The Sweet Cherry, a Sunset Park strip club that has withstood more than a decade worth of efforts at closure by both the city and neighborhood groups, is no more. The club closed its doors as part of a plea deal, the New York Times reports. The owners and managers agreed to get out of […]

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In Williamsburg, workers getting spaces ready for two new eateries on North Fourth Street between Bedford and Driggs. One is a San Loco, an outpost of the local East Village/LES Mexican eatery chain. The other is Banbalotto, a Mediterranean restaraurant and hooka bar. Meanwhile, in Park Slope, Sweet Melissa, the Cobble Hill Court Street bakery […]

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Weeks ago, someone left a comment in our item about the sale of the Jewish Press Building on Third Avenue in Gowanus to developer Shaya Boymelgreen, who was said to covet the building as a key part of the Gowanus Village development. The building, the comment writer noted, had a restrictive deed from the city […]

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More signs of life at the Coney Island Development Corporation, which has announced that Dick Zigun, the founder of the Coney Island Circus Sideshow and Artistic Director of Coney Island USA, is joining the group’s Board of Directors. It’s significant in that Zigun is both the unofficial “Mayor of Coney Island” and the first person […]

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A selective roundup of Brooklyn related news stories and blog items: Coney Island’s Rebirth [Cherry Hill Courier Post]Is the Bungalow Going the Way of the Dodo? [NY Times]Sweet Melissa’s Coming to Park Slope [Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn]B’klyn Beep Heart Scare [NY Post]Summer on the Rooftop: Photos [A Brooklyn Life]Baltic Street Update: Chan Engages Critics […]

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Quadriad Realty Partners has revealed the nature of the quality-of-life bomb they would like to drop on the Northside of Williamsburg. You remember Quadriad–they are the firm heavy on political connections, in which former Rep. Herman Badillo is a partner, that has proposed building four towers of 38, 36, 20 and 12 stories between Bedford […]

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Gowanus Lounge has been waiting for some of the notables that signed up to be on Develop-Don’t Destroy Brooklyn’s Advisory Board to use their names, stardom and/or intellect to try to sway public opinion about Atlantic Yards. We were pleased to Boerum Hill-raised novelist Jonathan Lethem’s very well done “Open Letter to Frank Gehry” in […]

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Don’t look now, but yet another hotel is on the rise in Gowanus (assuming you consider the west side of Fourth Avenue to be in Gowanus, which Gowanus Lounge does). The new structure, which is rising at 370 Fourth Avenue, next to the big cab depot, is said to be an 8-floor, 48-room “extended stay,” […]

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The old joke in Boston used to be that everybody had a band (and you can probably say the same in some part of Billburg). Well, in Brooklyn, circa 2006, everybody has a blog. We may be the bloggingest borough on the planet. Gowanus Lounge wants to welcome the Sunset Parker to the mix, which […]

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Coney Island, Sunday, June 18, 2006

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Provence en Boite, the new French restaurant at Smith and Degraw occupying the space of the former Baluchi’s opened for business this weekend. While GL only stopped by to shoot a couple of photos, we duly noted that the new French spot drew a significant crowd (far more than Baluchi’s generally attracted). The new bistro […]

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Is it Gowanus Lounge’s imagination, or have the last several Seventh Avenue Street Fair’s taken place on blazing hot days? Regardless, yesterday’s big affair means that GL is now officially done for the year with New York City’s template-like street fairs. Well, we were done with the first one of the season, but held out […]

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From the Empty Vessel Project comes news of a petition drive “to demonstrate community support of the project and help us legitimize our 1st Street berthing location.” With much development planned for Gowanus, particularly in the area of the canal itself, the good people at the Empty Vessel Project–which is a WWII Navy rescue boat […]

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They’ve been giving things away for weeks at the Old Dutch Mustard Company building in Williamsburg (which still has a big “For Sale” sign attached to it). This latest batch, which has a very Ikea look, comes with its own pre-scrawled, political graffiti against the war in Iraq and the Bush Administration. The building once […]

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That tree house on South Fifth Street in Williamsburg that was advertised on Craigslist for $150 keeps making headlines. The Daily News contains an amusing account of a night spent in the al fresco apartment. Some detail: The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway was to the left, a third-floor living room to the right and the moon straight […]

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We spotted our first Williamsburg street art penis about three weeks ago, next to 184 Kent on a construction fence on Kent Avenue. Once we started looking for them, we started noticing them everywhere, particularly on doors, for some reason. In any case, this particular juxtaposition of penis and warning of radioactive hazard within was […]

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Gowanus Lounge’s instincts said “blog this” when we noticed a small item a week ago about the Health Department temporarily closing the Atlantic Terminal Mall Chuck E. Cheese for having what are known in the trade as “mouse droppings” in the kitchen. We didn’t. But now that the Brooklyn Papers have weighed in with a […]

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Finally, beach weather! (We hope, despite the clouds early on this Saturday morning.) Temps in the 80s and into the 90s this weekend. To celebrate the opportunity to further develop our depleted ozone layer-induced skin cancers, we offer this priceless glimpse of the Coney Island boardwalk, which is certain to be rocking this weekend. We […]

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One of the things Gowanus Lounge loves about strolling around are the snippets of conversation you can pick up, at least, when you’re not wearing your iThing. And so, we were walking on the boardwalk, just past the dividing line between Coney Island and Brighton Beach. It was right around the spot where you expect […]

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There’s a very cool craft fair in McCarren Park this weekend called the Renegade Craft Fair, but we liked the way this sidewalk sale at Bedford Avenue and Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg fit together so nicely. The doorway in which it was located had been a graffiti magnet, then was cleaned up. We’re glad to […]

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It will take you some time to plow through the new report from the Furman Center at NYU that quantifies what every New Yorker knows: It is getting hard to find a place to live that you can afford. Should you want to tackle it–and its full of fascinating data–be warned that the PDF is […]

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Behold the artist at work on the shores of the Big G. Reader Tony Gatto of Gattomedia sent us these photos and a note that said, “Just in case you doubted whether Gowanus was actually becoming an artists’ colony…” While we have seen paintings of the Gowanus and know of the dozens of studios in […]

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The Municipal Arts Society, which is a significant presence in the world of New York City architecture and design, is criticizing plans for the Atlantic Yards development. Its critique was presented at a meeting last night in Fort Greene. The group, in effect, agreed with opponents who say the project will dwarf adjacent Brooklyn neighborhoods […]

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While scouting Brooklyn rentals for a Curbed item today about how the Brooklyn rental market for tourists looking for NYC hotel alternatives is doing quite well, we came across a vacation opportunity in Seagate. For those of you that have never been, Seagate is a gated community at the end of what is otherwise known […]

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Our Oh My Rockness weekly email concert update brought Gowanus Lounge’s attention to a very cool series of free shows that will be happening at McCarren Pool in Williamsburg/Greenpoint this summer. You probably know that Live Nation (a Clear Channel Communications company) is putting on a series of ten shows at the former pool this […]

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