Got a baby?

If anyone living in the neighborhood has a young one under one and would like to form a playgroup, please get in touch. My son Sidney, who's a little over 6 months, no longer spends his days screaming and, in fact, has become quite sociable. At any rate, his mom is eager to meet parents of similarly aged kids in the neighborhood and is planning a gathering to that end. Please email me at brooklynite282 (at) gmail if you're interested.

Arts Classes for Kids and Adults in PLG

If you are interested in art classes for your child - or in taking art classes with your child, local resident Nurit Newman has started The Manor Arts. They intend to offer classes in comic book art, drawing, video art and artmaking (which I assume is some sort of mixed media) as well as a parent-child class in artmaking.

We don't know the Ms. Newman personally, but she sounds somewhat overqualified to teach art to kids:

Nurit Newman, the director of the program, is a professional artist who has shown her work extensively in New York City galleries and at museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the New Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Jewish Museum as well as nationally and internationally. She has taught children with MOMA, Lincoln Center and the Jewish Museum's education programs. She has also taught art at the undergraduate and graduate levels at Rutgers University, School of Visual Art and the New School. (She also has three kids ages 9, 5, and infant.)

The classes are kept small (no more than 7 children) and range from $135 per session for the parent/child class to $170 for the studio classes. The classes are given somewhere in Lefferts Manor, but for the specifics, you'll have to contact Ms. Newman at the info provided on her website.

House on Winthrop

While we're not usually the types to blog about real estate, but at $705k, this 2-family townhouse on Winthrop, between Bedford and Rogers, looks particularly promising. Know anyone who needs a house?

Billy Sunday's review

Monday night was the official opening of Billy Sunday's. They weren't doing take-out service, but a special request (which may or may not have embarrassingly included resort to BOTH "infant at home" and "I'm a blogger...") was enough to score me dinner for the road. I stopped in again last night and it appears that take-out is now part of the regular routine.

There were four of us, so we went with: 2 beef short ribs (at around a pound each); a pound of pulled pork and a half chicken (dark), as well as a large mac and cheese, a large dirty rice, a large order of collards and a small order of mashed sweet potatoes. The results were mixed.

On the plus side, the short ribs were, as advertised, big, meaty and full of good smoky flavor. They smoke their meats in house and you can really taste it in the ribs. Most of the sides were also very good. The collards were tender and had a good mix of salty/porky flavor; the mashed sweets were excellent and the dirty rice was fluffy and flavorful. Also, I picked up a couple of cheddar biscuits the next day; they were good after sitting around at my house for an hour. I suspect that they are great if you eat them hot.

On the negative side of the ledger, the pulled pork and the chicken were dry. Granted, we didn't order any of the sauces for the pork. Because it was the first night and there wasn't supposed to be takeaway service, I'll take the hit for this ... but the pork should be moist and sweet enough to make the sauces optional, and I'd say that they were necessary. As for the chicken, the smoke suffused the skin, so the skin was tasty but the meat came out dry and flavorless. This is less forgivable with the dark meat than the lean breast meat.

The final disappointment was the fried mac and cheese. The heat to fry the breading wasn't enough to get the cheese on the inside good and gooey. Instead, you get a ball of solidified cheese and cold macaroni with indistinct breading. The kitchen needs to work out the timing on this because "fried" and "cheese" should result in a winner every time.

This is by no means my final word on Billy Sunday's. It is a welcome addition to the neighborhood and I am going to be monitoring how they work out the kinks by going back pretty regularly. I also need to try the pork ribs, brisket and - eventually - pork belly.

One final note, the menu that we posted last week is no longer current. Some inconsistencies have been fixed (it no longer costs the same for a half and a whole chicken) and some other prices have been adjusted (in both directions). I'll try to pick up a current menu to replace the pre-opening version.

Billy Sunday ... the first review

I was going to write a review of Billy Sunday's - the new Lincoln Road BBQ joint - but, alas, they will not be starting full service until tonight. Something I wish I had found out after trudging through the snow when I tried to order for pickup but did not because nobody answered the phone. It's OK. I'm over it now. I'll probably go back tonight.

However, Lena from God, That's Good went on Saturday and got the free samples treatment. Which I would have loved, but I had to bring back food for four people and we've been told that we are not allowed to leave a baby sleeping alone in the apartment even if we are 100% positive that he won't wake up.

Lena writes:

I'm from California, which is not exactly a BBQ haven of excellence. But as far as I could tell, this meat was good. It was nice and tender, fell right off the bone, and had a lot of flavor. It came with three sauces that I forgot to take a picture of - a mustard/vinegar type sauce, a more traditional BBQ sauce and my personal favorite (although it freaked Ana out), a berry infused sauce that was a little bit sweet and tangy. ... I could have had about a billion more of those biscuits. They were buttery and flaky. Other highlights were the breaded mac and cheese, the sweet potato (or maybe butternut squash? yams? I don't know) mash, and collard greens. I also liked the red cabbage coleslaw.

With a bit of luck, I'll let you know what I think tomorrow.

Timoshenko Trial Sentence: 15 Years for Ellis

Robert Ellis, who was acquitted of murder charges in the death of Officer Russel Timoshenko and attempted murder in the shooting of Officer Herman Yan, was sentenced to 45 15 years in prison for weapons possession. He was convicted of three counts of weapons possession and given 15 year sentences for each conviction, with the terms to run consecutively concurrently.

UPDATE: Thanks to Jessica for the correction; NY1 has changed their story as well. This makes more sense, in light of the acquittals on the top counts in the indictment.

Billy Sunday's Menu

Billy Sunday's, the new BBQ joint on Lincoln, opened its doors for the first time last night and the spouse managed to snag a menu. They're not serving meals yet (that'll be another couple of days) but were offering free sample portions last night. Anyone try the food?

UPDATE: The menu previously posted was being handed out during the samples-only period. It has been replaced by the current menu.

Will PLG Get in Shape?

In the comments to Brownstoner's query about the shuttered gas station on Empire, "proudofbrooklyn" writes:

[Bob,] the reason i asked [if people in the neighborhood are interested in a fitness center] is because i'm involved with some people to open a state of the art gym and fitness center one block over at 73 Empire Blvd next to the laundromat. we are hoping to open in may of this year and I am happy that we will fill a demand in the neighborhood

Some evidence backs up Bob's instinct that a gym would be welcome. When we polled our (admittedly few) readers for the types of businesses that they wanted to see on the lower floors of the proposed Lincoln Road tower, a gym was one of the more popular choices (though far behind an organic grocer).

Since we have no idea when, if ever, the Tower will be built, proudofbrooklyn can assume that her gym won't have any local competition for a while.

Thanks, Bob Marvin.

Almost Here: Lincoln Road BBQ

Enduro owner Jim Mamary's BBQ joint on Lincoln Road is two days from opening, according to Bob Marvin.

It is not, as reported, going to be called "Richard's" but is instead named for noted Prohibitionist Billy Sunday. I assume that he is rolling in his grave at the news that opening first at his namesake establishment, on Tuesday,  is the bar. The restaurant is expected to begin serving food on Friday. I expect that by then the address will be a bit more subtle. Ignore the address and focus instead on the neat neon sign and the salvaged front door.

When I first posted about the restaurant in August, I noted that Mamary predicted opening in four to six months and translated that as ten. Mea culpa. Glad to see the joint open on schedule, especially given our dodgy economic times.

Do you know Patrick?

A friend of Hawthorne Street writes:

We recently received a package of commemorative Obama dollars in the mail. They were addressed to someone named Patrick _____ but at our address. If anyone knows the Patrick on Hawthorne Street who bought these coins (I'm assuming someone involved in the order just made a typo), please reach us via brooklynite282 at gmail and we'll see that he gets them. Thanks.