Vines & Voices 023: Writers Are Fighting Over Desk Space in Brooklyn
Plus, disaster loans for Red Hook fire victims, Thanksgiving volunteer opportunities 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. Your voice helps shape the story.
What Paid Subscribers Got This Week
Yesterday, we published a story about the closure of Via Roma. In that original version, we wrote that Via Roma had operated at 445 Court Street “for decades.” We’ve since updated the piece to clarify that the current iteration of the pizzeria opened around 2015. The earlier business at that address, which may have operated under a different name, was originally run by the brother of Ralph Di Benedetto Sr., who purchased the building in 1972.
Would you like to own the Via Roma sign? Let us know.
The Weekly Edit
This week, we attended the community forum explaining how to submit a public comment about the Brooklyn Marine Terminal. Read our Note with more information here.
This article about how Brooklyn families can give back during Thanksgiving is very helpful.
Brooklyn food pantries — especially in Brownsville, East New York, Bushwick, Bed-Stuy and Flatbush — are over capacity.
Artists, residents and small business owners affected by the Red Hook warehouse fire are now eligible for low-interest disaster loans worth up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A young girl was reportedly hit by a car at the intersection of Columbia and President earlier this week. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.
The city is moving ahead with a $218 million flood-protection project in Red Hook, though experts warn the plan will only guard against a 10-year storm and falls short of protections at other sites.
Feed Me wrote about the third spaces coming to Brooklyn Heights. The Malin, a coworking space, and Kings Athletic Club, a 52,000-square-foot urban country club, are both opening next year. Red Hook Tavern chef Billy Durney and Polo Bar designer Alfredo Paredes have been tapped to work on Kings Athletic Club.
Sal Tang’s, the Cantonese-American concept by Sal Lamboglia and Wilson Tang, has been added to the Michelin Guide.
Last weekend, Emily Weiss, founder of Glossier, and Will Gaybrick, a Stripe executive, held a garage sale in Brooklyn Heights, also according to Feed Me.
Goings On
Fujisan, a Japanese market, opened on 143 Court Street this week. Fujisan’s opening follows that of Japanese supermarket Hashi, which opened on Atlantic Ave last week.
Anaïs, the natural wine bar, is serving Argentinian classics tonight, Nov. 21.
From Here to Sunday is helping writers workshop their works-in-progress. Actors will cold-read writers’ works for audience feedback during the story co-op cafe on Sunday, Nov. 23.
Rue Saint Paul is hosting a custom patch pop-up on Sunday, Nov. 23.
June Wine Bar is doing Friendsgiving with a side of pottery painting on Monday, Nov. 24. Get tickets here.
Bolo Bolo is hosting a Thanksgiving floral workshop on Tuesday, Nov. 25.
Hatchet Supply is having an in-store only warehouse sale until Nov. 30, with an average discount price of 70 percent.
The Noguchi Museum is offering 10 percent off select Akari lamps until Nov. 25.
One Last Thing
I am tickled by this Curbed article about writers fighting over desk space at the Center for Fiction. Novelists throwing a fit over shoddy Wi-Fi and non-writers using the space is peak New York writer energy. It’s also a reminder that the pursuit of creativity (messy, territorial, deeply human) is alive and well.