Classon and Lexington Street Art

Big Gay Ice Cream Shop

Holy moly! Have you been to East Seventh recently? It's a food court, Manhattan style, a microcosm of much of what's delicious right now. On this one block between First Avenue and Avenue A, you can get lobster rolls, pork sandwiches, arepas, fondue at the sexiest restaurant in New York City, beer, coconut milkshakes, a lovelet (cream cheese ice cream between red velvet cookies), and a salty pimp (vanilla soft serve with caramel and sea salt covered in chocolate dip). Also an actual salty pimp, because, god bless it, the East Village is still the East Village and the park that dead-ends this block isn't having any gentrification, farmers' market and hipster hangouts notwithstanding, and to the semi-homeless woman who tried to trade an orange for our Big Gay Ice Cream Shop treats, we say, "no thanks, no trade." 

  

Streets of the World at Opera Gallery

Heather Hart at the Brooklyn Museum

On view through June 24 at the Brooklyn Museum, Bed-Stuy-based artist Heather Hart's The Eastern Oracle: We Will Tear the Roof Off the Mother, built from scratch in the Rotunda, which you can climb in, on, and around, pray to, wish upon, and even sing about, as Hart did when we were there. 
 
  
  

Tony's Brick Oven Pizza

At Tony's Brick Oven Pizzeria, we tried the caprese, tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella on thick, thick dough, and the garlic knots, tangled twists filled with puffy white. We listened to firefighters talk about weekend plans and twenty-somethings debate tattoos, and we watched much of Staten Island come in for slices and drive along Bay Street, and we felt glad to live in a city that's big enough for all these neighborhoods and conversations and various kinds of pies to co-exist.   

Franklin the Pig at Crest Hardware

Franklin is a celebrity pig who lives at Crest Hardware (home to the Crest Art Show, in addition to being Brooklyn's best source of light bulbs, wingnuts, screws, wrenches, and other supplies). He loves the Giants, sniffing with his moist gummy snout, and clip-cloping on his high hooves. We love him. 

Barboncino

Brunch at Barboncino in Brooklyn meant a margherita, simple and pleasant enough, and an arugula and prosciutto, fresher and heartier, in a bi-level dining room decorated with reclaimed or salvaged materials.  It's a lovely space, and a fine addition to the neighborhood.

A few months ago, we were researching a dinner for Serious Eats. The table next to us started asking about our camera, then casually mentioned that they'd just opened a pizza place nearby. In retrospect, they were far too modest. We wish them much success in this not-so-new-now, awfully popular endeavor.   

Cake Murals in the East Village

Serious Eats: Saro Bistro

Hey everyone, we're also writing about New York for Serious Eats. Periodically we'll link to content here that we produced there.

  
This week's Date Night finds us at Saro Bistro, a deeply personal Balkan restaurant on the Lower East Side [read more].

Serious Eats: Slim Jakes and Jerky at Dickson's

Hey everyone, we're also writing about New York for Serious Eats. Periodically we'll link to content here that we produced there.

For yesterday's Afternoon Snack column, we snapped into some slim Jakes (and jerky for good measure) from Dickson's [read more].

Cindy Sherman at MoMA

The Cindy Sherman retrospective at MoMA is surprisingly small, which seems silly until you're actually there, having a look at the photos that were selected from a 40-something-year career. Whole series --- whole fundamental, fascinating, innovative series --- don't get nary an image, and others --- including recent work portraying society matrons --- get too many. One of the world's most important photographers deserves oodles of space to stretch out and show off all her selves, even if they aren't ever herself. 
 
Photo: thanks
 
 

Solo Mosaics in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn