• A new cheese plate, which is a collaboration with Eastern District, features cheese made with vegetarian rennet.
• There are not one, not two but three types of arancini! Pesto, Salame Gentile and Porcini & Cremini.
• There are two new salads, two new pizzas and new pasta options. The pizza sauce is now made with the best San Marzano tomatoes.
• For dessert: a chocolate red wine cake from an old Roman recipe!
The new Brunch Menu includes many new options including two vegan options. The low starting prix fixe of $12 includes fresh squeezed OJ and a cup of Blue Bottle coffee.
The vast majority of Adelina’s menu is either vegan or vegetarian and many veggie options can be made vegan.
Adelina’s also has weekly events!
“Spaghett-it-on” Mondays, from 5-8pm features Roman style pasta marinara with a Genesee beer for $7!
Tuesday Record Night has been amazing. Each Tuesday a different Greenpointer spins on a single record player bringing their own style to the evening.
Attention all you ice cream freaks who happen to be vegan, Van Leeuwen (632 Manhattan Ave) just rolled out a new line of Vegan Ice Cream – and it rules! So stop feeling sorry for yourself and grab some VEGAN ice cream.
I taste tested Van Leeuwen’s vegan ice cream at a non-vegan dinner party in which I was asked to bring dessert. More specifically I was asked to bring Tiramusu, but no Italian bakeries were open and besides I don’t eat Tiramisu unless my cousin Roseanne makes it. So vegan ice cream it was and everyone loved it! It was gone in a few minutes and everyone wondered wanted more.
Personally I preferred the chocolate, which was extremely rich, creamy and chocolately. It has an underlying hint of coconut in a very delicious way. I am looking forward to new weekly flavors!
We chatted with the folks at Van Leeuwen about this new and miraculous vegan creation. Continue reading →
It seems that every walk down Franklin St reveals another new business (usually a coffee shop or restaurant) in Greenpoint. Recently, SPINA, which means thorn in Italian, opened in the former location of East River Tattoo (107 Franklin St). A friend described it as a flower shop / coffee shop, which was utterly intriguing in that, “why has no one thought of that yet?” kind of way. Continue reading →
I was honored to be asked to judge a Cupcake Bake-Off fundraiser for NAG a few weeks back and I actually delayed my vacation a day in order to attend. Cupcakes in mass quantity totally beat vacations. It’s instant brain happiness.
From Left: Carmen, Hanna, Jen G (me), Diana
This is the second major “celebrity” judge opportunity I’ve had – the last one was the Halloween Dog Parade Costume Contest. I admit it’s starting to get to my head. The other judges were Ovenly’s head baker Hannah Duke, Carmen Rodriguez of Brooklyn Cupcake, and Councilmember Diana Reyna.
The Cupcake Bake-Off was held in The Brooklyn Kitchen’s awesome event space and as the contestants filed in with their goodies, I was drooling. The colors, shapes, sizes – cupcake overload! Continue reading →
You may notice my father, whose name is Rocco, is always making fun of all our vegan recipes in the comments section. But what he doesn’t realize is my affinity for vegetables is actually his fault.
Sicilian cuisine is mostly a peasant food and back in the day meat was for rich folks. A Sicilian dish called Caponata, which references capons (castrated roosters) is actually a delicious and totally vegan sweet and sour eggplant stew. Thank God because I never want to eat a castrated rooster.
I grew up on fava beans and cauliflower lentil stew. As a child, my father packed Broccoli Rabe sandwiches in my school lunch plastic bag, which was a hard one to explain to the PB&J crowd.
So it’s his doing that I love vegan food. Sicilians are the original vegans, before that was cool.
Broccoli Rabe Sandwich
Cut off the woody ends and soak a bunch of Broccoli Rabe in water (this removes any sand and dirt)
In a pan, sautee garlic and peperoncino (hot red pepper flakes) in extra virgin olive oil
Add the Broccoli Rabe – it can be wet because the water helps it steam
Season with salt and pepper and drizzle more olive oil on top
Put a lid on the pan so the Broccoli Rabe steams
Turn the heat off once it is soft and let it cool a bit
Pile it high onto semolina or any kind of Italian bread
It’s best when the bread is soaking with olive oil
There’s a simple phrase that means a lot to many people: E.B.T. Available. For people at Down to Earth Farmers Markets, it means that there is an Electronic Benefits Terminal available to process Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for the purchase of fresh, local food.
As of Sunday, June 9th, McGolrick Park’s Down to Earth Farmers Market will have E.B.T. available. (Cooper Park’s Down to Earth Farmers Market in East Williamsburg already does!)
“It takes a little behind the scenes effort to implement the electronic benefit terminals, such as filing paperwork with the state and training the market managers, but it’s work we are happy to complete,” said Frankie Rowland of Down to Earth Markets. “Our vendors also jump in to help out with some of the cost and administration of running the program. It’s a community effort to broaden the local food community!”
Also, beginning in July, the NYC Department of Health offers a $2 coupon for every $5 of SNAP benefits spent at one of our EBT markets. Please visit the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene at nyc.gov to learn more about this program.
And the farmers market continues to expand! At McGolrick Park, we now have FOUR local farms with amazing produce: Alex’s Tomato Farm, Great Road Farm, Garden of Eve, and Brooklyn Grange. They are all small-scale farms bringing seasonal fruits and vegetables, grown with care for the environment.
In addition to the growers, we now have fresh fish from American Pride Seafood, homemade tempeh from Grown in Brooklyn, pasture-raised poultry and meats from Stone & Thistle, and expert charcuterie from Brooklyn Cured. This market also has Horman’s Best Pickles (and we all know Nick named his company RIGHT), incredible breads from Orwashers, the best seasonal pies ever from Pie & Lady & Son, and locally-roasted nuts, nut butters, granola, and more from Tierra Farm.
AND have you visited the newest market vendor: La Newyorkina? She makes Mexican-style ice pops and frozen treats that are the perfect respite from the summer heat.
Want to help us get a compost drop-off site up and running at the McGolrick market? Stop by and talk to the market manager, Ellie, this Sunday. She’s taking down names of volunteers to create a compost program. The shifts would be only two hours long, every few weeks. (The more volunteers, the more weeks between the shifts.) We’ve been working with the wonderful ladies at BIG! Compost in Astoria to make this possibility. BIG! Compost will train all volunteers in one easy session. We hope to get this going as soon as this month. Join us.
McGolrick Park Market: every Sunday, 11 am to 4 pm, at the corner of Nassau Avenue and Russell Street.
Thank you for supporting your local farmers market!
Wondering what will fill the space (more like a void) that was the former Veronica People’s Club?
Broken Land (105 Franklin St) has come. And they are opening their doors tonight – Thursday, 6/6 at 9pm!
I sat down with bar manager, Ryan Wood and one of the owners, Julia Arnold, amidst the flurry of prepping for their opening party tonight.
GP: What’s the concept of ”Broken Land”?
BL: We choose “Broken Land” because it was the original name the Dutch gave Brooklyn (Breukelen) and it was descriptive of the the area where Newtown Creek was: waving marshlands. Those marshlands are now known as Greenpoint. We wanted to create a bar “where we would want to be.” Continue reading →
Start your summer off properly with BBQ and Cocktails at The Richardson!
This Sunday, June 9th, from 2-6PM, The Richarson (451 Graham Ave) is partnering with Whistle Pig Distillery, offering tastes of their great spirits.
Chef Ryall Hyatt has created an inspired Lamb and Beef Kofta to pair with the Rye. The Kofta (think of it as a spiced, skewered meatball) will be grilled then served with a Rye-infused honey sauce and a sprinkle of fresh herbs.
For only $10 you can try them both, or, order a la carte for $6 each.
A lot of the 100s of emails we receive at Greenpointers are things like infographics, which are viral marketing images. When they come from places called “Top Management Degrees,” like a good Sicilian, I’m extremely untrusting. I usually take a peek and learn a thing or two, but most of the time I get about a 1/4 of the way down (because they are long) and then lose interest.
Rianna, the sweet robot student who sent this to me addressed me with “Dear Matt,” but this infographic was actually engaging until the end.
And since we throw around the terms, “local sustainable, fair trade, organic” like they are going out of style – I figured I’d share. Please let me know in the comments whether you learned anything or think this was a complete waste of time and bandwidth. (Remember I am not a robot and do have feelings.) Click continue reading to see the entire (9 million pixel long) graphic for the whole story.
On this rainy day, rather than trudging around on the subway, don’t you wish you could work from home? Or at least at the local cafe? If you do or plan to in the near future, here is a guide to Greenpoint’s Best “Work From Home” Cafés.
Greenpoint is a veritable hotbed of freelancers and work-from-home individuals who often look for places to get work done outside of the home. While there are now many different offerings and alternatives to our neighborhood Starbucks, we thought it was high time to acknowledge the best places to work from home away from home in Greenpoint.
Café Grumpy's iconic sign
Cafe Grumpy (193 Meserole Ave.)
Grumpy has been around for nearly ten years and is the go-to coffeehouse for writers and freelancers. Subscribing to the “no-frills” philosophy, Grumpy does not offer much in the way of food or exotic pastries but it covers the basics with coffee and tea drinks and your essential scones and muffins. A hub of bustling creative activity, Grumpy is always near capacity when I’ve dropped in.
Interestingly, Grumpy also roasts their own coffee beans in the back of the shop which adds an aromatic perk to the experience. As expected, there is free Wi-Fi at Cafe Grumpy and the signal is strong throughout. Certainly, there’s something to be said about the “experience” of getting work done at Cafe Grumpy – it may not always be conducive to distraction-free working, but the energy therein is certainly palpable. And as Grumpy’s burgeoning trendiness (thanks GIRLS) may now soon extend to the likes of Times Square, it’s recommended you try the original, Greenpoint-flavored original.
Cafe Royal (195 Nassau Ave.)
Opening in 2010, Cafe Royal has emerged as one of the prime work-from-home spots in Greenpoint. Buying out two storefronts with additional seating in their back yard, there is a friendly vibe to the place that is quite conducive to productivity. Boasting two separate Wi-Fi networks so you always get good signal, there are plenty of power outlets to plug into if your laptop is running out of juice. In addition, Cafe Royal offers some decent food options in case your body fuel begins to run low. Prices are pretty reasonable overall – coffee refills run only a buck a-piece. Continue reading →
Adelina’s (159 Greenpoint Ave) is featuring a new daily and brunch menu!
The new Brunch Menu includes many new options including two vegan options. The low starting prix fixe of $12 includes fresh squeezed OJ and a cup of Blue Bottle coffee.
There’s a simple phrase that means a lot to many people: E.B.T. Available. For people at Down to Earth Farmers Markets, it means that there is an Electronic Benefits Terminal available to process Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for the purchase of fresh, local food.
