You just have to see Adam Lerner‘s photo essay on Robert Stout of Kings County Jerky Co. if you haven’t yet. Adam has been sharing some fantastic portraits lately, and it’s great to see this extended feature. I can personally vouch for the awesomeness that is Robert’s jerky from sampling it at the Flea. Just thinking about it is making me hungry!
Check out more of Adam’s great photographs from the shoot here – I would love to know more about his story!
One of the very first things I discovered when I moved back to the South Slope after a couple years of living in Bay Ridge was a tiny shop tucked away into a storefront on 7th Avenue, just north of 15th Street. Lured in by a sign offering free beer tasting and refillable growlers at a reasonable price, I ambled up to the counter to get my sample draft. Little did I know it would become an addictive weekly habit, trying fresh (often limited-edition) top-quality beers and a host of amazing cheeses and charcuterie.
The outstanding woman behind GRAB Specialty Foods is one Laura Nuter, who has been serving the Park Slope food community for years – she joined Blue Apron Foods in north Park Slope in 2005 after stints at Artisanal and the Tribeca Grill before settling her roots at her current shop in the South Slope.
In celebration of NY Craft Beer Week, Laura has been paying homage to New York State brewers by offering a huge line-up of their seasonal beers on tap. She’s continuing the free beer tasting tradition, and will wrap up Beer Week with selections from Southampton (Imperial Pumpkin, IPA, Altbier) and Keegan’s (Four Philosopher’s Tripel, Hurricane Kitty) this Saturday from 4-7pm.
I recently caught up with Laura to pick her brain about living in the Slope, what’s up her sleeve for the NY Craft Beer Week, and a very cool new project she’s got going at Chelsea Market. Check out the interview below, and hope to see you at the tasting!
For the Love of Brooklyn: First of all, congratulations on GRAB’s three-year anniversary!
Laura Nuter: Thank, you, thank you! I must say – it feels wonderful to be a part of such an amazing, supportive and fun community!
FTLOB: You’ve done a great job of addicting the South Slope to your delicious growlers of beer, decadent cheeses, and smoky charcuterie. Plus, you’ve recently brought back your popular Saturday afternoon beer tastings after a sweltering summer — how’s that going?
LN: It’s going well – we’re glad to be back after such an unbearable summer, and our customers have let us know on no uncertain terms that they’re glad we’re back to tasting the good stuff!
FTLOB: The good stuff, huh? So what breweries do you have lined up for us?
LN: Some to look forward to for sure! Sixpoint is tasting out a Pilsner and their Pumpkin Brewster next weekend. Fire Island will be here the following weekend with their new Pumpkin, and then we’ll be finishing up the month with a bang with Great Divide. Also coming this fall: Dogfish Head, Founders, and Unibroue!
FTLOB: Though your store is in the south part of Park Slope, you live further north near Grand Army Plaza, right? What originally attracted you to the neighborhood?
LN: I just love the vibe down on the south end. While the north end is beautiful from an architectural perspective, I found the South Slope speaks to me a bit more in terms of the demographic as well as the food options available here.
FTLOB:If you could do anything you wanted, what would be your ideal way to spend a sunny fall day here?
LN: I’m going to include the whole Slope since I think we’ll need to since we are a bit small-town and I get up early!
Out of bed early. (In my mind, it’s Sunday since I never have Sundays off!) Big bike ride alone in the park — 5 loops — trees are changing color and it’s 68 degrees. Leaves a-changing, good music playing on the pod. Shower, grab my lady friend Paula and it’s off to Stone Park Cafe for brunch. I’ll be having the short-rib hash with eggs, please!
We head over towards Flatbush to shop at the many cute boutiques – perhaps I shall buy myself something special? Loop up to our house to drop off all the bags, head over to say hello to our friends at Cafe Martin for a delicious cappuccino, then across the street to say hi to our friends at Zuzu’s Petals!
I believe it’s time for a cocktail?! We’ll meet our friends Pam and Alister at our neighbors over at Fonda for margaritas. When we’re done, we’ll grab a bunch of cheese, charcuterie, olives, duck rillette, fresh bread and beer from that cheese shop next door, and a bottle of our favorite Spanish red Camino de Navaherreros from our buddies next door at Slope Cellars. Stop by and grab some hummus and pita from Divine Taste, then it’s off to the park again with my girl. Blanket, magazines, cool breeze, good food, and a bit of a nap as the sun falls below the tree-line.
Head home, finish catching up on Modern Family, The Good Wife, and old seasons of Friday Night Lights. I’ll get a foot rub, haha.
FTLOB: Sounds heavenly! Also heavenly – FRESH LOCAL BEER. As you well know, we are currently celebrating NY Craft Beer Week and GRAB is one of the participating venues. How are you celebrating at the store and on your own?
LN: We’re having as many local brewers as possible — check out the lineup over at BeerMenus.com! No time for me to celebrate other than making sure I taste each and every beer coming through GRAB this week and continuing to spread the word about our incredibly talented New York State brewers and their staffs. Speaking of staff, Josh Green is doing all the buying at GRAB these days. I must say, I’m quite pleased!!
FTLOB: I also hear you’ve had quite the busy summer, and have started another shop in Chelsea Market! What can you tell us about your new project?
LN: Yeah! My business partner, Megan Cariola and I started The Filling Station, a company in that specializes in extra virgin olive oils, specialty oils, balsamic vinegars, salts, and soon — craft beer, both local and imported! You can taste everything before purchasing, and since we strive to be environmentally friendly, we encourage our customers to reuse our bottles to get a 10% discount! We’ve had an amazing response so far and we’re incredibly excited and humbled to be a part of Chelsea Market — a lot of talent under one roof! Plus, it doesn’t hurt to be on the cusp of the Meatpacking District in case we decide to get a little crazy after work…
Thanks so much to Laura for the interview! Happy Beer Week and hope you get to toast a frosty cold one this weekend!
Last month, I participated in a historical tour of Surf Avenue with the Save Coney Island organization. You can read more about that tour here, but this post is about a surprise we encountered along the way!
Near the end of the tour, we encountered an artist working on the beautiful murals which decorate the Coney Island USA building. She was decked out in an old paint-splattered Mermaid Parade t-shirt and dock shoes, busy putting the finishing touches on a vignette on the east side of the building. I learned that this was none other than Prof. Marie Roberts, the Coney Island artist in residence who has been largely responsible for last 10+ years of iconic Coney Island imagery.
Of course, I asked her for a portrait. She graciously obliged and smiled.
Born and raised in Coney Island, Marie’s family has had strong ties to the community for several generations and her art reflects this deep bond with the landscape. She says that her “father’s family was involved in Coney Island at the turn of the 20th century; my grandfather was acting battalion chief of the Coney Island District until his death in 1924. My Uncles Harry and Guy were at Dreamland the night of the fire. I have an uncle buried in the Gravesend Cemetery. My father claimed he never got out of the 6th grade because he was too busy watching the horses cross the finish line at the Gravesend track. My Uncle Lester was the talker for the Dreamland Circus Sideshow in the 1920’s.”
I also hear she has loads of legendary stories about growing up in a sideshow family, many of which surface as inspiration in her beautiful sideshow banner work. Be sure to check it out on the web here or in person at Surf Avenue and 12th Street!
This week, we are excited to launch a new feature with a focus on Brooklyn artisans! For our debut interview, I was invited into the kitchen of Anna Gordon, who owns The Good Batch, a growing bakery company which specializes in Dutch stroopwafels. Anna will be making her first appearance at the Brooklyn Flea on Saturday, and she gave us a sneak peek of what to expect — and answered my gnawing questions about what the heck a stroopwafel is.
Enjoy the interview below and make sure to say hi this weekend at the Flea!
For the Love of Brooklyn: Anna, first of all, I must say that you’re a genius with all things sugar — and I’ve sampled A LOT of your handiwork. Who / what inspired you to bake and to become a trained pastry chef? How did you make the decision to enter that world?
Anna Gordon: I love cooking, and I especially love cooking for other people. I make a lot of savory food at home, but I was drawn to pastry because it’s scientific, I can be creative with it, and there’s honestly a bit of magic in it — and I love that. And there’s nothing better than the smell of a bakery. It’s like the smell of happiness. I baked as a hobby for years, but ultimately I reached a point, a couple of years ago, where I couldn’t execute the kind of desserts I wanted to make without going to pastry school. So I took the leap. It is certainly a labor of love, but I couldn’t be happier running The Good Batch.
LoB: Okay, so — STROOPWAFELS. What the heck are they? Why did you choose to make them? What’s their significance? What makes them so tasty?
AG: The stroopwafel is a thin, round waffle cookie filled with gooey caramel goodness. In Dutch it literally translates to “syrup waffle.” My boyfriend’s family is originally from the Netherlands and they first turned me on to them. Whenever friends or family bring real Dutch stroopwafels to the US, they are seriously coveted and rationed because they’re so much fresher and tastier than any you can buy in America. When I visited Holland recently and saw them everywhere — grocery stores, bakeries, airports — I was inspired to make them myself. What’s really cool about them, at least for a pastry geek like me, is that although general ingredients are known, there is really no published or solidly tested recipe to be found. So, I had to figure it out on my own, which was a fun challenge.
The other thing I love about them is that after I figured out how to make a traditional stroopwafel, I realized how they really lend themselves well to experimentation. It is a perfect medium for variation. For instance — a chocolate stroopwafel, or one with jam filling, or Nutella, or dipped in ganache. It seems like nobody has really done that. I keep coming up with new, delicious ideas to try. In a way, making stroopwafels has really allowed me to pursue my own thing and evolve the way I think about flavor combinations. So, I just ran with it.
LoB: The Brooklyn culinary scene is an incredibly vibrant one, and one in which you have a lot of experience. What’s your food background here in the county of Kings? Any influences or mentors of note here or elsewhere?
AG: I went to ICE, and have been fortunate enough to trail at several fantastic New York restaurants and work under some incredible chefs. My externship at Marlow & Sons and Diner taught me a lot too. The pastry team there is incredible, and they’re all pros at seasonal, rustic desserts, which I absolutely love. I’ve also found inspiration in the styles of Baked and One Girl Cookie (where I interned for a bit), and I love the French authenticity of Almondine. Their fresh baguette is literally mouth-watering. Perhaps the strongest motivation for starting The Good Batch has been living in a community of such talented entrepreneurs such as Salvatore Bklyn, Early Bird Foods & Co. and Mast Brothers Chocolate, to name a few. Outside of the pastry community, Farm on Adderly, Applewood and The Good Fork, for instance, really epitomized for me the beauty of simplicity in cooking. They create practically euphoric dishes by using fresh, local, and well-seasoned ingredients. I think there’s a lot to be learned from that.
LoB: You’re a Fort Greene resident. What attracted you to the neighborhood? What are your favorite things to do there? Any tips on your favorite spots?
AG: I’ve always loved Fort Greene, even before I moved here last summer. The neighborhood has a lot of preserved history and character, and I think that’s why it attracts such an eclectic crowd. The architecture is gorgeous, the park is totally serene, and there are just lots of cool people doing cool things. Plus we have really terrific restaurants and bars. I would consider myself a regular at Der Shwarze Kölner because the waitresses are all adorable and welcoming, and will remember the obscure beer you enjoyed last time. It’s places like that that really make this place feel like a small community.
LoB: Finally, we wish you the best of luck with your new digs at the Brooklyn Flea. What should we expect to see out of The Good Batch at the Flea?
AG: Thanks so much for the good wishes! I think working at the Flea this summer will be a good time. I plan to have the classic and cocoa stroopwafels as menu regulars, then rotate in weekly specials of unique waffle cookies and other bars and cookies. Mix it up a little. A couple waffle cookies to keep an eye out for are Second Brunch (bacon & maple), ZingGinger (fresh ginger and molasses caramel) and the Bonfire (cocoa cookie with toasted meringue, caramel sauce and dark chocolate ganache). I’m also a little giddy for summer fruits because I want to incorporate homemade jams and fruit-based pastries into the menu. Needless to say, I’m very excited!
So are we, Anna. So are we. Thanks so much for the interview and we can’t wait to see you at your booth this weekend! Be sure to sign up for Anna’s email list to hear first word about her specials, and stop by and say hi this week at the Flea! Happy eating!
