Must have something to do with his love of The Gutter. Evidently, NY’s favorite news anchor paid 2 mil for his townhouse. His gig as the new Regis must be paying him well.

NY1’S PAT Kiernan, every hipster’s favorite morning anchor, is moving from Manhattan to Williamsburg. Kiernan paid $2.02 million for an unassuming-looking three-story, four-bedroom townhouse with aluminum siding on Bedford Ave., records show. The Brownstoner blog called it the highest price ever paid for a single-family home in the Brooklyn neighborhood.

The 2,600-square-foot address is right in the crowded heart of world’s biggest hipster hangout. Even the Duane Reade on Bedford Ave. has a bar in it.

But Kiernan, who gets up at 3 a.m., may find it hard to enjoy the nightlife at his new doorstep.

Kiernan, 43, his wife and two daughters are moving from W. 75th St. on the staid upper West Side. He’s angling to go to national TV by stepping into Regis Philbin’s shoes as co-host of “Live! with Kelly.”

Via TableTalk

“It evokes both an Art Deco parlor room and a Spanish colonial cathedral,” Huckman says of the décor. The dramatically rounded high ceiling — beautiful and impossible to ignore — disguises multiple layers of soundproofing, cushioning noise that might migrate upstairs to the neighbors. Bar stools are fastidiously and playfully tiled by hand in eight-bit patterns. Even the floors tell a story: Greenpoint’s Tall Cotton Supply sourced the reclaimed pine salvaged from a 1906 Philadelphia apartment building.

Like the décor, food and drink offerings are spirited and original. “The cocktail menu is lighthearted and approachable,” says the bar manager Jeremy Oertel (of Dram and Mayahuel). “Some of the drinks are stirred and boozy. Others are light and refreshing, and then I threw a couple oddballs in there just for fun.” Basically, there’s a tipple for everyone. Original concoctions include the subtly smoky Scarlet Fever: shaken tequila blanco, Mezcal, peach liqueur and lime juice, poured into a Champagne coupe and finished with a spicy salt rim. (more…)

joonyounglee's flickr

The War on Brunch continues this morning and the hipster brunch-goers have lost an important battle: Lokal, the perpetually crowded bistro at the intersection of Nassau, Bedford, and Lorimer, is facing a citation for breaking a rule that states that sidewalk cafés cannot operate before noon on Sundays.

Lokal’s owners will go in front of a judge on June 11th. Despite all of the neighborhood’s brunch places, Lokal is the only one to receive a citation so far.

Tom Burrows, the public safety general for the area’s Community Board 1 is the main voice behind the battle against early morning brunch spots. Burrows’ main concern is that outdoor eating crowds the sidewalks for Sunday churchgoers.

Via Brooklyn Paper

A Williamsburg neighborhood group is waging a war on brunch — pressuring restaurants in one of the city’s mimosa-strongholds to open later, hush their patrons, and keep their diners inside.

Community Board 1 members want the city to enforce a little-known rule prohibiting restaurants from serving diners at outdoor sidewalk cafes on Sunday mornings.

“This would keep the sidewalks open for Sunday morning walks to church,” said Community Board 1 public safety chairman Tom Burrows. “Lokal, Enid’s, and Five Leaves consistently open their sidewalk cafe hours before noon on Sundays.”

But cafe owners say they will continue to defy a regulation barring them from serving poached eggs with duck hash to hungry outdoor diners before noon rather than risk losses to their bottom line.

“This is bulls—, it’s not good,” said Lokal owner Gino Kutluca, who starts serving sidewalk patrons at 10 am. “We get 60 percent of our business on Saturday and Sundays.”

The front lines of the bloody mary battlefield is a three block area near the northern tip of McCarren Park where several restaurants operate sidewalk cafes.

The community board has already fired its first shots at Greenpoint brunch mainstay Five Leaves, which preemptively removed two sets of unsanctioned outdoor benches last weekend after a warning from the neighborhood group.

The eatery’s owners hauled away the wooden planks from their 20-seat sidewalk cafe to avoid heavy penalties after residents complained the benches draw a cacophonous crowd that lingers while waiting to order ricotta pancakes, egg sandwiches, truffle fries, and brussels sprouts beginning at 8 am.

“Do they need a threat to be good neighbors?” said Burrows, who has adopted the rule of General Patton in the board’s war on brunch. “Take reservations so there aren’t hordes standing around not moving out of the way!” [...]North Brooklyn’s brunch lovers — the foot soldiers in the conflict — vowed to continue dining in the face of a law they consider unjust.

“It doesn’t seem very relevant for city life,” said Williamsburg resident and brunch fan Jay Tate. “People in New York work a lot and if they want to be able to enjoy brunch on a Sunday, they should.”

YouTube

I know there’s a 1 in 176 million chance of winning today’s record-breaking Mega Millions lottery for $500 640 million, but there’s something about buying that ticket (or multiple tickets) that really makes you think it’s going to be you.

Naysayers are mostly talking about how the odds are impossibly against you. “You are not going to win the lottery. Your lucky numbers are not going to hit. Your quick pick is not going to be special winner. Your investment in lottery tickets is not going to pay off,” writes Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan. According to one stat, imagine you have a friend in Canada and put that friend’s name in a container with the names of everyone else in Canada. You have a 5 times greater chance of choosing your friend’s name than winning this lottery.

But while so many writers are talking about the crazies who think they can win big, fewer are talking about the camaraderie this brings to our city and others. Where I work, for example, everyone is bonding over our office pool. Even my FedEx delivery man said “of course” he bought his ticket, and added, “See you Monday. Or hopefully not.” As one of my friends tweeted, “Lotto talk is on par with weather talk this week.”

Actually winning an amount this big might not be so great anyway. Since this is a record-breaking sum, the winner or winners will no doubt be immediately thrust into the public eye. It is 2012, after all. They will have to abandon social media, hire security, and appoint the best economic advisers. For the rest of their lives, they will have to go into seclusion, forever wary of relationships with others who may just want a slice of the cake. Where’s the fun in that? Maybe the conversation this brings around the watercooler today really is the best part.

But when I do win – and I’m pretty confident that I will – I’ll move to the south of France and start dressing like mid-’90s Michael Jackson. So if I suddenly stop posting on here, you’ll know why.

via NY Daily News

Gothamist reports that police have charged Ryan Beauchamp with attempted assault (a misdemeanor) and harassment (a violation), not murder, for his involvement in last Friday’s deadly Bedford L station brawl. A misdemeanor carries a maximum of 1 year of jail time, while a violation is up to 15 days. Beauchamp has priors, including an Occupy Wall Street arrest in October and an earlier arrest in Connecticut.

This is the latest development after police first released a sketch, then a video, and then took Beauchamp in for questioning on Tuesday. As of yesterday afternoon one of the “WANTED” fliers still hung in the 1st Avenue L station.

With these charges come new details about the incident and Beauchamp’s background. While initial reports made it seem that both men were to blame and later accounts said Beauchamp was at fault, new witness accounts say Basin initiated the fight after Beauchamp bumped into him. One witness says “there was a point when it was over and Basin followed him.”

Beauchamp is 33-years-old, homeless, and originally from Westchester.

Basin’s funeral is this morning in Howard Beach.

Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates

The long anticipated return of the McCarren Park Pool  - which opened in 1936, closed in 1983, and hosted some of the best summer concerts between 2005 and 2008 – is scheduled for June 28th with a ceremony at 11 a.m. According to Geoffrey Croft of the group NYC Park Advocates, the pool will accommodate 1,500 swimmers. Renovations to the pool, recreation center, bathhouse, and entry arch cost $50 million. Some of the rec center may even open in time for Memorial Day on May 28th.

Amenities at the new facility will include a volleyball court, beach, and spray showers. The rec center will have a basketball court, weight room, dance studio, cardio room, and “multipurpose community space.” Make sure to keep an eye out for decorative wood panels, which developers recycled from the Coney Island boardwalk.

As we previously posted, locals can enjoy the space year round, as the city has put out a call for proposals to turn the pool deck into an ice skating rink in the winter.

via Gothamist

After first releasing a sketch and then surveillance video, police have now identified the suspect in Friday night’s Bedford Ave. L train murder as Ryan Beauchamp. According to reports, Beauchamp is 33-years-old and homeless and had tried to start altercations with several passengers on the train that night.

Update 7:19 PM: The Daily News and The New York Post report that police arrested Beauchamp in Bushwick this afternoon.

From The Brooklyn Paper

The developers purchased the site in 2004 for $55.8 million, according to city records, and nearly sold it to 15 investors for $200 million in December before the deal fell through after some backers got skittish about the project’s finances and zoning variances, Kalmon Dolgin senior director Bob Klein said.

“You have to be a big player to tackle Domino,” said Klein. “They were going to break it up into partnerships but it fell apart.”

Susan Pollock, vice president of the developers, did not deny that the project — once slated to be worth between $1.2 billion and $2 billion when completed — is on the market.

“We are pursuing various options that will achieve our goals— to realize value for ourselves and our partners and to insure that development is consistent with all project entitlements,” said Pollack, who previously acknowledged her company was seeking more investors to help get the project underway.

The developer’s Williamsburg allies insist that Community Preservation Corporation Resources is not walking away from the project — citing the recent hiring of new CEO Rafael Cestero, former head of the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation Development. (more…)

Does anyone have a picture of the actual billboards? From CNN:

The billboard wars between atheists and believers have raged for years now, especially around New York City, and a national atheist group is poised to take the battle a step further with billboards in Muslim and Jewish enclaves bearing messages in Arabic and Hebrew.

American Atheists, a national organization, will unveil the billboards Monday on Broadway in heavily Muslim Paterson, New Jersey and in a heavily Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood, immediately after the Williamsburg Bridge.

“You know it’s a myth … and you have a choice,” the billboards say. The Patterson version is in English and Arabic, and the Brooklyn one in English and Hebrew. To the right of the text on the Arabic sign is the word for God, Allah. To the right of the text on the Hebrew sign is the word for God, Yahweh.

Dave Silverman, the president of American Atheists, said the signs are intended to reach atheists in the Muslim and Jewish enclaves who may feel isolated because they are surrounded by believers.

“Those communities are designed to keep atheists in the ranks,” he says. “If there are atheists in those communities, we are reaching out to them. We are letting them know that we see them, we acknowledge them and they don’t have to live that way if they don’t want to.”