Vines & Voices 045: We made The New Yorker (and print!)
Dae shares reason for closure, local bakeries vie for best NYC croissant, Buttermilk Channel lives on in Tokyo and more.
Hello, neighbors. Big news: CSJ was featured in The New Yorker yesterday. If you follow us on Instagram, you saw a stream of Stories promoting the article on the CSJ account (my personal one, too). Oops, I got excited!
I launched this publication nearly three years ago and moved onto Substack around this time last year. I can’t tell you how much joy writing this dispatch brings me each week. Knowing there are people on the other side of this thing, reading and engaging with it, is beyond my comprehension.
Thank you for being here. You rock.
As Kyle Chayka, neighbor and New Yorker staff writer, wrote, CSJ is “designed to feel like a storybook.” This neighborhood is endlessly inspiring to me, and because of Tim Le, illustrator extraordinaire, and Paulo Tonn, graphics mastermind, CSJ reflects that. How cool that we get to make something beautiful *just because* and have fun at the same time! Hats off to Emily Sundberg for making us even more visible to Kyle and for shouting out local Substackers in her interview with platform co-founder Hamish McKenzie.
Also this week: we made our print debut via a column in the Red Hook Star-Revue. It’s got the scoop on what Nate Adler and Rachel Jackson are cooking up at Trudie’s Tavern — Keith McNally vibe, rotisserie chicken (duh), sundaes for dessert using Buttermilk Channel’s old ice cream machine — and a slew of other neighborhood openings (The Garden Club, The Emerald Dispensary, Harris Home and more). Click here to subscribe to the Star-Revue’s newsletter.
It has truly been a fantastic week. I hope for more like it. Now, let’s get into it, shall we?
The Roundup
Speaking of the Star-Revue, they published a Q&A with Andrew Guglielmi of the Department of Environmental Conversation about Public Place, the former manufactured gas plant site in Gowanus. The DEC has invoked its legal authority to access Parcel 4 of Public Place, with plans to enter this month to identify contamination sampling locations.
Also, in the Star-Revue, an interview with Carol Song, founder of Dae, about the harassment and hate she and her staff received while running the neighborhood café these past few years. We were the first to report on Dae’s closure at the end of April.
Are you a “whip smart, ambitious young person with an interest in hospitality?” Lula Phelps, one-half of Breakfast by Salt’s Cure, is manifesting you to assist her and her husband.
DUMBO locals are anxious about the chaos that will probably ensue in their neighborhood when the World Cup comes to town. *That* infamous selfie spot, price-gouging street vendors and trash are top concerns, along with a lack of confidence in the city’s ability to intervene.
Atelier Ariana, Breads Bakery, Brooklyn French Bakers and La Bicyclette are all finalists for French Morning-Frenchly’s annual Best Croissant in New York contest. There are 10 finalists, four of which are in our neck of the woods. The contest culminates in a live tasting event on Tuesday, May 19. Revisit our story on the neighborhood’s French influence here.
L’Appartement 4F’s founders inspired a new scent from haircare brand Dae: Vanilla Dae Beam.
Walgreen’s last Brooklyn Heights location (120 Court Street) is closing. The landlord reportedly terminated the lease, and there are plans to convert the building into a mixed-use residential. I have said this in friend group chats for years and will say it here now: We need a new kind of neighborhood pharmacy. I have ideas, if anyone’s interested.
Brad Lander’s trial (he got arrested in the fall for protesting ICE) has been postponed until June.
Goings On
The Longest Table returns to Brooklyn Heights tomorrow, and is featured in a brand-new Food52 piece.
Smith Street Stage returns to Carroll Park tomorrow with Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar running from Saturday, May 16 to Sunday, June 7.
Atlantic Avenue Day of Design kicks off tomorrow, May 16.
Brooklyn Bridge Park will host a kite festival tomorrow, May 16 beginning at 11 a.m.
The Red Hook Business Alliance is holding a weekend rummage sale starting tomorrow, May 16.
The Cobble Hill Tree Fund will sell flowers and herbs as part of its spring plant sale tomorrow, May 16.
Bathhouse, which just opened on Atlantic Avenue, is hosting a series of sauna rituals, a.k.a. Aufguss, led by the country’s top sauna masters on Tuesday, May 19 and Wednesday, May 20 at the new location.
Brooklyn-based tea atelier Forgrave is popping up at ByClio (400 3rd Avenue) for International Tea Day on Thursday, May 21. There will be special pastries, a black tea cake made with Boy’s Club and more from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Celebrate Brooklyn’s summer lineup includes a benefit show headlined by the legend herself Patti LaBelle on Friday, June 26 at the Lena Horne Bandshell in Prospect Park. Every year, around the holidays, I revisit this Esquire story breaking down LaBelle’s infamous 1996 “This Christmas” performance. A true icon!
One Last Thing
I am delighted to learn that Buttermilk Channel, like other gone-but-not-forgotten New York favorites, lives on in Tokyo. Field trip?