30 CommentsPart of an ongoing series in which Bwog takes you to the less traveled corners of our metropolis.
Park Slope: where baby strollers outnumber cars, Starbucks and Ozzie’s Coffee shop co-exist in peaceful latte-chugging harmony, and human-scale Victorian row houses frame Brooklyn’s man-made forest, Prospect Park. In this neighborhood off the B, Q, 2/3, R, and F trains, you’re vegan until proven otherwise, and you’re either pregnant or planning to take paternal leave. Instead of lemonade stands on its tree-lined streets, Park Slope has savvy and precocious twelve-year-olds selling panino to passersby while strumming their sitars.
The neighborhood is expanding fast, as it accepts increasingly richer Manhattanites – recently graduated, corporate-by-day, hipster-by-night types, but also do-gooder non-for-profit freelancers. Park Slope plays host to young writers, (Jonathan Safran Foer lives somewhere on Second Street) and movie actors (Jennifer Connolly, Steve Buscemi). The night life on Fifth Avenue rivals whatever the overpriced Village has to offer.
Find out where to catch some of the city’s best free concerts and where to get designer ice cream after the jump.
Beacon’s Closet, 220 5th Avenue
Sift through the most fashionable thrift you can find in the city—area women trade their clothes here for store credit, so expect high end. There’s a much larger one in Williamsburgh (Bwog guide to come).
The Tea Lounge, 837 Union and 350 7th Avenue
On Union street, behind a small storefront there is a huge, dimly lit teahouse with mismatching furniture, overstuffed couches, chess boards, and tables made from Pac-Man machines. Come at night to sip an alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage of your choice to the tune of local eclectic instrumental bands; come during the day to watch tens of young mothers nursing their newborns. A smaller Tea Lounge, for quieter contemplation is on Seventh Avenue by 10th Street.
Uncle Louie G’s, 741 Union Street and 321 7th Avenue.
Two Park Slope locations, 40 flavors of Italian Ice—including Holi Canoli, It’s a Crime Lime, My HoneyDoo and Canteloupe Balls—and 33 flavors of Ice Cream–including Harvest Pumpkin Pie, Dulce de Leche de Louie, and Grape Nut Escape. There’s always a line on a hot summer day.
Celebrate Brooklyn, at the Prospect Park Bandshell by 9th street
At Celebrate Brooklyn’s first show of the year, Prince showed up in the encore—-don’t miss the next unannounced celebrity. Celebrate Brooklyn always books the best acts for this outdoor venue, where you can sit with a picnic on the grass. On the July 27, Philip Glass and his quartet are playing the soundtrack to the movie Dracula, as the movie is screened.
La Villa Pizza, 251 Fifth Avenue
Crispy brick oven pizza, huge portions, soft, warm, oniony pre-meal foccacia bread. A small pie is about 8 bucks.
Loading …
30 Comments
@columbia admissions website is filled with pictures of midtown. is it any wonder there are people at this school who think it’s cool? in any case, they still beat the people who very rarely go below 110th street (underrepresented here but probably a large plurality on campus)
@Wait wait wait Did someone just say that “parts” of “midtown” are “cool”? Man, this place just keeps getting stranger.
@LIC resident There are beautiful riverviews and relatively cheap drinks along the waterfront in Long Island City. I’d say it’s worth exploring, it’s a nice, calm, not-so-expensive place for romantic date. Vernon/Jackson stop on the 7.
@thanks bwog i like this!
@BROOKLYN ME > MANHATTAN
@long island is just geographically weird. manhattan is at least a theoretical extension of the mainland, but for the tiny harlem river. long island just hangs out there awkwardly. in new england everyone just assumes there’s nothing past the connecitcut shore; it’s much more comfortable that way.
@um... when can we expect to see more of this new thing on bwog? the good writing, i mean. :-P
@GP Ahem. “actually interesting NEIGHBORHOODS.” Oops
@Sure … although Bushwick doesn’t have so much to show the casual observer. Or anybody else. And LIC is pretty much past the point of no return.
But all the other kickin’ outer boro neighborhoods, definitely! Do it!
@GP Park Slope? Please. When oscar-nominated movie stars live there, it’s hardly what I would call “less traveled.” How about one of our actually-interesting, like the now-gentrifying Bushwick or Long Island City, or the multicultural Jackson Heights, Flushing, and Brighton Beach?
@i don't know... c-town’s, 40 sq ft parks and 24kt gold jewelry shops become boring after a while
@thank god someone finally shot down this ceaseless enthusiasm for the insipid regions of the outer boroughs. most of queens and brooklyn are dead boring and very similar.
@J Train Try living there for a while.
@european you can make that argument about manhattan too.
@hey I’m so sick of this “wealthier areas are not interesting” bullshit. Just because you/I cannot afford a townhouse in Park Slope doesn’t make it worthless. There are lots of cool restaurants/bars there, some great little shops, and vegan/organic-friendly grocery stores, even if rents are rising there. It’s a little yuppie-fied but definitely still interesting! I wouldn’t call it “less traveled” maybe, but for many Columbia students almost any area outside of the Upper West Side and certainly outside of Manhattan would qualify, and I’m sure there are plenty of Bwog readers who don’t know Park Slope all that well. Well-written and a solid idea, Bwog!
@Lone Neutral I’m equally sick of this forced dichotomy bullshit. Many parts of New York are interesting, and wealth has surprisingly little to do with it. The UES is pretty dull, but so is a good deal of Queens. Poorer parts of Brooklyn are pretty cool, and so are the richest parts of midtown. Why don’t we all jsut accept that there are a lot of interesting places in this city and talk about them as such without introducing silly classist generalizations into the mix?
@Stamos Bwog, as much as I love you dearly, Park Slope isn’t exactly one of the “less traveled corners of our metropolis.”
@yeah.. whens part 1 of bwog goes to bed sty?
seriously though. i’ll cover a game at rucker park for you
@thanks, bwog nice guide
@and long island isnt exactly cheap, either
@Generally not interested in Italian grammar, but ‘panino’ is the singular of ‘panini.’
@John K. But at least someone realized that panini isn’t an adjective.
Speaking of Italian bread, it’s ‘focaccia,’ not ‘foccacia.’
@no matter what anyone tries to tell you brooklyn is still on long island. don’t drink the kool aid!
@Ah... there’s an attitude we’ve missed. Maybe you missed it, but Manhattan got kinda unaffordable while no one is looking… there’s not much shame in people living where they can.
@um I don’t think Park Slope is one of the affordable parts of Brooklyn…
@Well it was, five years ago, and it’s still cheaper than living in Manhattan. The point is that the “is still on Long Island” argument is used by the same people saying “bridge and tunnel” to dismiss everything outside their immediate borough… weak and classist.
@DHI I’m pretty sure Long Island contains people with the most fancy of pants – isn’t that where at least the majority of these fabled “Hamptons” are?
@eh.. the hamptons are out east—if you hear ‘out east’ then yes the pants are quite fancy
however anywhere not on the north side of the island and not right on the southern beach areas is pretty cozy and seer-suckered out
@yeah i heard those weirdos only have about 5 starbucks/acre.
dont sell out!
@DHI It is ridiculous to tell people to not drink Kool-Aid when it’s 100 degrees outside.