The Brothers Are Back...

I  can't quite believe it's been 15 months since I first saw them busking, but last night Brother's Moving were back in Union Square and sounding absolutely fantastic...

I'm hoping they might be staying around for a bit, I love hearing them as I walk from the studio to the subway. 

Sunday Sunset...

Knock Knock...

One last photo from my walk down Nostrand and Lee. I think this is one of the best front doors I've seen, as I walked passed the first time I saw someone going in, turning the big wheel to unlock the heavy, rusty looking metal door.

The spy-hole is surrounded by and eye shaped frame and there's a rusty red bench just by the door. 

I immediately wanted to know what was on the other side of the door though - it's like the door to somewhere secret...

Red, White & Blue...

There wasn't a cloud in the sky today, it was such a beautiful sunny day.

Saraghina...

One of the spots on our 'places to find in Brooklyn' list was Saraghina. Abi had read about it on her Time Out app and I'd seen photos of it on a blog - so we decided we'd go and find it this afternoon.

It doesn't look like much from the outside - it looks pretty shack like really, but inside it's been really nicely done. With lots of reclaimed wooden tables, lots of different types of chairs, big old hand painted signs on the walls and nice soft lighting, it's lovely.

There's a little cafe/bakery section as your walk in the door, but then behind the shelves of wine and jams there's the restaurant bit...

The menu was great, with lots of lovely brunch things like eggs benedict and french toast, lots of yummy sounding sandwiches, but we'd heard that it was a great pizza restaurant - so we had to order some to see what the fuss was about.

We shared an absolutely delicious, freshly baked sausage and mozzerella pizza and a calamari and shrimp sandwich - they both vanished within a few minutes, they were SO tasty. 

I've not had much pizza in New York really, but from what I know Lombardi's in SoHo is the oldest and the best, but I have to say that I think Saraghina might have taken to top spot for me. It was amazing. It was so fresh and tasty and even the crust was delicious!

The whole place was great, it was busy but not loud, it was big enough but cozy enough and it felt like a bit of a secret place too, it was just right. We loved it. I have a feeling we'll be going back there pretty soon for some more of that pizza... Mmmmmmmmm!

Shiny Schwinn...

This lovely shiny Schwinn was parked up outside a corner shop as I walked back to the apartment...

It really sparkled in the morning sunshine!

Name It... We Got It!

You see this sign just as you come off the Williamsburg Bridge.

I think there's one of these signs, all with different slogans at all the difference bridges and entrances to Brooklyn - the one I really want to find is the one that says 'Fughedabowdit' - that'll be a little mission for 2012 I think, find and photograph all the different signs.

Shop Fronts...

Every time we get a taxi back from Manhattan we drive over the Williamsburg Bridge, down Lee Avenue and then down Nostrand Avenue, and every time we go down Lee and Nostrand we see all the fantastic shop fronts and they're great (but not necessarily good) signage.

I've been meaning to go for a walk down along those roads and take photos of all the shop signs for aaaaaaaaages, so this morning I finally did.

So here we go, some of the best, and worst shop signs Nostrand and Lee have to offer...

Walking down Lee and Nostrand is like walking back in time, the shops probably haven't changed in over 20 years - maybe more, and I think that's what makes them so interesting.

It was great to walk down and take it all in, rather than whizz by in a taxi. I'm sure there are hundreds of shops like this around, especially in Brooklyn, but down these streets they're just one after the other.

I love it!

Oh Bama...

If I could vote, I'd definitely vote for him!

Train To Always...

After Dough we needed to work off our donuts, so we went to find another mural by Steve Powers. I'd read on the internet that aswel as the Love Letter to Brooklyn and the other little mural I found, he'd recently done a brand new mural not too far away from Brooklyn Fare.

The mural's on the wall of a sandwich (hero) shop, and it's called Train To Always...

It's great - I think my favourite section is the 'All is fare in love and Brooklyn' bit...

I wonder if any more ESPO pieces will crop up in Brooklyn this year?

I'll keep you posted.

Dough...

This afternoon we went out for a little exploring in Brooklyn, we've been reading up about a few places and wanted to go and find a couple of them.

The first place was called Sweet Revenge in Bedstuy. Abi had read about it a while ago, they make and serve cupcakes which are then paired with beer or wine, so it's like a bakery bar. We looked up the brunch menu online and saw that they do scotch eggs too, so it was decided - we'd go and find it.

Unfortunately when we got there, or where it was on Google Maps, the was no sign of it. The shop had the shutters down and the signs all painted over... so, no scotch eggs or cupcakes and wine for us (although there's supposed to be a Sweet Revenge in Manhattan, so we'll go there one time instead).

Luckily, just a few blocks away from Sweet Revenge (or where it was supposed to be) was a little placed called Dough...

Dough is, as you may have guessed, a lovely little donut shop - and as it was officially 'National Donut Day' on Friday we thought it was only right to have ourselves some coffee and donuts...

(In clockwork order, from top left - Dulce de Leche and Almonds, Lemon Meringue, Chocolate, and Coconut)

They had all sorts of amazing flavours - blood orange, pumpkin, coffee, nutella cream, lemon meringue, as well as some delicious glazed donuts and sugary ones too. They were pretty huge and mighty tasty, so we had one delicious donut and took the rest with us!

The shop itself is a lovely small shop, with a few stools in the window and a small counter and that's about it. From in the shop though you can see the kitchen where they were making cupcakes and donuts and all the creamy fillings fresh.

As we were sitting in the window enjoying ours, with lemon meringue all over our faces, they brought out a fresh batch of the Dulce de Leche ones - the baker didn't even have chance to get them off the baking tray before people were buying them!

Dough was a great little place, and the donuts were absolutely amazing (waaaaay nicer than the ones we all had at work on Friday, they were from the Donut Plant in Chelsea), another great discovery in our neighbourhood.

Happy (belated) Donut Day!

It Snowed...

Finally!

Morning Patrol...

For the passed few days there has been a big police surveillance van parked on the corner by our apartment. Aaaaaall day long it has it's flashing lights going, and aaaaaaaaaaaall night long it has it's flashing lights going, and they having been reflecting on something that's been shining the lights on to our bedroom wall. So as we go to sleep we have a little disco light effect going on on the walls.

This morning however we opened the front door and stepped out to find our end of Myrtle Avenue FULL of police cars...

Busted!

There we eight squad cars parked up on the curb, the surveillance van and a 4x4 on the other side of the road and another squad car semi at the cross roads!!!

We were a wee bit worried - it seemed like something big was going down, so I asked went over to one  of the cars with an open window and asked one of Brooklyn's finest what was going on. Apparently they were just doing some car checks, stopping every other (?) car to check their licenses and stuff. 

Then he said that every now and then the police will visit certain areas in neighbourhoods to have a mass presence to give people piece of mind.

I'm never really sure if I feel safer or more at risk when I see lots of police men about. There are usually police on the corners of the streets as we get off the train in the evenings and sometimes on the trains. There was one time and there nine officers waiting at the subway station. On one hand you know nothing can happen with them around, but on the other hand you wonder what has happened in the past to warrant that many police officers being on patrol...?

Oh well. It was a bit of excitement for Thursday morning!