The fact that Jamie Foxx’s face takes up just a little less than half the menu makes me nervous as I claim the uneven chair at the candle-lit table on a Friday evening. The restaurant is loud as a result of the lively conversation at the nearby table seating six, but it is by no means cramped. Still, I have to crouch forward just a bit to hear my date as he notices the wooden benchmarks on the wall behind me.
We credit The PINES’ interior to its tucked-away location in the Brooklyn neighborhood Gowanus, a region known for its industrial history. The walls are distressed, the mirrors go unkempt, and the seating, although mismatched, looks uniformly washed out. We later learn that most of the restaurant is savaged from a summer camp. Nonetheless, its small size but comfortable seating is resemblant of a classier bar, but with an added layer of intimacy.
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No Comments | Posted on December 17, 2012 | Categories: Brooklyn, Dining, From the Blog, Gowanus
tags: Courtland Thomas, nyc, the pines
Such Spicy Girls!
When I was a kid, I had a friend whose parents had a laser disc player. Besides Dante’s Peak, they also had, on laser disc, karaoke compilations. These featured synthesizer arrangements of popular music (mostly ballads), accompanied by video of ladies with teased hair wandering wistfully through the jungle, and mostly accurate lyrics. English probably wasn’t the first language of the person transcribing the words, but also, by the time you realized Steve Perry never sang anything like “this empty how it’s untold,” the disc-makers already had your money. It wasn’t such a big deal, though, because you still got to belt out OPEN AH-AHMS, which reminded you of feelings you had one time.
I’m suspicious of enterprises trafficking in nostalgia: your emotions get aroused, and by the time you remember that laser discs were unwieldy and justly superannuated, you’ve already bought “Duran Duran Decade” for $18.99 on eBay. This is not to say that nostalgia and quality are antithetical, but it’s easy to tap into the former, and takes effort to maintain the latter.
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No Comments | Posted on August 28, 2012 | Categories: Brooklyn, Event-Related, From the Blog, Gowanus, Music
tags: 90s Kids, Dress-up parties, Kathleen Wisneski, Secret Formula, Spice Girls, The Bell House, The greatest movie ever made
I’m not quite sure what I expected when I first decided I was going to Punderdome 3000, a monthly self-proclaimed “wild-n-crazy round robin event” with “competitive spontaneous pun-making.” The premise seemed simple enough, but its execution remained a mystery. I enjoy the occasional well-timed pun as much as the next person, but I wondered how Punderdome would build an entire show from the so-called “lowliest form of humor.”
Once I walked into Littlefield Brooklyn, however, I knew I was in for a treat. The venue was intimate, but packed. The crowd was refreshingly devoid of hipsters, and the do-it-yourself-style decorations seemed to signify that the Punderdome was the type of event where people were encouraged to be unabashedly goofy.
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No Comments | Posted on July 6, 2012 | Categories: Event-Related, From the Blog, Gowanus, Under $20
tags: hilarity, Punderdome 3000, puns, Roger Li
