Too often, as a photographer, I feel driven to capture the news-breaking, the attention-grabbing, and the extreme as I journey through the borough. This impulse sometimes allows me to forget the beauty in the mundane, to ignore the simplicity and loveliness of everyday life. One recent weekend, though, I made it a point to remember and reflect.
Welcome to my neighborhood bagel shop.
My neighbors up the block have been growing wheat all summer in their front yard. While I’m mildly surprised on a regular basis by all the things I see in my neighborhood, this one takes the cake for this week. I’m just waiting until someone is out there, threshing the grains with old farm tools and grinding them into flour out on the sidewalk.
I really wouldn’t be that surprised.
This little bakery on 5th Avenue in the South Slope sits between 20th Street and 21st Street. The ladies there are always so friendly and, despite the fact that the shelves on this fancy cake rack are installed crookedly, they’re doing their best to outshine the several other bakeries right along this strip. That’s a tough job, especially now that Little Buddy Bakery has moved in to compete with the local Latin contingency. It seems the head baker of the company is also a long-time-ish South Slope resident, so we shall see how it fares! Can’t wait to try!
And as if sugary sweetness wasn’t enough of a treat, for any of you out there observing Columbus Day on Monday, enjoy the three-day weekend!
This pink cruiser was parked outside the tiny Has Beans Cafe [WHICH NOW SERVES BEER!] on Fifth Avenue, just south of 17th Street. Has Beans serves great coffee, not only by the cup – you can purchase a wide variety of beans there whole or ground! (And pretty reasonably, too!)
This whole stretch has changed so much in the past couple of years, it’s unreal. An old photography shop has turned into a new wine store (same owner, new gig). A new organic food market has come in, owned by a lovely Indian family. It’s called Balance Life and she now home-cooks Indian entrees you can take home for dinner.
Eagle Provisions remains the stalwart [and beer heaven] of this block, but across the street, it’s party central with the new Ellis Bar, another rotating bar space (should be called ‘South’ in later this year, formerly called Vin Rouge), and a sushi joint. Earlier this year, New York Magazine profiled the hood from a both a newcomer’s and an old-timer’s point of view. Well worth the read, especially if you’re thinking of moving to the area!
