The Super Bowl is hours away and you need a place to watch it. Luckily for you, The Greenpoint Gazettepublished a list of 18 bars in Williamsburg and Greenpoint that will be airing the game. I cut that list in half, narrowing it down to my top picks of which bars and specials sound best. Descriptions by the Gazette.
- Full Circle Bar (318 Grand Street, 347-725-4588): Giving out free Bon Chon Bowl wings, showing the game on three 40+ inch HD TV’s, and selling 24 ounces of Genesee Beer for $10.
- Huckleberry Bar (588 Grand Street, 718-218-8555): Serving up chili nachos ($7) and chili dogs ($4), $15 buckets of Budweiser and Bud Light (5 beers in each), and projecting the game onto the wall.
- Knitting Factory (361 Metropolitan Avenue, 347-529-6696): Showing the game on a 12-foot projection screen in the main room and on two 48-inch screens in the front bar, providing free snacks, and offering a food menu complete with pizza, wings, and party food. Reserve a party package and get seated before everyone else. The packages are First Down (12 beers, 1 pizza and a reserved table for $45), Field Goal (24 beers, 2 pizzas, plate of wings and a reserved table for $85), and Touchdown (48 beers, 4 pizzas, plate of wings and a reserved table for $150).
Williamsburg and Greenpoint have a unique homeless problem because most of the individuals speak little to no English. While there are resources for some of New York City’s non-English speaking homeless populations, there are far fewer, if any, for those people who speak only Polish.
So what happens to them? Sadly, many fall into depression and alcoholism and camp out in McGolrick and McCarren parks. It’s in these parks that five homeless people have died in the past fifteen months. At least two of those were suicides, the most recent one happening in October.
Now, the New York City Department of Homeless Services is stepping in, offering Greenpont’s churches $100,000 to give the local homeless population a place to sleep for the night. Currently, St. Anthony of Padua on Manhattan Ave. opens its doors at night, but only when temperatures drop below 24 degrees.
But it seems that $100K isn’t enough for local churches to take on the responsibility. According to one paper, the money has been on the table for six months, during which time seven churches have rejected the offer. Officials at the various churches have cited limited space and fear of theft and vandalism as reasons for not accepting the money.
Meanwhile, local residents have been fighting a 200-bed homeless shelter planned for McGuinness Boulevard since 2010. Greenpoint’s city councilman Steve Levin complained that the neighborhood is “inundated with services that we provide to the rest of the city [...] on a level that no other neighborhood has to do.” Last May, Levin hosted a “Rally to Stop The Proposed Homeless Shelter,” which drew significant community support.
According to the Department of Homeless Services’ statistics for 2011, Brooklyn has 242 homeless individuals on its streets.
This Thursday MTV will debut its new series, I Just Want My Pants Back, a scripted show about young twenty-somethings living in and around Greenpoint. The series is based on the 2007 book by David J. Rosen and a “sneak peak” of the pilot episode aired back in August. I got my hands on a press screener of three episodes. Here’s what to expect, spoiler-free.
The basic premise: Jason, a shaggy-haired guy a few years out of college meets a girl at a bar and takes her back to his one-bedroom off the Nassau G. They have a crazy night together and in the morning, she absconds with his pants. He’s hooked and becomes preoccupied with finding her, which distracts him from his job as a receptionist for a media company. (So far, minus the falling victim to pants thievery, this is my life.)
Jason’s sidekick is Tina, a foul-mouthed, crop-topped blonde who engages in some sexual misadventures of her own. There’s also Stacey and Eric, an interracial couple living together and going to grad school. The four characters have been friends since college.
Eater is running a column called “A Beer At…” where Robert Simonson ventures the city’s “more anonymous watering holes” aka some of the shittiest bars the five boroughs have to offer. The bar of the week is Greenpoint’s own Connie O’s.
Simonson writes, “There are two taps at Connie O’s. One says Coors. One says Coors Light. They both draw Coors Light. ‘I know it says Coors, but it’s always Coors Light,’ said the blonde woman behind the bar with the careworn face. If you want something else, there’s Bud Light in bottles. If you want something other than that, go find another bar. ‘$1.50,’ said the woman. $1.50? I looked at my watch. 9 PM. Not happy hour. I laid down two soft, crumbled dollars and got two quarters back. Hell, Coors Light ain’t worth much, but it’s worth that. The woman retreated to her high, cushioned chair under the television. ‘You want to watch something else,’ she asked her two customers, an unsmiling, unmoving woman wearing a pony tail and a blank stare, and a sweatshirt-wearing retiree who had spread a bunch of dollars on the bar to make sure the mugs of Coors Light never stopped coming. The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree ceremony was suggested.”
The description of Connie O’s and it’s loyal patrons could not be more spot-on. Also, I’m pretty positive that “unsmiling, unmoving woman wearing a pony tail,” is my friend’s landlord. Read the rest of the article here.
This Saturday, creatives will light up the Greenpoint waterfront.
Bring to Light 2011 is the free nighttime public art festival showcasing site-specific installations of light, sound, performance and projection art for the purpose of re-imagining public space and civic life. The event simultaneously takes place with Nuit Blanche – the awesome annual worldwide arts festival where museums, galleries and other cultural institutions open their doors to the public free of charge and all night long.
Explore our “White Night” on Saturday, October 1 from 6pm to 1am.
It seems owner David Kelleran has been operating without a liquor license, and local police tell New York Shitty that the precinct “did a joint operation Saturday with the State Liquor Authority… The owner was arrested and all the liquor was order destroyed by the SLA.” According to one observer, $20,000 worth of precious, life-sustaining liquor was poured down the drain!
Apparently, Kalleran had been buying liquor from retail liquor stores instead of a distributor. It seems like it will be shut down for a long while, with the possibility of getting a liquor license looking pretty unlikely for the foreseeable future.
Manhattan Inn, the Greenpoint bar serving delicious drinks and sweet piano soundtracked romance, is hosting a free concert series throughout the summer. According to the venue, the showcase features:
[C]reative music across genres and fostering a community of musicians who find themselves at home both in the concert halls of Manhattan and the DIY venues of Brooklyn. The series invites emerging and established artists to challenge their notions of live performance and interpretation within the cultural climate of NYC today.
Serving up Lobster rolls, Hamburgers, Fish & Chips, Full Raw bar, Full Liquor and much more. Justin Ernsberger (former Executive Chef, Walter Foods & Mermaid Inn; consultant at Lure Fish Bar) and Thomas Chabrowski (owner of Lunchbox and The Mark Bar) Bring you Lobster Joint.
Lobster Joint is dedicated to serving great seafood in a casual atmosphere. Lobster Joint’s menu features classic New England-style comfort food, as well as other traditional international seafood offerings. Our menu specials rotate based upon supply, emphasizing freshness, quality and seasonality. Our cocktail list utilizes simple, quality ingredients that would be typically found in any seafood shack, and our service style is based on traditional window service found at many seaside seafood restaurants. Additionally, we offer bar/counter service for fast and casual dining and cocktails. Lobster Joint is open until 2am for late-night dining!
This week, Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bushwick will be off the friggin’ hook when Northside Festival 2011, Williamsburg Walks and Crest Fest 2011 simultaneously inundate our fair towns with music, art, film, food and ideas.
Here’s a quick resource guide for navigating your way through all the awesomeness:
Four-Day Badges If you were lucky enough to score one before they sold out, your Northside badge will grant you access to EVERY show on a first-come, first-served basis.
Badges are available for pickup at Northside Headquarters, located at 240 N. 12th St. in Williamsburg (between Union and Driggs).
Bring a photo ID and drop by during any of the following open hours:
Thursday, June 16 12pm – 10pm
Friday, June 17 12pm – 10pm
Saturday, June 18 12pm-8pm
Sunday June 19 12pm-5pm (more…)
Last month the guys at Forking Tasty put together a bike-in movie theater in Greenpoint, where they supplied snacks, space and a screen to show the classic flick Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. If you couldn’t make it (of if you could and want to spot yourself) check out the video recap below.
The video comes with the promise that more theater dates are in the works. And if you would like dinner and a movie without the biking part, they are having a screening of Caddyshack this Saturday. More info here.
