Vines & Voices 042: Sam’s Restaurant has a new owner, from Long Island Bar
Brad Lander reportedly lobbied in support of BMT plan, an 18th-century BK Heights home filled with Donald Judd furniture and more.
Welcome to Vines & Voices, your weekly look at life across West Brooklyn. Curated by CSJ, this free newsletter brings together the local news and goings-on shaping our neighborhoods, plus a few extras worth knowing. Have a tip, a story idea or something you think deserves attention? Write to us at info@courtstreetjournal.com. Your voice helps shape the story.
New in the Neighborhood
My husband and I visited Bar Ferdinando last Friday evening. A food critic had arrived just before us, adding to the overall excitement. At the bar, young men in baseball caps and women in tube tops gabbed with one another. We ordered quite a few things; my favorites were the pane e panelle and the gamberi all’aglio e peperoncini. Also, the cheesecake dessert was not to be missed.
Did anyone visit Prince Street Pizza on opening day yesterday? I want to hear how it was! It looked like a movie. Also, what was Brooklyn Strategist will soon be Light Switch, a café by day and wine bar by night, The Strong Buzz reports.
Elsewhere
Sam’s Restaurant, a red-sauce Italian American institution dating back to 1930, is being refreshed. Georgia Fulton, a 12-year veteran of Long Island Bar, is in the final stages of renovating the space after six months working alongside owner Louis Migliaccio. With investment from Joel Tompkins, Long Island Bar co-owner, and Sam Premutico, a Sam’s regular, the restaurant will preserve key elements — the brick oven pizza, vintage murals, wooden telephone booths — longtime patrons love, while brightening the space, adding barstools and paring down the menu. Sam’s will maintain its longstanding relationships with Court Street stalwarts: bread from Caputo Bakery, meat from Staubitz Market and cookies from Court Pastry Shop.
Two NYPD officers have been placed on modified duty after a video showing them beating a man inside a liquor store near Hoyt and Baltic Streets in Boerum Hill went viral. The officers were conducting a buy-and-bust operation when they pursued a man into the store. Footage shows punches, bottles knocked from shelves and blood on the ground. The Brooklyn DA has since dropped the charges filed against the man. Commissioner Tisch called the video “upsetting” and said the Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating. Mayor Mamdani also weighed in, calling the officers’ conduct “extremely disturbing and unacceptable.”
A new Crain’s report adds a wrinkle to the Brooklyn Marine Terminal debate: Brad Lander, who is now running for Congress against Rep. Dan Goldman and has publicly questioned the $3.5 billion redevelopment plan, reportedly lobbied key task force members to support it last fall. Randy Mastro, former deputy mayor and ex officio chair of the BMT Development Corp., said he was “surprised to see him flip-flopping now.” Lander denies he lobbied or pressured anyone. The primary is June 23.
Two new city initiatives are putting green infrastructure front and center this spring. The Mamdani administration announced a $4.5 million, three-year pilot on Earth Day to train New Yorkers with histories of incarceration, homelessness or substance abuse for careers in stormwater management. The Gowanus Canal Conservancy is a supporting partner. Separately, the city unveiled its first-ever Urban Forest Plan, a long-term strategy to expand tree canopy coverage to 30 percent citywide by 2040, prioritizing neighborhoods with high heat vulnerability. Red Hook is already part of the story: more than 400 trees were lost to saltwater damage after Hurricane Sandy, and 176 have since been replaced, with hundreds more planned.
A Boerum Hill 3-K childcare site that had been shuttered since 2022 opened this week. The city had paid $5.1 million in rent for the site over the past four years.
Goings On
The deadline to submit public comments to the NY State DEC on a developer’s remediation plan for the Citizens Gas Works site — which community advocates say inadequately addresses contamination at the highly polluted Gowanus site slated for 900-plus residential units, a school and senior housing — is tomorrow, April 25. To submit, email aaron.fischer@dec.ny.gov with the subject line “Comments For C224012.” Voice of Gowanus even drafted email copy you can use.
Harris Home on Henry Street is hosting Electric Lady Florals for an Earth Week pop-up with fresh bouquets and single stems tomorrow, April 25. A portion of sales will go to BloomAgainBklyn, a nonprofit that redistributes unsold flowers to vulnerable New Yorkers.
Hoyt Street’s open street goes car-free from noon to 3 p.m. tomorrow, April 25 for an Earth Day celebration with free plant giveaways from the Horticultural Society of New York and kids’ activities from The Nature Company.
Books Are Magic is hosting two story times tomorrow, Saturday April 25, a.k.a. the final day of the Brooklyn Indie Store Crawl. The first will be led by Harmonica Sunbeam and Drag Artists for Expression NYC, followed by a social justice-themed story time led by Mona Damluji.
Literary editor Grace Perri Barnes is leading a five-week salon-style seminar on Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian at Index Greenpoint kicking off Tuesday, April 28. Tickets are available on a sliding scale starting at $180.
The Red Hook Community Farm, Resilient Red Hook and Brooklyn Outdoor Service Guides are hosting a Riverkeeper Sweep cleanup at Valentino Pier Park next Saturday, May 2. Volunteers will collect trash and log what they find as part of a data collection initiative that informs Riverkeeper’s advocacy for policies reducing single-use plastic waste. Register here.
One Last Thing
A wood-shingled Brooklyn Heights home, believed to date back to 1790 and filled with Donald Judd furniture, is on the market for $4.9 million. Owner Elisabeth Cunnick is a former art dealer who used to run A/D Gallery, which specialized in utilitarian objects by artists like James Turrell and Richard Tuttle. She was also the sole New York dealer of Donald Judd furniture, which explains all the pieces in the home.