Vines & Voices 039: Community Wins More Time on the BMT
Li-Lac Chocolates and Sahadi’s big link, Lanoba finds a permanent home 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.
Coming Up on CSJ
Few Carroll Gardens institutions have roots as deep as Caputo’s Fine Foods. Next week, I’m sharing the story of how Giuseppe Caputo left Mola di Bari for Brooklyn in 1972 — and how his son Frank has spent the last four decades carrying that tradition forward, one batch of fresh mozzarella at a time. It’s a story about family, a neighborhood in flux and what it looks like to bet on a place.
Elsewhere
The deadline for public comments on the Brooklyn Marine Terminal Draft Scope of Work was extended this week to May 8 — a hard-won victory for the community. Residents and elected officials successfully pressured the EDC to push back the deadline, hold in-person community meetings, brief the Development Corporation and Advisory Task Force, and extend the comment period to 30 days after the community has been briefed on submitted proposals.
Did anyone vote on which city fixes Mayor Mamdani should address as part of Municipal Madness? The Sunset Park item — “install dog waste bag dispensers” — made me think of that one block that racked up dog poop complaints during the snowstorms.
Separately, Mamdani was in Sunset Park earlier this week to announce major upgrades to the city’s street drainage system.
Ingas Bar is opening a second restaurant, Lonnies, in Boerum Hill at Pacific and Bond.
Bloomberg Law reports that a federal court rejected a motion by TDA Industries, a roofing materials company, to avoid responsibility for cleaning up the Gowanus Canal. This ruling is one of several within a larger National Grid suit.
The city has completed a $24 million facility in Gowanus that will store six million pounds of road salt, house 75 plow blades, and — via rooftop solar — generate its own power. The site also includes a composting facility operated by Big Reuse that can process 600,000 pounds of food scraps and yard waste annually. The project clears the way for a 4-million-gallon underground sewage storage tank, part of the Gowanus Canal Superfund cleanup, with excavation set to begin this spring.
The Hunger Games director is selling his Cobble Hill townhouse, which features an excavated basement with a movie theater and gym. While reporting on local real estate trends, I’ve heard that luxury clients are buying townhouses and “digging down” — adding lower levels to make room for gyms, saunas, wine cellars, all kinds of opulence. More on that soon.
Li-Lac Chocolates, a chocolatier that first opened in Manhattan in 1923, is opening a counter inside Sahadi’s on Atlantic Avenue. Legacy business big link!
In celebration of Wikipedia’s 25th year, City Tech in Downtown Brooklyn held a conference, where conversations were dominated by artificial intelligence.
Take Me With You shop is opening its space for retail residencies at the Ace Hotel in Downtown Brooklyn.
After months of searching for a new permanent home, vintage Danish furniture business Lanoba Design is moving into a 9,500-square-foot space in Clinton Hill. Their new store at 6 Waverly Avenue opens on April 11.
A semi-pro
soccerfootball club in Red Hook, the New Yorker says Court Street Grocers’ meatless Vegitalian sandwich is a must-try and more from Ward 6’s latest dispatch.
Goings On
The Red Hook Interim Library is teaching blackout poetry on Monday, April 6 from 11 a.m. to noon. Blackout, or erasure, poetry is created by removing words from an existing text and framing the result as a poem.
Liz’s Book Bar’s monthly event series includes a women’s writing and wine workshop on Thursday, April 9.
Third Time’s the Charm will teach families how to make pizza together on Thursday, April 15. Tickets are about $29.
This year’s Red Hook Regatta will feature both a 3D-printed boat race and a general DIY boat race when it returns in May.
One Last Thing
Japanese hospitality group Hoshino Resorts is opening a ryokan, or traditional Japanese inn, upstate in Sharon Springs. Soho House is also opening a farmhouse in Rhinebeck. Catch me upstate next year, living my best life as a woman of leisure (˘ ˘ ˘)