Via DNA

Bushwick’s Community Board 4 has started a Sunday no-booze-after-midnight policy for businesses vying for liquor licenses in the neighborhood. The board issued the rule to its first batch of watering holes this month, both for new licenses and for existing spots renewing their permits.

“We’re asking that everyone close at midnight on Sunday,” stated the board’s district manager Nadine Whitted….

Jeff Pan, who owns the cafe and bar Skytown, said that even though he opens early in the morning and offers cocktails all day long, he does most of his business in the late-night hours.

“It would affect me significantly since I have a 4 a.m. liquor license,” said Pan, owner of the bar by the JMZ Myrtle-Broadway subway station. “The majority of our alcohol sales occur after midnight.”

“They’d have a tough time implementing the midnight rule for our location if the argument was protecting the neighborhood from noise from Skytown,” he said of his location on Broadway, an already bustling street. “With us being under the elevated JMZ train, it’s actually the other way around!”

And Ben Warren, who owns local bars The Bodega and Heavy Woods, said he could understand board members’ concerns, but hoped they didn’t try to “overstep their power.”
“I know they’re very concerned about Sundays because they’re churchgoing women and they’re worried about noise,” said Warren, who has attended several community board meetings for his license requests.

“Bushwick has a lot of residential blocks that are planted between the bars springing up in the neighborhood and I know it’s easy to hear a group of people leaving late at night on a Sunday.”

Previously: The War on Brunch

Looking for a comprehensive event calendar covering all the great music and happenings in North Brooklyn? We have one now and it includes our own curated events, free shows, and much more. Check out our new events calendar – part of a partnership with donyc.com – and add it to your bookmarks. And yes, we’ve even included a special tab for those who want to venture onto the island.

Via Bushwick Daily

Have you heard of Bizarre, the new absinthe bar located off of the Myrtle-Broadway JMZ stop? Of course you have! It’s the neighborhood’s newest, stylish space complete with huge windows, a projector playing scenes from silent movies, and quaint antique decor. Some might even say it’s the Cat’s Meow. Luckily, the management and hostess Merry Cherrie have noticed the buzz and have begun a new, monthly queerparty named just that.

Cat’s Meow occurs one Saturday a month, and queers and allies from all over Brooklyn can enjoy the beats of DJ David John Sokolowski, the humor and grace of Merrie Cherrie, and performances by performance artists, dancers, and drag queens of all kinds. The debut Cat’s Meow occurred this past Saturday, March 9, 2013, and featured a 1920’s to 1940’s period theme.

More information about Bizarre Bar in our listings.

via wyckoffheights.org

Dan Ross-Leutwyler – former executive chef at the now-closed Bellwether and previously chef de cuisine at Fatty ‘Cue – is opening a new restaurant in Bushwick.

Fritzl’s Lunch Box will be located at 173 Irving Avenue between Stanhope and Stockholm near the Dekalb stop on the L train, in a space previously occupied by Montero’s Authentic Mexican Grill.

Records show that a temporary liquor license has been granted, and the restaurant’s website notes a March opening is planned.

Dear Bushwick

Village Voice Says:

Inside the long, narrow dining room, couples talk quietly and a cyclist massages a cramp from his bare, tattooed calf. A small kitchen relays smells of meat and vegetables sizzling in duck fat, of hot oil meeting battered shrimp. Jessica Wilson is the chef. She used to run the kitchen at Goat Town, in the East Village. Here, she cooks English-inspired dishes with American ingredients: A grand pork chop ($20), the centerpiece of the menu, sits on shaved brussels sprouts in a bacon-y vinaigrette. The sprouts pack flavor without adding weight to the dish. This is the sort of simple, seasonal food that might change your mind about contemporary English cooking. Tiny appetizers are ideal with the cocktails (all priced at $10) that make use of many gins and exciting tinctures. Fried potato peels ($4) are a tangle of see-through fairy wings, dusted with salt and vinegar. There’s a fine duck-sausage roll ($6) with ginger-cranberry chutney, but it has a sad, soggy bottom of undercooked pastry (no, this does not make it more traditional). Halved, smoked eggs ($6) with creamy yolks and horseradish butter are squeaky and wonderfully messy. As prices go up, so do portions. A slab of crisp-skinned pork belly on wilted beet leaves ($12) could make a light meal paired with dressed roasted carrots ($5) or a shaved vegetable salad ($9) studded with cheddar. Big, juicy oysters ($11) are hot under a blanket of bread crumbs, spooning with fennel stuffing. A blob of goose terrine ($12) tastes precisely of Christmas: racy game, pickled plums, and enough clove to numb the tongue—Wilson is not shy with spices. A mutton shoulder ($21), though cooked inconsistently, was terrific when it was served tender and pink in the middle. Service is scatterbrained but caring. Twice, something my party ordered simply never arrived (on both occasions, apologies were genuine). Despite this, and the long waits that can draw out between dishes, it’s easy to see why locals like to gather at Dear Bushwick: They can eat and drink well without much fuss.

More information here.

Bushwick wins! At least according to this interactive map on Gothamist detailing the number of 311 calls made complaining of rats. There were a whopping 965 complaints of rat sightings in Bushwick in 2012 – the most reported in ANY neighborhood in all five boroughs. Williamsburg has about the same number of sightings (813) if you combine its 11211 and 11206 zips.

The Upper West Side, a neighborhood with no shortage of rodents, made plenty of noise, lodging around 1,000 complaints from 2010-2012. Residents of North Brooklyn also alerted the city about their own rat scourge, with Williamsburg and Bushwick each placing 800-900 calls to 311.

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Be careful!

Multiple sexual assaults fitting similar descriptions have occurred over the last week in Bushwick, the Brooklyn neighborhood now known more for artisanal pizza at Roberta’s than dingy warehouses. Just a block away from the restaurant, “I was taking stuff out of the garage and moments after I opened the door onto White Street I felt my head being grabbed by my hair and slammed into the brick wall,” one of the victims told Gothamist. “He was ripping at my jacket from behind and he was trying to put his hand over my mouth, and telling me, ‘I’m gonna fuck you,’ or ‘I’m gonna fuck you up.’ Before he was able to get it all the way over I screamed loud enough to make him run.”

A second victim described a similar attack, and both women reported their stories to the police, but according to Bushwick Daily, five women may have been assaulted in all. “The attacker is tall, medium build, Hispanic, wearing a hooded jacket. He grabs the women in the dark from behind and slams them against a building wall, covering their mouths so they can’t scream,” reported a tipster. “

It becomes a party house called the “Trip House.” Yep, this beautiful house in Bushwick, which dates back to the 1890s…

Now looks like this, thanks to a bunch of clueless Bushwick asshats…

Paper has more disturbing pictures here. Way to go people! This is why we can’t have nice things anymore.

According to our concerned property-snob pals at Brownstoner, they name it the Trip House and throw huge parties, where the guests get to tagging. “A remarkably intact 1890 Queen Anne in Bushwick that was a Building of the Day in 2010 has turned up in party pictures on Paper Magazine’s web site,” the blog notes, mouth agape at the house’s condition and its steal of a $275,000 sale this year. “We fear for the future of the building, whose otherwise pristine original bead board walls, fireplaces, wainscotting and other 1890s details have been marred by graffiti at the hands of party-goers.”
Although the site notes, “We don’t mean the art, but rather the stray spray paint on non-painted surfaces, such as mirrors,” the panic is palpable — and the walls are covered.

More disturbing pics c/o Paper:

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Bushwick Daily – A Night In Bushwick from Bushwick Daily on Vimeo.

From Bushwick Daily:

We take you for a Friday Night tour of our industrial, artistic, eclectic and ultimately unique neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn. The night included Kittens, Art Galleries, Tacos, House Parties, Indie Music, Dancing & Drinking.

We got our art fix at Sardine Gallery and cruised by Storefront Bushwick. We stuffed our faces at Taquera El Fagon. We visited musician & BD contributor Ana Lola Roman for a house party and some palm reading at 95 Knickerbocker Ave. We then flew over to Living Bread Deli to catch Cassie Ramone of Vivian Girls and chat with the boss of Bushwick’s DIY scene-Todd P. Finally, we found ourselves dizzily ending the night outside Bushwick Borders, taking shots and seeing The Can’t Tells at Delinquency.