Friday night started with a party at the Greenlight Bookstore, a bookstore that will blow your mind even when they’re not serving wine and pretzels and celebrating the Brooklyn Book Festival —and specifically the Brooklyn indie publishing scene (Akashic Books, A Public Space, Archipelago Books, Armchair/Shotgun, BOMB, Electric Literature, Melville House, powerHouse Books, Tin House and more). The place was packed with writers, publishers, editors and those in town for the Festival on Sunday.

And the bookstore itself…

I mean, this is a place you could spend hours upon hours in. A great neighborhood bookstore, they have an astounding selection and lots of room to browse about in.

Then at the recommendation of Jessica Stockton, one of the co-owners of Greenlight, we walked over to DeKalb and had dinner at Chez Oskar, another place I’d heard about but never been. With its Chinese umbrella festooned ceiling and pinkish mural of a Parisian scene on the wall, it is a classic bistro with excellent bistro fare like hangar steak, lamb burgers, salad nicoise…

Walking out of the restaurant, which is located on the corner of Adelphi Street, we heard the sounds of a bebop saxophone across the street and found ourselves inside Cornerstone Restaurant and Lounge enjoying the Rakim Walker Quartet, an irresistible group.

With two sax players, an organist, and a very cool drummer, the quartet is Charlie Parker on steroids, jazz with a groove, funk with a jazzy undertone: the music is riveting and Cornerstone is a great place for this music every Friday and Sunday night.

Pictures to come…