A few weeks ago, I heard about a restaurant in Brooklyn who was beginning a “Pay What You Want” campaign. This was the Santorini Grill on Grand Street. At first I thought, oh wow, how cool is that! Then I thought that this poor woman who runs this great Greek restaurant is going to be taken advantage of.

I try not to be pessimistic when it comes to human actions but I’ve seen enough people try to get something for free to know that this poor lady was going to get swindled out of a few meals.

Paula Douralas the owner of this three-year-old Brooklyn, NY establishment says that yes, some people have left without paying for the food. But what is interesting about this experiment is how the people feel about it.

Apparently some people are skittish about the whole idea. Many ask “what’s the catch?” Douralas says that some of her customers are paying more for their meals than they used to. It seems that people are worried about paying too little for their food. This has prompted the lovely cook to provide two menus to those who ask. One contains the prices she used to charge and one contains no prices at all. But she doesn’t provide that luxury for the check.

Williamsburg in one of the trendiest neighborhoods in Brooklyn, and Bedford Ave. is the heart of the enclave. Bedford Avenue has amazing places to eat, especially between N.5th and N.7th. One such spot is Fabiane’s Cafe and Pastry Shop. Even if you are not really into the Williamsburg scene, you will be into the delicious delectables offered at Fabiane’s. 

Additionally, it is not overrun by hipsters, but is frequented twenty-somethings of all different lifestyles as well as long-time residents and families. The eatery, which also offers a wide selection of desserts and serves breakfast all day, offers a multicultural menu of food that is strongly influenced by the owner’s Brazilian heritage and French culinary training.

This combination inspires a uniquely delicious selection of standard and new world dishes and desserts. For example, if you are interested in a classic French breakfast, you may enjoy a baguette served with fresh jam and butter on the side. Or, you may enjoy ornate French toast with fresh strawberries and freshly made whipped cream.

You may have to wait a minutes to snag a table inside, but it is well worth the wait. Through big bay windows, you may observe passersby on the street as you enjoy your meal. And, in the warm weather, Fabiane’s offers outdoor seating, so you may simultaneously enjoy your meal in the fresh air.

It has been a long time since there was a clear victory for unionized workers in New York. It seems that over the last few decades politicians have vilified labor unions more and more, making  workers less and less likely to vote for unionization even as their wages have done a poor job of covering expenses and benefits have become increasingly scarce.

So any fans of labor unions would be proud of some local Brooklyn news coming in this week. This week Brooklyn Cablevision workers have voted to unionize. 282 workers mostly  technicians and dispatchers voted on Thursday to join the union the Communications Workers of America. The union is the largest telecommunications union in the world and includes 700,000 other workers. Cablevision of course released a statement that they were “disappointed” about the results of the vote.

The effort to unionize apparently began on December 2nd 2011 when more than 70% of the company’s workers submitted union registration cards. The results of this vote could reverberate throughout the cable industry and have an affect on customers prices. For the workers the results will be a leg up in contract negotiations.

Brooklyn will forever survive. That is just the nature of the beast. A loss is never truly a loss because it will be reinvented not long after. That is definitely the case with a soon-to-be tap room.

This bar, called Shady’s Tap Room, is opening its doors this Spring in an old condemned building. Yup, you read that correctly. A decrepit old building was renovated to house a new cozy little bar. The building had once been left in disrepair with water damage and unsafe conditions. Then two people changed that story around. Pat and Brenda Collins became owners of 110 N. Main St. They got a liquor license by the village council and began to change the place.

Whatever concerns there were no longer exist and the owners look forward to opening a comfortable and charming social hub in the downtown. It will have Michigan-brewed beers and traditional Irish pub eats, along with snacking favorites like pizza and sandwiches.

Looks like yet again something in Brooklyn has been reinterpreted and made fresh. You can look forward to going there this spring once the doors open. Keep your eyes peeled for this and other opening establishments in downtown Brooklyn.

It’s Brooklyn! Home of the artists, home of the greatest slice of pizza, home of the newest App… or maybe not…

Sorry, yo, it looks like the next Apple “Staw” is hitting Queens, not Brooklyn. As it stands there are five Apple Stores in Manhattan– on 5th Ave, 14th St, Grand Central Station, The Upper West Side, and SoHo respectively. One exists in Staten Island. The next one is going to be situated in the quaint neighborhood of Forest Hills on Austin Street. Although Brooklyn’s Williamsburg seems like an opportune and appropriate location, it looks like it will have to wait.

This just goes to show that even the borough of Brooklyn gets overlooked sometimes. The borough has plenty of awesome stores anyway so it’s not like you’re missing out too much. Take for example their massive Buffalo Exchange thrift store. You can find designer clothes at a fraction of the cost. Brooklyn also has some of the best restaurants in the city.

It’s pretty much a guarantee that Apple will open a store there soon enough. In the meantime soak up the culture at the art galleries and try your hand at shopping at the Atlantic Center and Brooklyn Flea. That should suffice.

It’s January and though it is once again unseasonably warm here in New York it still feels like prime time for a cool refreshing Winter Ale. I have been spending the last few months doing everything short of binging on the excellent Brooklyn Winter Ale. Wandering around bars and music/comedy venues last week it seemed to be on tap at almost every place we stopped.

Good! I know it can get a little bland to keep getting the same beer at spots with upwards of 7 beers on tap and yet there I was. I think the reason I kept returning to it is the flavor felt full without ever feeling overwhelming and the beer was just heavy enough to allow for long sustained drinking. It may not seem like Brooklyn news at this point since the line started showing up in well stocked delis around October but I think they’ve hit a stride with this particular brew and I thought it seemed worth letting everyone know that now is the time to dive in.

Of course if you aren’t a fan of winter ales or Brooklyn Brewery in general I don’t know that we should even be talking to each other at this point.

Brooklyn is getting a little bit of Jersey in February. The basketball team the New Jersey Nets started moving it’s business operations to Brooklyn, New York a little over a year ago with the legal team setting up shop in the new MetroTech building. The business end will be moving in February.

The new offices are only one subway stop away from the new Barclay center. This new enormous sports center was once eyed as the spot for a new Brooklyn Dodgers location in the 1950s. However, this building, which was begun in March of 2010, is now going to be a state of the art, modern, and hopefully profitable location for the newly named Brooklyn Nets.

It’s been a long, hard road for those involved in the franchise. Several potential lawsuits and a nomadic existence have plagued the team. They started in the ABA in Teaneck, NJ before moving to Long Island. In 1977, they were admitted to the NBA and moved back to New Jersey. From that time on they lead a troubled existence losing four seasons in a row and being sued by their landlord, The Prudential Center. They’re finally getting a (hopefully) permanent home in Brooklyn, New York.

Over the past two years there has been a lot of tumult in the United States Congress. By and large the American people are fed up with politics as usual and somehow assume that voting the opposite way they did the last time will fix things.

With this in mind the Republican party took a Brooklyn congressional seat in a special election last night. Brooklyn businessman Bob Turner beat Democratic Assemblyman David I. Weprin in a margin large enough to turn the heads of polsters who had been predicting an incredibly tight race, 54% to 46%.

National Republican leaders, trying to get a leg up on the upcoming Presidential race, suggested that the Democratic loss was a referendum on President Barack Obama himself. It is as if they forgot completely that the entire special election was necessitated by the public shaming of former Congressman and amateur pornographer Anthony Weiner.

Mr. Turner is the first Republican since 1920 elected to the ninth congressional district, which includes several working class Brooklyn neighborhoods and Forest Hills in Queens. In the end it seems that the Democrats greatest miscalculation was nominating a career politician, easily painted as a party insider intent on keeping things going as is.

The tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks is receiving wall to wall coverage and for those of us who lived in New York at the time that seems totally justified. The shear terror and shock of that chaotic day has not been lost on anyone who was there or within eye shot. Brooklynites will inevitably recall standing on the promenade or their roofs watching as the course of American history shifted in an explosive moment of violence. Some might remember walking across the Brooklyn bridge from their lower Manhattan offices to let loved ones know that they were okay, even though no one was okay.

The view of Manhattan from Brooklyn, always an iconic reminder that we live in one of the most exciting and vital places on the planet, was changed forever. So too was the view from our collective psyche. The last ten years have been a series of culture shocks and cultural breakthroughs. The technology we once feared would drive a wedge between humanity has instead become a hyper connective network. In a way that reaction could have something to do with the events of 9/11. The fear of being suddenly torn from someone you love or something familiar now has us forever connecting to one another. It is safe to say that on that day Brooklyn and the world got a whole lot smaller.

Brooklyn Borough Hall is a highlight location for environmentally conscience New Yorkers. It’s one of many GrowNYC Greenmarket locations.  Here you can find programs and produce aimed at improving New York City’s quality of life. Back in March they began a compost. Every Saturday from 8AM to 5PM there is a food scraps collection for citizens. It will be transported to a facility to be used as amendments for fertile soil. This initiative will continue through to December so you have plenty of time to get involved.

Summer costs are already rising because of energy consumption. The compost can actually reduce costs in other areas of city life. Food can sum up to around 17% of New York City’s waste. To send it to a landfill actually increases the disposal costs. Not only that but it contributes to the emission of greenhouse gases that pollute city air. The compost can be used for planting trees and other plants in NYC parks, sidewalks, and gardens.

If you want to help out you can drop off scraps of the following foods: vegetables, fruit, non-greasy rice, pasta and cereal, coffee grinds and filters, tea bags, egg shells, and more. Place these scraps in some sort of plastic container, milk carton, or compost pails. It’s an easy summer activity to do that gives back to the community. While you’re there you can check out other things at the Greenmarket like fresh food and educational events.