48 hours ago Daniel Delaney’s paypal had a balance of $0. Since then he has sold 2500lb of brisket at $25/lb. Do the math. It’s a lot of money to make in 2 days for someone when asked, “What do you do?” jokingly answered, “Nothing.”
The Smoker
But Daniel, who started VendrTV, has been up to something called Brisketlab. After driving an 18ft smoker from Texas to Brooklyn, he devised a genius marketing plan with a “strong viral backbone” and essentially brisket mind-fucked everyone.
“I didn’t disclose a lot of information… and the way that the copy was written, it was very lavish: ‘I’m forming an underground smoked meat guild. I’m recruiting tallow loving carnivores.’ It was very colorful. But also very ambiguous. That combination drove a lot of interest. Folks had a sense they had to shit or get off the pot. They had to act quickly.”
I shat. Daniel used the fundraising platform Launch Rock. When I logged in there were 800lbs, the next day when the likes of Brooklyn Based and The Brooklyn Kitchen were tweeting all over it, only 7lbs were left, then none. As we ate biscuits at Marlow & Sons, Daniel received email after email from disappointed brisket lovers, “Is it too late?” For now, it is.
Don’t worry, Daniel isn’t stopping at 2500lbs and plans to open a restaurant in Brooklyn, so there will be plenty brisket for everyone. In the meantime he has corralled a drooling bunch of “brisketeers” who will be the first to taste and critique his brisket skills in 100lb increments at over 25 pop-up events over the summer, which he envisions ”underneath bridges and on rooftops and on a boat.”
The East River Ferry is already the most pleasant and gorgeous commuting experience, and now it is the most delicious with a new snack bar run by Bench Marc Events. While Karen was making us a Housemade Egg Cream ($3), which blew my mind, she told me that everything on the menu is “made in Brooklyn,” including the McClure’s Potato Chips and the Butter Lane chocolate caramel cupcake we enjoyed on the short ride from Midtown to India St. They better put some extra large life preservers on the ferry!
Mustard is one of those things I hated growing up and only recently acquired a taste for. Unless it’s a giant slab of kielbasa, I never find myself asking for anyone to pass the mustard. That all changed this weekend.
There was a line-up of mustard geniuses but one mustard stood out among the rest: My Friend’s Mustard. I find myself waking up in the middle of the night looking for anything to dip into “my tub” (not “my boyfriend’s” tub or “our” tub) – “my tub!” of “whole grain beer mustard from Brooklyn.”
It’s not yellow runny mustard or fancy french dijon. It isn’t the means to just spicing up your hot dog. My Friend’s Mustard is an end in itself. A spicy and sweet mustard with an addictive creamy nutty texture and that invigorating wasabe effect on your senses. I am hooked and taking every chance I get to slather it on everything!
Get ‘em while they last! Brooklyn Standard, Eastern District & Brouwerij Lane will only be carrying the mustard until their inventories runs out (meaning until I buy it all), then you can buy it directly from their website.
I recently bought bee pollen at the Greenmarket because I am bi-curious about bee products. It is termed a SUPERFOOD! Meg Paska, the infamous Brooklyn Homesteader, who keeps bees (among other things) right here in Greenpoint, is kind enough to school us on bee pollen.
Meg: Pollen is a reproductive matter created by angiosperms (ground-dwelling flowering plants) to aid in species propagation. It’s made up of many small grains that contain the male gametes that are required for plant fertilization. Bee pollen is just pollen that has been collected and prepared by honeybees.
I am always on the hunt for a great espresso. There is a little coffee shop, in the middle of nowhere, on Woodpoint Rd. in the 11211 called Tar Pit Café. Their motto is “Espresso, Pastry, Love.” I can get behind that. What I found when I strolled over was a pleasant teeny coffee shop with a friendly barista name Ginny, who served me the shortest espresso (in a great way) that was perfect and made with Kitten Coffee, which comes from Bed-Stuy.
The technique for their short espresso pulling is called ristretto, which should be the standard for which every espresso is pulled, much in the same way all steaks should be rare and all eggs should be runny. They would have made a great contender in the Greenpointers Espresso Tour.
I think I learned this sandwich from a German person. It seems like something German people would eat. Maybe it’s the pumpernickel bread. Either way it is the most delicious (and vegetarian) sandwich ever!
The first time I had it, it was with your standard grade european radish, but here I used daikon slices, which I find every week at the Greenmarket.
Simply butter pumpernickel bread, top it with cheddar cheese and any type of radish. It’s fresh, crunchy, buttery & cheesy. (Note: the fresh oregano is just a green garnish to pretty up the otherwise uncolorful photograph, but it might be delicious on there, too!)
If you have any great recipes to share, please send them to greenpointers (at) gmail.com. The goal is to make a Greenpointers Community Cookbook, the spiral bound kind your Mom has, but with illustrations from local artists.
Tuesday, April 24th join us at One Stop Beer Shop in welcoming Spring with our Spring Suds!
Try our 12 new Spring beers on tap consisting of:
Victory Whirlwind
Blue Point Spring Fling
Otter Creek Spring Ale (Kolsch)
Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye IPA
North Coast’s Brother Thelonious
Abita Golden Lager
Greenport Harbor Spring Turning Rye Saison
Pretty Things Jack D’ior
Ebel’s Weiss from Two Brothers
Naragansett Summer Ale
Troegs Nugget Nectar
And Beer Cocktails to match!
2 Hour Drink passes are the perfect way to sample all of the season best brews. $20 Drink Passes
Or try our Spring Beer Flights ($14) – 8 large samples to discover your taste buds favorites.
This event will go till we are out of beer! So come in have a few beers and enjoy Spring!
Do you get anxiety when you go into Bedford Cheese Shop? The amount of amazing cheese to chose from is extremely intimidating. My friend Tony gave me sound advice: you know everything is good, so just take whatever they give you.
To ease into it I dilly dally near the front where all the jams and condiments live and once I have enough courage I just go for whatever says goat or sheep.
While pointing and drooling I saw a list of different types of ravioli from Pastosa. For the record, it’s not my favorite pasta because of all that runny ricotta, but the Asparagus Prosciutto and Mascarpone flavor won me over. When I got home, I stuck it in the freezer, figuring in a pinch I could just boil and butter them up.
I am a supper club sucker! When I heard Table No. 1 would debut in the basement of my favorite bar, The Diamond, I RSVP’d right away. The menu was a mystery. The only information revealed was that each course would be paired with beer selected by Dave. Sold.
After the experience, I would term Table No. 1 a “pop-up restaurant” rather than a “supper club,” which is usually hosted in a home with mismatched plates and chairs, the food prepared by amateur chefs so the whole vibe is very casual, family style and home-cooked.
When we arrived our hostess Judy, of the Brown & Jackson Design Consultancy, greeted us with a clipboard and led us downstairs to our assigned seats at a long formal table in the basement transformed into a chic private dining room, surrounded by dark curtains highlighting the tablescape, which looked like it was right out of a home design magazine.
Soon after I adopted Greenpointers, I took a class at Flux Factory, which I renamed: “Interviewing Not Like a Monster.” I’m abrupt, I interrupt, I don’t listen and I wanted to learn how to ask difficult questions with some tact.
We were to choose an interviewee, bring in questions, then during class we paired off and conducted the interview as a role playing exercise.
The man in the photograph is not Cody Utzman, owner of Papacitos, Cafe Royal and Brooklyn Standard, but his stand-in. I had never met Cody formally, just some hellos at Cafe Royal, but I certainly had a lot of second-hand information to go on that I prepped my fake Cody with.
Fake Cody took it and ran. He was snide, cocky, rude, and full of himself. These adjectives had come out of the mouths of many Greenpoint folks, often unsolicited, and when asked many admitted to never having met the guy.
Which is why Cody Utzman became an intriguing character to me. All I wanted was to get in his face and blurt out that tough question: “Cody, why does everyone hate you?”
