Restaurants

Being busy as I have been I missed the Village Voice rating of what they consider the 10 best restaurants in Sunset Park. New Belachan made the list and our Pacificana made the runner's up list. Sunset Park is becoming the place to go for Chinese and Mexican fare. The variety of eating fare that can be seen in our mall at our website is indicative of why our neighborhood is the up and coming hood to be in, even in this recession. I can only imagine what things would be if our economy was jumping. Remember that if you live in the area the only way to keep these places going is to patronize them and keep our capital in the hood. Now go out there and eat.


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A new kind of Bakery in Sunset Park

In what I hope is a new trend in the neighborhood is the opening of La Boulangerie Lopez in the Greenwood Heights section of the neighborhood. Hopefully the concept will spread. We are sadly deficient in good coffee establishments that serve good baked goods and internet as well. The only free wifi zones so far to have opened in the neighborhood are the free service offered by McDonald's and that offered by the Public Library. Though somewhat similar to a Starbucks, something we don't have in our neck of the woods, La Boulangerie boasts fresh baked goods baked right on the premises with a far wider variety than the fare at Starbucks. One thing that is lacking in the neighborhood is wifi access for those of us who are on the road and need to connect while we are out. La boulangerie is I hope the start of a good trend in the neighborhood. While we do have a goodly number of Internet cafe's in the area, especially on 8th Avenue. They do not have wifi access and you must use their computers. Out of luck if you lug a laptop as I do. The baked goods at La Boulangerie and the Cafe varieties should make Starbucks blush. The place already has acquired a rather strong local following and clientele. Perhaps now that some in the southern part of the hood are aware of it, they too will partake of the experience. Support your local businesses and drop by.

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Eating Italian in Sunset Park

Italian restaurants in Sunset Park were a rarity. Oh yes, you could get some at some of the pizzerias like pasta dishes, but the variety or ambience just wasn't there. If you wanted real Italian food you had to trek out of the hood to Rocco's Calamari or New Corner. Two great restaurants on the fringes of our nabe.

Well, we now have two new restaurants that have recently opened featuring Italian cuisine exclusively. The first is La Cucina on 5th Avenue and 45th street. The new restaurant features a full italian menu and a pleasant interior. Hopefully it will be able to do well and gives more culinary variety to the nabe. The second restaurant to open it's doors in the nabe is farther north at 5th Avenue and 20th in the Greenwood Heights section of Sunset Park. It's name is Monsignor's the name evokes a rustic Italian country side and it's menu is somewhat reflective of this. It is good to see these new eateries open in the neighborhood. Of course the only way to guarantee they remain open is for us to patronize them and help our local economy at the same time. If the food is good, I can certainly see them around for the long haul.

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Easter in the Hood

I stumbled on this wall in my meanderings in the neighborhood after visiting Green-Wood Cemetery and the graves of my parents and aunt and uncle and thought to myself. What an appropriate scene for an Easter Sunday. The wall is on the corner of 64th street and 7th Avenue on the side of the Dunkin Donuts located there. There is an evangelical church located across the street. It may be that they are responsible for it. Kudos to Dunkin Donuts to being open to having it painted on the side of their building.

St. Patrick's Day Parade Tomorrow

The Bay Ridge/Sunset Park St. Patrick's day Parade is slated to be held tomorrow at 1 PM. A bit late as compared to all the other Parades but nevertheless it will be a day for the Irish to show their colors. The parade begins at 1 PM @ St. Patrick's Church on 95th street and 4th in Bay Ridge and ends @ OLPH RC Church here in Sunset Park at 59th street and 5th Avenue. There will be a grandstand set up at 75th street and 5th Avenue. It will be an opportunity for some photographers to capture some good images of the cultural diversity of our nabe and borough.



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Rainbow Cafe Sells for $1.65 Million

The Brooklyn Eagle reports that the Building Housing the Rainbow Cafe a venerable institution of our neighborhood which has been closed for over a year has been sold for 1.65 million. The Rainbow which used to be a venerable hangout of longtime residents and a place where some rock bands got their start was reportedly purchased by a local investor. Perhaps the new owner will do something with the building. I hope it is not torn down and replaced by a condo as appears to be the pattern and fate of many other buildings in the nabe.

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Sunset Polish Deli on Fourth Avenue to close it's doors

The Sunset Polish Deli on 55th and 4th Avenue that was a staple of the neighborhood for almost twenty years and provided Sunset Park's small Polish community with Polish staples and products will be closing it's doors next month. The sad news leaves only one place for Polish goods in the southern part of our nabe. The owner cited the fact that the Polish population of Sunset Park is dwindling and many Polish immigrants are returning home to Poland because of the better economy there. I reported last December the closing of the other Polish Deli in our neck of the woods. The Sunset Deli will be missed, it gave the neighborhood a more varietal ethnic flavor. I suppose it is just a sign that the more things change, they just keep on changing. On another note, the owner informed me that Chinese bought other buildings on the block. Part of a larger sign that the Chinese community on eighth avenue is moving westward towards fourth avenue as more and more hispanic stores on the avenue are being replaced by Chinese owned 99 cent stores and bakeries. Whetehr this is a sustainable trend remains to be seen.



The only remaining place in our neck selling Polish goods remains the Podlaise Meat Market on the corner of 48th and 8th Avenue. It may be only a matter of time before they too sucumb to pressure and alos close their doors. The Norwegian and Finnish stores that once pockmarked the avenues 30 years ago are also long gone. Remaining only in the memories of long time residents that have seen the changes, but they too are increasingly moving out and with them the history of the nabe fades away. The new residents replacing them not having a clue of the rich history of the nabe.

The only Polish Deli and Meat market left in the neighborhood on the corner of 48th and 8th..


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Changes in our Little Chinatown in Sunset Park

Not being Chinese I did not notice changes in the Chinese side of the nabe. It took a visit to the Wikipedia article on the nabe to inform me of changes occurring right under my nose. I had not realized that the population makeup had shifted from Cantonese to Fujianese. From the article;


Brooklyn's Chinatown is now very quickly becoming the New Little Fuzhou(小福州) or Brooklyn's East Broadway(布鲁克東百老匯) and is now surpassing the one within Manhattan's Chinatown as the largest Fuzhou population/community in NYC unlike the Little Fuzhou within Manhattan's Chinatown remains surrounded by areas that are mostly Cantonese populated and in some parts moderately Cantonese populated. The Fuzhou ratio out of total Chinese population in Brooklyn's Chinatown however has already surpassed the Fuzhou ratio out of total Chinese population in Manhattan's Chinatown and it is rather becoming Fuzhou Town(福州埠) because it is also emerging beyond the current borderlines of the Chinese community on 7th and 9th Avenues and north onto 50th-42nd streets. Even though the Chinese community is starting to become a Chinese Fuzhou community and there are now hardly Cantonese residents residing there, there are still many Cantonese people living in ethnic-integrated areas near the Chinese community, there are still many Cantonese shops between 50th-62nd streets on 8th Avenue, however it is slowly on the decline in replacements to Fuzhou shops emerging and many Cantonese people coming from other parts of Brooklyn and other areas come into the Chinese community to go shopping and to eat in restaurants to meet up with family members and friends for socialization on the weekends. The Cantonese community identity is fading away very quickly unlike Manhattan's Chinatown still successfully continues to carry a large Cantonese population and successfully continues to retain the large stable Cantonese community/business district where the Cantonese residents still have a place of gathering for shopping and going to work that was established in the western portion/main section of Manhattan's Chinatown decades ago. By 2009 many Mandarin-speaking people moved to Sunset Park.

I frankly had not noticed the change and all this came as news to me. I did notice a change in some of the businesses opening and closing, but I took that to be the result of the ebb and flow of the business cycle. I suppose a part of me would have preferred that the neighborhood would have become a mix, rather than one group driving another one out. When I moved here back in 1970 the neighborhood was an eclectic mix of ethnic groups. 8th Avenue had a fair number of Italian, Irish and Scandinavian shops sprinkled with many Dominican and Puerto Rican bodegas. All of that is gone. The neighborhood once the home to large Puerto Rican and Dominican population is far less so with Puerto Ricans moving out of the neighborhood in what could only be called droves. Dominicans still remain, but even they are moving out, being replaced by Hondurans, Ecuadorians, Salvadorans and especially Mexicans.

The only thing it seems that is remaining constant it appears is me. I have been here 40 years, but I wonder sometimes if I won't be swept out of here by circumstance. So what do we do when the last Cantonese restaurant closes? Will there still be Mexicans in the neighborhood in ten years? Will I still be alive by then and will I even care?

One thing that is constant about this neighborhood is the constant change. Sometimes though, I let my memory wonder to the past. To shops that used to be, neighbors and friends no longer here. And while some buildings do remain the change is constant. Will I even recognize the neighborhood in ten years?

Heck, I would not have noticed the change along 8th Avenue if I had not read the Wikipedia piece, Chinese all sounds the same to my ear. Being of Latin American origin Spanish is my venue and those changes I have noticed. But I ask myself, are there other changes I haven't noticed? Is this the way it is all across this land? Is the America I emigrated to in the 60's a vanishing place? I suspect it is, and while English is still a predominant language I wonder how much longer the mythical America called the United States will exist. It is metastasizing to something else, and I suspect the old America will vanish in a generation or two into something else that none of us who are alive today will even recognize.

Maybe I am wrong, I may have to revisit this post in a few months and have a totally different perspective. Then again maybe not. One thing is certain, the old neighborhood and the old America only lives in our fading memories and when we die it will perish with us.


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