Yellow, Yellow, Yellow...

Welling Court Murals...

To burn off yesterday BBQ we went on a bike ride up to the Welling Court Murals in Queens. 

The murals are about 8 miles away and there are cycle paths pretty much the entire way there - the heat made the ride a wee bit tougher, but it made those breezy downhill moments all the more enjoyable!

Cut Brooklyn...

After filling our bellies with BBQ we went for a little walk around Gowanus and stumbled across an amazing knife shop called Cut.

I first heard about Cut and the owner/maker Joel Bukiewicz when I watched this little documentary online...

... and someone from our Leeds studio had met Joel at a Do Lecture last year and had suggested we go and find his shop... so it was great to stumble across it today.

Joel makes amazing kitchen and cooking knives, all by hand, all by himself in his workshop below the shop - he was nice enough to give Abi and I a wee tour!


We walked down the stairs in to his amazing workshop, full of all sorts of tools for each part of the knife making process, from cutting the profile of the blade, to heating the metal, sharpening the blades, making and shaping the handles... it was amazing.

It was great to hear how he got into knife making - he was working as a part-time wood cutter, earning money to fund his writing career, but felt he enjoyed working with his hands more than work at a computer so started making hunting and army knives, then he started making kitchen and cooking knives and has been doing it for the last 10 years.

The knives start off a little something like this...

and end up looking like this...

They're pretty pricey, but for something that's completely handmade and that will probably last forever I'm sure they're not that expensive - they're just a bit more than our Ikea kitchen knives!

It was such a nice surprise to find the shop and for Joel to show us around and to be so welcoming - he offered us some beers too, but we were ready to pop from our BBQ so we passed on those. It was really inspiring to meet him and to see what he did and hear how he got into doing it.

I love how industrious Brooklyn is, it seems to be full of people doing their own thing and taking the risk of leaving their jobs to start making and selling something that they're passionate about. Meeting the people from Two Arms last weekend and Joel this weekend has been great - and given me a lot of inspiration.

Maybe Abi and I should pack in the design thing and open our own food truck or something?

Fletcher's BBQ...

Today we continued our taste test of New York BBQ and headed down to Gowanus to see what Fletcher's had to offer...

It only opened in back in November so it's new on the BBQ Block, but they do some amazing stuff and some really different selections of meat from anything else we've seen at the other BBQ places. As well as the usual brisket and ribs, they do BBQ chicken, lamb shank, hoisin duck and char sui!

We got a nice little tray with some ribs, brisket, chicken, mac n' cheese, some beans and the best, best, BEST char sui we'd ever tasted... it was amazing!

They also do some tasty drinks - I had a Bronx Pale Ale and Abi had a 'Tailgater' - a cider with a shot of rye whisky! Delicious!

The staff there were so friendly and the restaurant looked very smart...

It's in a bit of a weird area down in Gowanus, so the crowds weren't exactly like Briskettown or Fette Sau, but I'm sure it gets pretty busy in the evenings.

So, as it stands - Fette Sau does the best brisket, Briskettown does the best pork ribs and Fletcher's do the best char sui! There are plenty more places to try, so there's a LOT more meat eating to come.

The Brooklyn BBQ sampling continues...

New Intern...

We had a new intern in the studio on Friday...

 Little Pippa turned out to be a very lovely edition to the team... hopefully she'll be back soon!

Out & About...

Man with a (Crochéd) Van...

Renegade Craft Fair...

This weekend it was the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn.

I remember going to the craft fair the first year I was here, when it was over in McCarren Park - it seems to have grown and grown, and this year it was held down by the river North 8th Street.

There were all sorts of stalls, people selling jewellery, hand-made bags, ceramics, leather wallets and lots and lots of screen prints.

There was one stall selling DIY Print kits which I'd seen on the internet and had been very tempted by. To draw the crowds they were giving away free screen-prints which they were printing there and then...

They were also making t-shirts which they were selling for just $5!

(Sorry about the language!)

So I got one.

The stall I was wanting to find was the one run by Two Arms Inc. a design and printing studio in Brooklyn who do lots of fantastic screen printed gig posts and prints. I've already got a couple few of their prints but it was great to meet the people who actually made them and buy something from them in person.

I bought the print in the middle, and got the two beer prints for free! All I had to do was mention a secret code that they mentioned on Instagram.

The guy from Two Arms - Mike - was so friendly and was saying how he and Karen (the second arm) started up printing in their kitchen with the an old IKEA with a couple of hinges and they've only recently moved to a proper studio. So it was encouraging to think that you don't need a fancy dan studio space to create and sell brilliant prints.

I could only walk around the craft fair for so long - the heat and smell of BBQ were getting to me. So I strolled back to the subway and spent the rest of the afternoon up on the roof enjoying the amazing sunshine with Abi.

Summer Solstice...

Zzzzz...

It was a slow morning for chess in Union Square today.

Little Yellow Hot Rod...

Out & About...