Pioneer Bar-BQ
318 Van Brunt
Red Hook

Yet another charming, easygoing Red Hook dining destination with A+ eats. I gobbled up the beef brisket sandwich, the old lady had the pulled pork. Both tasted yummy and homemade: the meat was cooked thoroughly but was still moist, had generous taste, and was decidedly un-greasy. French fries were at the Schnack/McDonald’s level of the International Fry Rating Scale. Our bellies were very warm and happy, indeed. These folks know what they’re doing. This was right up there with Dinosaur and the annoyingly named R.U.B. as far as I’m concerned.

Bonus points:
1. The one guy acting as bartender/server and the one dude cooking were more efficient than most places 5-10 times the size.
2. Pioneer is also home to the glorious Museum of Bad Art.

Sam’s Restaurant
238 Court
Carroll Gardens

All this talk of gentrification was making us hungry, so we decided to kick it old school at Sam’s. Outward disclaimer: I’ll freely admit I have a nostalgic love for Sam’s. It reminds me of the people, places, and attitudes of my ancient Jersey childhood.

So, the wife selected the eggplant parm, and I decided to go basic with the ziti/meat sauce combo. I believe they’ve raised their prices a couple bucks, and I can’t really blame them. Anyway, they really make the entire dish right there when you order it — or at least put on a good show of doing so. I’ll second what most people say: you’ll always find solid Italian homecooking meal here, very similar to the wonderful Aunt Suzie’s in Park Slope or Rocco’s Calamari on Fort Hamilton Parkway. Essentially, you’ll feel like you’re eating a meal in an exceptionally gregarious neighbor’s home. Or in Sam’s case, a basement.

Bonus points:
1. Louie is an accomplished and very skilled smartass.

Chickory Brooklyn
243 DeGraw
Cobble Hill

This much-talked-about new joint in the may-or-may-not-be-jinxed 243 DeGraw spot does mostly takeout biz, but we stopped in for a quick sandwich. The wife chose wisely. I can’t remember exactly what it was called, but it was like roast pork on toasted bread with sauerkraut, mustard, and Swiss cheese. Good stuff. My sandwich was turkey with Swiss, lettuce, and Russian dressing, which seemed to involve mayonnaise with undetermind spices. Pretty good, if a tad pricey. Overall their creative and varied, extensive menu seems worth exploring — especially for home delivery.

Close to two weeks ago I received a Where’s George dollar at Franks Luncheonette (Smith and 2nd place)- where I drop in every morning for a coffee and some sweet gossip. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept — when you find a dollar with Where’s George written or stamped on it, you can enter info about the bill at the Where’s George website and see how far the money has traveled.

But back to my story…
Excited at my luck of getting a Special WG Dollar, I ran back to the studio, entered in the serial number, and found out that this little old dollar had left New Jersey December 3rd, 2005, and traveled 12 miles to get to my grubby hands at Frank’s. I immediately put the dollar back in circulation (most likely getting a coffee at franks again) and promptly forgot all about it.

Fast forward to two weeks later (aka yesterday): I get an email that my dollar has been found! …2 weeks and 10 blocks away at the Park Health
Foods (Court/Union). Where it was in the interim and what local establishments it visited are all a mystery! Maybe it bought a round of drinks on Smith Street, did some laundry, ate some sushi at Hana?

What’s so interesting about this story you ask? Nothing really, except Mary (423 contributor) turned to me yesterday afternoon and said “Hey, I got a Where’s George Dollar at the Park Food store yesterday.” Yep, it was the same one. SPOOKY.

or 33 pounds of love! See more pictures…

Photo sent in by Lauren P

Here at 423 Smith we’re hard at work coming up with the next Carroll Gardens rumour…

Just couldn’t resist posting about the “description of the week” for our blog!

Join the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association and voice your opinion.

I know we’re a little late on the draw here at 423, but here’s a few pics from Tuesday night’s pooch-a-thon at MSG. Winners barked, losers barked more and tried to sniff our crotch, and stadium vendors walked around in tuxes hawking white wine in plastic glasses.

If you hadn’t heard, that fuzzy fella in the last photo there was the weiner. Tune in next week when you’ll hear Miss Piggy say:

This morning someone posted the following comment to our post regarding the Starbucks and the general corporatization and suburbanization of the nabe. I figured this deserved a bit of special attention.

I recently heard that a McDonald’s is opening in the laundromat on Court and President and the Blockbuster is closing and may become a Commerce Bank. This neighborhood is going to be overrun with pharmacies and banks!!!!

Can this be true? A MCDONALDS? Anybody else heard this rumor? By the way - I absolutely love the Bleach House and would be very sorry to see not only a McDonalds move in, but the Bleach House move out. (if that is infact -the location they are talking about)

(Andrew - pressed into service clearing the walk)

First Place, 1928 courtesy of BrooklynPix

While doing laundry at the Bleach House this morning I read a notice about a Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association meeting concerning some changes in the neighborhood. The meeting takes place Monday, February 13 at 106 First Place, 7:30pm.

Topics to be covered in this meeting are Court Street real estate activity, Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund, Neighborhood updates, Clinton Street lights, and reports from representatives of local elected officials and the 76th Police Precinct.

You can join the CGNA through yahoogroups:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CGNA/

Their meetings are open to everyone in the community.

Been staying late at work the last week or so. As a result I’ve been cruising itunes radio stations for some music to keep me awake and productive. Finally i found a winner! Check out www.wefunkradio.com for your hip-hop and funk fix!

Professor Groove and DJ Static team up and break it down to the deep funk, underground hip-hop, and rare grooves on the weekly show WEFUNK.

You can stream all the shows in their archive. I’m gonna start at the first show and work my way back up.

p.s: Kool Moe Dee’s - I go to work - just came on. I’m in heaven (well, with the exception of the fact that I’m AT work)!

RUMOR has it … a Starbucks is moving into the Western Union on court/president.

Honestly, how depressing. There is a reason why I don’t live in the suburbs. Living in Brooklyn I can experience (and be a part of) a completely unique neighborhood, lifestyle, local flavor. But with every passing week this area of Brooklyn is becoming more and more like the “corporate chain store - zombified - every town” I was so happy to have escaped.

What are we to do? As a loyal resident my only option is to be diligent in placing my hard-earned cash in the hands of local, individually owned establishments and try to encourage like-minded people to do the same.

So, lets not buy coffee and spend time in Starbucks - instead go to D’amicos or the Fall Cafe.
Screw Dunkin Donuts - try the Donut house, or get some Pastry.
Baskin Robins - are you kidding? Gelato from the local pizzeria is always better.

Who is with me?

This morning I spoke to my pal who works at Key Foods and he said the rumour is true, CVS is taking over the Key Foods space. I asked him when this was supposed to happen and he said in a couple of months.

Please note that this is not a Key Foods official response, just a conversation with a worker bee.

I also noticed that the new Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins sign is affixed to the building. I guess it won’t be long until they open.

I finally decided to take a long look up at this building, the Smith Street Substation, located on the corner of smith and 2nd place. It’s got more going for it than just the big brick square it appears to be from a distance. The york street (f train) stop has some similar art-deco cement work above the entrance to the subway. Nice.