Celebrating Community
Sweden is a place of plenty of holiday celebrations. My American friends usually say midsummer with the fertility pole and the wacky dances when I tell them about Swedish holidays, but to me — and I’d wager few Swedes would argue against this — no holiday is as anticipated as Christmas. Further, I would argue that Swedish Christmas is unlike […]
While I was distributing the Star-Revue last month, a purple plant outside of Jam’It Bistro, 367 Columbia Street, caught my eye. After going inside and dropping off papers, I chatted about the plant with Dawn Skeete, who opened up Jam’It in 2019. I went back later and in addition to finding out about the purple haze, I spoke to Skeete […]
Dial back a couple of years and you come to a world in complete disarray, as the mysterious Covid bug pretty quickly disrupted our normal way of life. In the space of a week or so in March 2020, the country went from a bustling and booming economy to one where almost a quarter of the country wasn’t able to […]
Consuelo Morales (an alias) is in a good mood. The groceries she received at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church food pantry in Flatbush was worth the hour-long wait under the midday sun. Morelos is especially pleased with the fish fillets and fresh strawberries in her cart. Fresh food is not always a given at food banks, and it was her first […]
For months now, New Yorkers have been bent out of shape, either cooped up at home or stretched thin on the front line of what’s happening during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s strange to think of the world we all inhabited a few months ago, the casual freedoms we enjoyed: seeing friends, going out to eat. In his ambitious illustrated history […]
There are a few genuine Italian specialty food stores left in New York City. One of them is D. Coluccio & Sons. In what used to be the center of Little Italy in Brooklyn, D. Coluccio & Sons is sandwiched between Borough Park, Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge. Founded by Domenico Coluccio in 1962, D. Coluccio & Sons has the finest […]
I live down the block from Di Fara’s Pizzeria on Avenue J in Midwood, Brooklyn. I must admit that I have a love-hate relationship with Di Fara. Well, maybe annoyance is a better word than hate. Let’s talk about the annoyance part first. Mostly, when I pass Di Fara there’s a long line wrapped around the block. And you can […]
Vlane Carter’s entrance into the restaurant business was an uncanny venture. Born in New Jersey and raised in the South Bronx, the restaurant owner and sci-fi author initially sought a career in law enforcement, but later enjoyed a successful stint in IT. Before he opened Action Burger, Vlane’s fascination with sci-fi was already laying the ground for what would become […]
Sitting across from Manhattan on Columbia Street, The Longshoreman, founded by Michelle Ewan and Lisa Detwiler over a year ago, is restaurant that aspires to reach back into Carroll Gardens’ proud history. “We’ve tried to bring our love of Italy and Italian culture into the making of The Longshoreman,” says Michelle, during an afternoon interview with the two. They banter […]
It looks like Brooklyn Bread might have broken the jinx that affected a string of failed restaurants on the corner of First Place and Court Street, in Carroll Gardens. Their expanded deli looks like a hit! The move was only one block away over on Court Street, but was much more significant for the cafe, as it has allowed the […]