Store of the day: Sneaker Warehouse

There is a rather interesting story behind this store. When Costco first opened and before they took over the extra parking lot on 2nd Avenue the guy who is now at this location used to sell high end sneakers on weekends off of a van. He gathered a following by word of mouth who came over on weekends to see his wares. One day he disappeared and a number of weekends went by when a sign appeared announcing his new location. That was a few years back and he has been at the corner of 58 and 2nd avenue ever since.

UPDATE LINK!!!!:

• Closings: Sneaker Warehouse No More

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Store of the day: Designer Men's Outlet

On the corner of 58th street on 2nd Avenue. Near Lutheran medical Center. They have been there for well over one year and appear to be surviving. Most of their customers get there by word of mouth.




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Store of the day: Subway on 2nd Avenue

This Subway is relatively new and located @ 54th street and 2nd Avenue. The location may seem illogical but it's located near Lutheran Hospital and it's probably intended to cater to the 24 hour cycle there. You hear that? 24 hours!! Now I know where to go when I get the munchies at 3 AM..

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Coming soon: Sunrise Family Pharmacy

Located on the corner of 64th street and 4th Avenue is a new pharmacy that will be opening any day now.I must admit that the out of the way location is an odd place to put a pharmacy as you would have to cross 4th avenue to get there from the rest of the neighborhood. If my memory serves me correctly the spot was once held by a plumbing supply store that had been there for many years. On the side is a dead end street and the timing may jot be auspicious since they will soon begin construction of an HOV ramp there to augment the present ramp going into the Gowanus. I suspect the plans are to serve a niche population, perhaps Russians (notice the Russian Cyrillic word AIITEKA for Apothecary on the awning). This begs the next question, do these people know something we don't? Are Russians moving into the nabe as our Polish population is declining?  Who knows? The place is rather large for a Pharmacy, at least larger than most family Pharmacies.  They also have some hefty competition with a large Rite Aid located on 62 and 4th. Ave.. Well, we wish them luck and will be making a visit to the place when they open. They do have one thing in their favor worth crossing the Avenue for, they do copies on their copy machine for 5¢, now that's a good thing.



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AM New York does Sunset Park

The newspaper AM New York did a writeup on Sunset Park yesterday. You can find the entire paper in PDF format here and the article starts on page 18. Only one problem with the article is that the reporter didn't research the borders of Sunset Park. Sunset Park goes North to the Prospect Expressway and the Eastern border goes to 9th Avenue not 8th. The borders were meant to coincide with the zip codes and 11232, for example goes to 9th Avenue. Other than that, it makes for interesting reading..



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Store of the day: Chic and Cheap Designer Closeouts

Chic and Cheap on 61st street right off of 5th Avenue is one of those places you have to know is there. Unfortunately the owner will be relocating to Carol Gardens when her l;ease is up in less than a year. But for the mean time it will still be here selling both used and overstock clothing to the public. The eclectic store stocks items for both male and female and if you haven't been there maybe it's time to drop them a visit and say hello. Who knows? Maybe she'll change her mind about renewing her lease come next July and decide to stay if more Sunset Parkers know she's there.




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Store of the day: Number One Ice Cream

The owner had a love of ice cream and decided to open an ice cream parlor. It's as close as you're going to get to an Italian Gelateria in this neighborhood.  They're located at the southern edge of the neighborhood at 8th Avenue between 64 and 65th streets. Go check them out and tell us what you think...

Store of the day: Has Beans Internet Cafe

Located at the extreme northern edge of the neighborhood @ 18th and 5th Ave. This place caters mostly to people from Park Slope. I suspect some people to the south might know it's there. They serve coffee and, of course, free wi fi. Starbuck's it ain't and it's not a large place so seating is limited. But hey, it's better than nothing.


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Closings: Spoiled

It's sad to see another store close. Never went in there. They sold women's clothing and articles. Part of the cycle of life. Currently located @ 50th and 5th Avenue. We can hope that it will soon be replaced by something new. Even in this economy we have new stores opening up.


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Coming Soon: Dragon City Reastaurant Chinese Buffet

Finally it appears that Sunset Park will have a Chinese Buffet place. This new place is close to opening with no definite date set yet. Located near the corner of 58th street and 5th Avenue it's set to cater to a growing population of Chinese that are moving westward from 8th Avenue. I suspect we will be seeing more than just Chinese there. :Let's welcome these folks to the neighborhood and wish them success.

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Store of the day: The Tiki Bar

Located on 4th  Avenue between 32nd and 33rd streets and sporting Wi Fi is the Tiki Bar. Open from 2 PM till 4 am they currently don't serve coffee, but the owner has told me he is amenable to the idea if people came in and requested it. The place is very pleasant and also serves as a sport's bar which they don't advertise as such but they should. It's decor is designed to bring images of the south pacific into your mind. If you haven't been there they are definitely worth a visit.

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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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