Fonda, the owner of Zuzu’s Petals, has been observing the renovation of a new shop called, Brooklyn Bread on Fifth Avenue and 6th Street in Park Slope. They’re good neighbors, too. They asked Fond, who’s shop is on the same block, to service their floral needs. Nice.

we are getting a new neighbor on the corner of 5th avneue and 6th street. it is called brooklyn bread.

they have another place on court street. they have totally gutted the inside of what used to be a real estate agency and have done the sort of work on the outside of the building that only an owner might do…removing paint, resurfacing brick walls, repairing masonry from top to bottom… a former eyesore( to me) is now an attractive welcoming space.

inside looks as if no expense was spared. beautiful ceramic tiles, textured walls, lots of small tables. they bill themselves as a bakery and cafe…another destination if you have  time to spend over a cup of coffee or just want to grab a quick bite. i think they will be open early and close late…someone told me they would do 24 hours but i haven’t heard that from the owners. they plan to open with in the next week to 10 days.

Rena Tom, owner of Rare Device, is closing the Park Slope branch of that shop, which features  artisan jewelry, housewares, home decor items, paper goods, books, and clothing on Seventh Avenue near 16th Street.

I met Rena back in the early days of blogging (2005). I actually became acquainted with her work online and introduced myself to her a day or two after she opened her shop in Park Slope.

"Hi Rena, it’s OTBKB," I said.

That’s all I needed to say.

Rena came to the first blogfest at the Old Stone House and was always a leader in retail blogging. A native Northern Californian, she moved back to San Francisco a year ago to open a Rare Device out there. She kept her Park Slope shop open.

Now she’s decided to focus on her California shop, which is doing very well. The painting pictured is by Betsy Walton, who is having a show at the Rare Device Gallery in SF. Here’s what Rena had to say about closing the shop.

After nearly three years in Park Slope, I am closing
the New York branch of Rare Device. I  moved to California a year ago
to open a second store and it has been a learning experience to operate
an East coast store from the West coast, to say the least, but it is
time for me to focus on the (larger) San Francisco store and gallery.

Everything in the Brooklyn store will be on sale beginning
Saturday, May 3. The sale schedule is as follows, with all sales final.
The discount does not apply to custom orders or web orders. We’ll be
open our regular days/hours (Wed-Sat 12-7, Sun 12-6) but may end up
staying a bit later in the evenings depending on foot traffic. We have
a great selection of housewares, books, home decor, jewelry, handbags,
and even a bit of clothing for men and women. We accept cash, Visa, MC
and Amex.

may 2 – friday – CLOSED FOR PREP

25% OFF
may 3 – sat
may 4 – sun
may 7 – wed
may 8 – thu

45% OFF
may 9 – fri
may 10 – sat
may 11 – sun
may 14 – wed

65% OFF
may 15 – thu
may 16 – fri
may 17 – sat
may 18 – sun

Sale location: 453 7th Ave (between 15th and 16th St), Brooklyn, NY 11215. Phone 718.301.6375.

Please
note that Rare Device in San Francisco is still going strong (we are
actually having an art opening tonight), as is the webshop, so New
Yorkers can still purchase items online at www.raredevice.net.

Craig Hammerman, District Manager of CB6, sent this missive about the Annual Five Boro Bike Tour on May 4th:

Sunday, May 4th, is the Annual Five Boro Bike Tour, please be advised that in our area the Brooklyn-Queens/Gowanus Expressways from the Atlantic Avenue entrance through the Shore Road exit on the Belt Parkway will be impacted as they are part of the route.

I thought you might be interested in the following announcement sent out by the Mayor’s Office…

Street Closings for Five Boro Bike Tour – Sunday, May 4
The Commerce Bank Five Boro Bike Tour travels through the five boroughs, starting in Lower Manhattan at 8:00 am, heading north to Central Park and continuing on to Harlem and the Bronx, returning south along the East River on the FDR Drive, crossing into Queens and then Brooklyn, before crossing the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to Staten Island. The detailed route of the Bike Tour is available on the DOT Web site in pdf format at http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/fiveborobiketour.pdf.

The Bike Tour moves through the five boroughs on a timetable. The front of the Tour travels at 15 mph and the tail at 6 mph. The streets along the route will be closed during the Bike Tour.
The Staten Island Ferry will operate on a Saturday schedule, with half-hour service from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm.

More information about the event is available on the Bike New York Web site at http://www.bikenewyork.org or call 212-932-BIKE.
# # #

To all the cyclists out there — may the roads be smooth and the wind be at your backs!

David Bukszpan, the publicist at WNYC, sent word this afternoon that it was all Brooklyn, all the time ont he Brian Lehrer Show today with a segment on Red Hook and one with our man Bill DeBlasio. Here’s the blurbbage:  

Ikea is opening its large new store in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red
Hook. We discuss the anticipated impact, as well as other community
issues in one of New York City’s fastest-changing ‘hoods, with three
guests: Robert Guskind, editor of the Gowanus Lounge blog; Lynette Wiley, co-owner of the performance space
Jalopy; and Ian Marvey, co-founded of Added Value, a community organization in Red Hook.

Then, we check in with councilmember Bill DeBlasio, who is sponsoring an event to discuss the future of the Gowanus Canal area and his outlook for post-industrial Brooklyn.

You can listen to the show here:
 http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/2008/05/01/segments/97966

Someone wandered onto OTBKB today who was just "trolling the web to see if anyone knows which production is filming on Fifth Avenue today." Here’s what she had to say:

There are trailers up and down St. Johns Place. And I ran into your fun blog and enjoyed reading so much fun info about my neighborhood. Thank you!

So do you know anything about the filming? I see you had the skinny on 
a few other film productions that came to Park Slope, so I was hoping 
you also knew about this one.

Either way — thanks for the blog! Very fun!

There’s a little bit of Nolita on Lincoln Place. Now that Orange Blossom, the high-end kid’s clothing boutique is gone, we’ve got 1 of a Find, a vintage clothing store with style.

I love the name.

I don’t think it’s open yet but it will be soon. There’s something very Chanel in the window and I just have the feeling that the shop is going to be very chic in a vintage kind of way.

And it’s right there next to  Pickleboots and Stitch Therapy.

I walk on Lincoln Place every day and I watch those shops; I see the owner of that corner building apartment building with one Seventh Avenue store front and three small storefront on Lincoln Place.

For a little history, there used to be a teeny, tiny shoe repair shop there; it was so tiny you couldn’t even go in. It was just the size of a doorway, where you’d meet the shoemaker and he’d take your shoes and work on them in the basement, I guess.

There was something very Lord of the Rings about it.

For years, the stained glass store that’s now on Fifth Avenue near 1st Street was there. Then there was the letter press and wooden stamp store – that was way cool. Wooden stamps with illustrations, letters of the alphabet, paper, ink.

Then there was another custom sewing/curtain/fabric store. That was there for years. Before that Shangri La, the Tibetan import store owned by Mrs. Cleavage.

I notice the landlord every day. White hair, ruddy face; he wears green Wellington boots when it rains. He looks handy; happy with tools.

He seems like a very nice man. Just the other day, he was trimming the magnolia or some such blossomy tree he’s got in front of his red brick building over there.

He makes nice painted signs for the stores. He helps fix their places up. He seems very involved in the day to day running of his building.

Right now he’s got a Tibetan store in his Seventh Avenue storefront. It seemed to do good business during Christmas but sad to say I don’t think it’s long for this world.

Maxine DeGouttes’ Stitch Therapy is a cozy shop with loyal customers with a passion for knitting. She sells, she teaches, she has knitting circles, and more. It’s a way of life over there. So I think she’s doing well and she’ll be there for a good long time.

There’s never anyone in Pickleboots but I think she does a lot of custom business — blankets, quilts, bassinets, gift baskets, etc. Maybe there’s a website. Of course there’s a website for her custom bedding business.

And now 1 of a Find, which is the Slope’s version of one of those resale couture shops in Nolita. Maybe I’m reaching. But it looks nice, tasteful and fun.

I’ll be checking it out…

What’s going to happen to all those vacant storefronts on Seventh Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Streets?

Second Street Cafe, and the two spaces that housed used bookstores are still empty. A beloved and sometimes not so beloved local cafe/restaurant, and two used bookstores are gone, just like that, in a matter of months.

So much for Seventh Avenue becoming a new used books mecca like Fourth Avenue in Manhattan used to be.

But Barrio, the new high end Mexican restaurant, is hopping and that should be grabbing the attentions of realtors all over town. Hey, hey, hey! Hot new restaurant on the corner of Third Street and Seventh Avenue!!!

I’ve noticed that Mark Ravitz, the artist who owns the building where Park Slope Books was located, has been showing the space this week.

For most of March and April he was using it as a gallery space for his sculpture and his large cyclops-octopus. He also changed the drips on his building to little cyclop octopus suns. For a few days he had these nice collage-y constructions, dedicated to his wife, with hearts and things.

I loved seeing the burst of creativity in that window for the last few months. So when I saw the place cleared out I knew he was getting down to the business of being a landlord again.

Off with the artist hat. On with his landlord hat. Ya gotta pay the bills.

An unusual and beloved figure of the South Slope passed away recently. Even the  The Daily News also has a story about him. Here’s an excerpt from what columnist Clem Richardson had to say about John Whitey Glendinning.

Six days a week, you can find John (Whitey) Glendinning working
his hustle on the west side of Seventh Ave. between 11th and 12th Sts.
in Park Slope. He keeps the sidewalks in front of businesses on that
side of the block clean.

Whitey also does other odd jobs, like sitting in double-parked cars
to ward off ticket agents while the car owner runs an errand or eats a
quick meal. He had more of a work load back when the South Slope was
more of a working-class neighborhood and more folks knew him. But many
of those people sold out and left.

Most residents who care to know Whitey have made his acquaintance –
on a good day, when his knees aren’t killing him, he’ll speak to you if
you don’t speak first. I can usually tell the new guys standing nearby
when I pass him because their eyes get really wide between the time I
say "Hey, Whitey!" and he replies, "How you doing, babe!" He knows my
wife and daughters well enough to notice when one of them has a new
hairstyle.

A few months ago, this column profiled another Park Slope resident
whom many of the folks on the block knew. The day after the column
appeared, Whitey stopped me as I was headed home and said: "Hey, Slim
(a variation of my name, no longer a comment on my girth). You write
for The News? You should do a story on me!"

On Park Slope Parents, there were comments about Whitey, too.  

I too, am so very sad to hear about Whitey. I talked with him just about every day for the past 10 years. What a dear and kind person! Whitey, you will be greatly missed by the community of 12th Street!!

There will be a memorial service for Whitey on Wednesday May 7th at the Naidre’s on Seventh Avenue in the South Slope. More details to come.