Conde Nast Traveler magazine has a feature article about Brooklyn’s literary scene: “All great cities have their defining tribes, whose mores and tastes permeate the urban landscape. Los Angeles has its movie people, Paris has its fashion designers–and New York Has always had its writers. Boris Kachka maps their new stomping ground.”

In a related feature of the article, there’s a slideshow of “Brooklyn Writers’ Favorite Local Haunts“. A few of Dumbo’s bookstores pictured – powerhouse Books (37 Main St), P.S. Bookshop (76 Front St), and Melville House (145 Plymouth St).

On Dumbo, Author Boris Kachka writes:

“The death of publishing is lamented right alongside the death of the literary party, and in that arena, too, Brooklyn (particularly DUMBO, the neighborhood just east of the Brooklyn Bridge) is proving the naysayers wrong. A couple of upstart book publishers have bookstores at ground level—in the tradition of bygone spots like Scribner’s in Manhattan. PowerHouse Arena is a lofty and beautiful gallery/bookstore as well as a publisher (37 Main St.; 718-666-3049), and tiny Melville House has a little storefront—possibly the only shop in New York devoted exclusively to independent presses (145 Plymouth St.; 718-722-9204). P.S. Bookshop isn’t affiliated with a publisher but offers one of the borough’s most comprehensive selections of used books—in a new, larger location—and is definitely worth a lengthy browse (76 Front St.; 718-222-3340).”

Check out the article for more on the literary scene in Brooklyn.

[UPDATE: There was a private opening party last night, and a sign on the door says the store will open next week.]

The paper on the windows of the One Girl Cookies – Dumbo location was removed this morning (at the 1 Main Street building). Peeking inside, the space is looking great with high loft ceilings and open counters.

From the Time Out NY listing:
“Turning Dumbo’s Water Street into Sugar Row, this 32-seat bakeshop—a spin-off of the Cobble Hill original—joins pastry standouts Almondine and Jacques Torres on the block. Wife-and-husband team Dawn Casale and David Crofton turn out homestyle treats, like whoopie pies, cupcakes and sandwich cookies.”

One Girl Cookies (onegirlcookies.com/dumbo)
33 Main St (at Water St) Dumbo, Brooklyn NY 11201
Mon–Fri 7am–6pm; Sat, Sun 9am–6pm

Previously: {One Girl Cookies Opening in Dumbo, 02Sep2011}

From time to time we get complaints about Dumbo in our inbox. And by time to time, we mean daily. Some are valid, while others are misdirected anger. Some complaints have been consistent over time (7+ years) and some are new. We normally don’t like to dwell on negatives, but maybe something good can come from listing these. Here are a few choice quotes (emailed to us or as a comment on this website) grouped by topic and frequency in the past month or so.

1. Building alarms: “Any idea what’s going on with the middle of the night alarms being set off? Saw a light flashing at 2:45am in front of Foragers. This has been going on every night for weeks.” (email)
2. Filming in Dumbo: “There should be a balance here that simply does not exist. We are not just a back lot for film crews to use for free- we are a living, breathing, neighborhood that do not need these shoots invading our space.” (source)
3. Lunch/Dining options: “Please Please bring us some more decent food options. Landlords, let the food and beverage establishments come in, they will only make your properties more valuable and your tenants happier!” (source)
4. Gentrification: “I applied for an apartment at 25 Washington Street for middle income earners, but was sold out. How can one get an apartment in Dumbo that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg?” and “Why are rentals in DUMBO so damn expensive? I can’t find anything under $3000. HELP!” (emails) [Ed: Median price for rentals in Dumbo are nearly $4,300, according to Streeteasy]
5. Parking: “Parking in Dumbo used to be easy, but with construction and yuppies moving in, good luck finding a spot.” (reference) [Ed: This complaint has been consistent over time regardless of construction.]
6. Residential building management: [Ed: All of these are complaints about building management. Rather than naming names, contact your building manager.]
7. Dogs and Kids: “The number of dogs and kids in Dumbo are past the annoying stage. What’s the best building without dogs or kids?” (email) [Ed: Umm, none?]

We also get complaints about this website – “why don’t you feature us? Where’s the article about xyz? Your posts are biased.” As mentioned in the about page, this site is run by one person (not affiliated with real estate, the Dumbo BID or art galleries). “We” can’t do it without the tips and emails from you, but sometimes I cannot answer all emails. Thank you. Also the ads are served on the site to support the community. Ad revenue is recycled back into Dumbo non-profits and organizations. Guest posters are welcome!

We used to get a lot of complaints about the street construction, but once Washington Street and Water Street were completed, the complaints stopped. There are others, but if you have a constructive one that we can bring to attention to local officials, neighborhood groups, or businesses, please comment below.

Are you tired of lugging your laundry to the cleaners, especially during the cold and wet winters and muggy summers? This was the thought that SpotlessCity co-founder Sonny Bajwa had before thinking that there must be an easier way to take care of his laundry errands. So he created SpotlessCity.

SpotlessCity lets people find every dry cleaner and laundromat in their area, and schedule pickups & deliveries from the cleaner of their choice directly through the site. The pickups and deliveries are absolutely free, so customers always pay the same exact amount that they would if they dropped their clothes off at the store themselves. It’s sort of a GrubHub.com or SeamlessWeb.com for your laundry and dry cleaning.

They launched the site a few weeks ago in Dumbo, Brooklyn Heights and Downtown Brooklyn and planning to expand to more neighborhoods throughout NYC soon. We caught up with Sonny recently:

Q: Why did you decide to start in Dumbo/BK Heights?

A: Our company is based in Downtown Brooklyn and our entire team lives in Brooklyn, so we always knew we wanted to launch the service here first. When it came to choosing neighborhoods to start in, Dumbo and Brooklyn Heights were natural choices. Even aside from being the two residential neighborhoods closest to our office, which made them convenient, a number of reasons make them a great launching pad for SpotlessCity.

Dumbo is a very entrepreneurial neighborhood that is full of professionals, which means that there are many residents who need their dry cleaning and laundry done and who are willing to try out new services online. In fact, it’s not only the residents who are entrepreneurial; we found one of our first partner dry cleaners in Dumbo — a very savvy and forward looking cleaner that was excited about being part of something new.

Brooklyn Heights is another great neighborhood with a large number of professionals, but none of the people living in those beautiful brownstones and townhouses have doormen, so they could definitely use our service.

We’re planning to expand further in these neighborhoods and then throughout NYC.

Q: How did SpotlessCity begin?

A: I came up with the idea for SpotlessCity late last year after my wife and I divided up our errands and I got stuck with taking care of the dry cleaning. I noticed pretty quickly that while I was out lugging laundry down the street in the snow, she was able to handle all of her errands — like getting the groceries and ordering dinner — by curling up with her laptop and placing orders online. Naturally, I tried to trade chores, but when she wouldn’t let me, I just kept thinking, “why can’t I do this errand online too?”

I ran the idea by some friends, started doing research and talking to dry cleaners. Pretty soon, we got a team together and raised some seed money. Now we’re proud to welcome everyone to SpotlessCity!

Q: What are the challenges you are or will face in growing SpotlessCity?

A: When trying to launch a lean startup, every day brings new challenges that we have to figure out how to tackle! I’ll share a couple –

First: getting our message across to customers effectively. Explaining our concept has been a little trickier than we thought, perhaps because it’s new. Some people confuse us with “Internet dry cleaners” — companies that have swapped a brick-and-mortar storefront for a website. They’re essentially dry cleaners on the Internet competing with local dry cleaners.

We don’t compete with local dry cleaners, we partner with them. In fact, we don’t actually do any dry cleaning or laundry. We’re more of a SeamlessWeb of dry cleaning and laundry. Our mission is to help local dry cleaners connect with their customers online, and let people choose a dry cleaner and schedule their pickup and delivery online.

Second: communicating with some dry cleaners. Earlier this year, we hit the streets and started talking to dry cleaners to get feedback on our idea and whether it was something they’d be interested in signing up for. We learned pretty quickly that a huge number of New York dry cleaners are originally from Korea and weren’t interested in talking to what they perceived to be door-to-door salesmen (I guess that’s what we looked like!).

After getting the cold shoulder a few times, we stopped and recruited a Korean-American friend to come out with us on our research trip. Before we knew it, he was chatting it up with the dry cleaners in Korean, shaking hands with them, and we got all the feedback we wanted.

Congrats to Sonny and SpotlessCity on their launch. If you want to try out their service, you can get 10% off their dry cleaning and laundry with this code: DumboNYCReaders (valid until 1/31/2012 + pickups & deliveries are ALWAYS free). Also see BrooklynHeightsBlog’s article about them.

Permit # TV-82: Monday, 1/23/2012 between 6am-2am

There is a filming today for a television series for NBC titled “SMASH” in Dumbo today, Monday, January 23, 2012 from 7:00am to 2:00pm.

The following streets are marked for filming:

• Both sides of Plymouth St, between Main St & Washington St
• Both sides of Washington St, between Plymouth St & Front St
• Both sides of Front St, between Dock St & Main St
• North side of Front St, between Main St & Washington St
• East side of York St between Front St & Washington St
• Both sides of Water St, between Dock St & Main St
• Both sides of Main St, between Plymouth St & Water St
• West side of Main St, between Water St & Front St
• South side of Front St, between Washington St & Adams St
• Intersection of Adams St & Front St
• SW Corner of Plymouth St & Adams St

The film crew will be filming driving scenes on Washington St between Plymouth St and Front St.

According to the IMDB summary of SMASH, “There is more drama behind the scenes than on stage, as the team prepares an ambitious Broadway musical on the life of Marilyn Monroe.” SMASH stars Debra Messing, Jack Davenport, and Katharine McPhee.

All filming posts are tagged here: DumboNYC.com/tag/filming

The following are selected links from this past week on blogs and websites with discussion about Dumbo (and its neighboring areas):

• As Baltimore boots its carousel, other cities showcase theirs, 20Jan2012, Balt. Brew
• Dumbo in Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It, 17Jan2012, Complex
• NYU-Poly Opens New Space in MetroTech Center, 20Jan2012, PR
• Brooklyn Bridge Ventures Launches in Dumbo, 17Jan2012, Techcrunch
• Dumbo Incubator (Not Accelerator), 18Jan2012, BK Startup
• Brooklyn Rents Surged in 2011, 17Jan2012, Curbed
• Public Plaza Coming to Flatbush and Fulton, 18Jan2012, Brownstoner
• Old Fulton Street Planned Improvements, 18Jan2012, Brownstoner
• 1 Main St, #6D, $2,787,500, 17Jan2012, BK Paper
• Bachelor Pads, 18Jan2012, Curbed
• 70 Washington St, #2M, $1.675M, 2800sqft, 17Jan2012, Brownstoner
• 5 Story Condo to Replace Brooklyn Heights Cinema, 18Jan2012, NYP
• Brooklyn Is Set for a Building Boom, 16Jan2012, WSJ
• A Seed Fund Grows in Brooklyn, 17Jan2012, @ceonyc

All Photos by Jane Kratochvil (janekratochvil.com)

Though not a secret for Dumbo locals, AlMar has been quietly serving great Italian food since the summer (July/Aug 2011). The owners of AlMar acquired the restaurant space, formerly Dumbo General Store, owned by Anna Castellani, and have been working hard to tailor a menu that customers have grown to love (including us). A few of our favorites include braised boneless beef short rib (moist and melts in your mouth), linguine with mussels, clams, shrimp & cherry tomato (or with lobster when they have it), spinach fettuccine alla bolognese (the meat sauce is full of rich flavors), or any of the roasted fish dishes.

But don’t take our word for it. We asked a few diners there for their favorite dishes. Here’s what they had to say:

• “My favorite dish…it HAS to be Alfredo’s MEATBALLS !! I don’t know what to say except that when I walk into AlMar, I always have to start my meal with an order of the famous meatballs. They are absolutely delicious.”
• “I love the short ribs and polenta. And their crostinis are delicious – one of them has a buffalo ricotta that is out of this world.”
• “I had the duck with cranberry and wine reduction sauce and pureed yams – with a fabulous rosé. Very tasty!”

The name AlMar is derived from a combination of the two owner’s names, Alfredo and Marcello. They come from Noodle Pudding in Brooklyn Heights and were very familiar with the area and had many fans before they moved to Dumbo. We spoke with Marcello:

How did Almar get started?

We had talked about opening up a restaurant for years. Unfortunately, the first opportunity that came up wasn’t successful so when we heard about the space in Dumbo we wanted to make sure we didn’t lose it. From then on we’ve just been working to make AlMar a place where customers feel at home and a place they can come to unwind after a hard day at work or bring their families for brunch on the weekend. After coming up with lots of different names, we finally agreed on just putting our two names together: Alfredo and Marcello. It seems a bit silly, but somehow it just really fits.. a labor of love for the both of us.

How would you describe your cuisine?

It’s definitely straight forward Italian food. We felt Dumbo didn’t really have a place that embodied the idea of fresh ingredients, comfortable environment, and just good solid food.

Now that you’ve taken over the space for several months, how have customers reacted to your food?

For the most part the reactions have been extremely positive. We have people say, “I hope you guys don’t leave” and “Dumbo really needed a place like this.” And of course those comments mean a great deal to us.

What do you like about Dumbo?

The locals by far. This neighborhood is filled with wonderful people who work hard and enjoy spending time with their family and friends.

AlMar also provides a full catering service to businesses and homes in the area and their dining area can be rented for events. Check it out and tell Marcello DumboNYC sent you!

All Photos by Jane Kratochvil (janekratochvil.com).

Hours:
Mon-Thu 8:00am-10:30pm
Fri 8:00am-11:00pm
Sat 9:00am-11:00pm
Sun 10:00am-5:00pm

AlMar (almardumbo.com)
111 Front Street, Brooklyn NY 11201
Tel: 718-855-5288
Email: almardumbo@gmail.com

The following is a guest post by NYU Business and Economic Reporting Graduate student Yuyu Chen on Dumbo’s history and the current food and restaurant market. It was originally posted on her blog:

A woman from New Jersey was crying outside 25 Jay Street, Dumbo. “My grandfather used to work for Arbuckle Coffee Traders. I feel as if he came back when I saw you roasting coffee here” she sobbed in front of Michael Pollack, partner and home coffee roaster of Brooklyn Roasting Company (BRC) located at the ground floor of the former Arbuckle Building. For the woman, BRC feels like a connection to her grandfather and a way to keep his memory alive. For Pollack, it is a beautiful coincidence.

“We chose [the location] due to the cheap 5-story space, but we didn’t realize it was Arbuckle Brothers Company, the largest coffee manufacturer in the U.S. during 1890s.” Pollack laughed, taking three Arbuckle Brothers antique coffee cans out of the shelf.

Vintage coffee and sugar bottles can be found in many buildings in DUMBO, reflecting its history as the home of New York City’s largest coffee maker, sugar refinery and other manufacturing businesses in the early 20th century.

“Next on the river front are store yards, Arbuckle’s immense coffee and spices warehouses, and behind them, Taylor’s founding and engine works. Bliss’ immense press and die works…” L.P. Brockett wrote in the book History of Kings County and the City of Brooklyn. Located “Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass”, the pier offers beautiful skyline of Manhattan and is very accessible to the heart of New York City.

DUMBO’s industrial prominence and waterfront location drew David Walentas, the founder and principal of Two Trees Management Co. LLC (Two Trees) to buy two million square feet in 1980s, at a price of about $6 a square foot. In respose to Brooklyn’s transformation, Two Trees, who owns a majority of property in DUMBO has converted some of old factories and warehouses into modern offices, luxurious condos and lofts. The neighborhood’s spectacular views, the large spaces and favorable rental rates have drawn hoards of young entrepreneurs and artists. With the influx of creative spirits, DUMBO is recognized as a paradise of creativity.

However, DUMBO is mediocre when it comes to food. “Given the number of people here, DUMBO needs more food options.” Pollack said. Nevertheless his “coffee lab” is a success there.

“When I want something to eat in the daytime, I have to go outside of my neighborhood to get something interesting.” Brad Macdonald who has been living in DUMBO for more than two years said with a disappointed frown. Unsatisfied with plain food, this Executive Chef of Colonie plans to set up another business in DUMBO.

Like Chef Macdonald, restaurateurs are encouraged by the emerging community’s lack of culinary delights, squeezing into this compact neighborhood with a hope to fill the void in dining.

“The retail market in DUMBO is in high demand. We probably receive three to four interests a day, the majority of who are restaurateurs.” Alexander Bos said, Leasing Department Assistant from Two Trees Management Co. LLC.

Read the rest of this entry »

Episode 9: Sarah Walko (www.sarahwalko.com and triangleworkshop.org)
Directed by David Castillo
Produced by Blue Barn Pictures, Inc. for DumboNYC on vimeo

In this episode of Crossing Dumbo, Blue Barn Pictures interviews Dumbo based artist Sarah Walko, artist and Executive Director of Triangle Arts Association. She was awarded a scholarship during graduate school, and as part of it, she took an internship at Triagle. “The focus of Triangle is about process and experimentation over product. The emphasis is not on what is the actual thing that comes out of that but it’s about the entire journey. All of that together under one umbrella is art.” Isn’t the journey what life is about?

Crossing Dumbo, a web series of video portraits of artists, entrepreneurs and residents in Dumbo Brooklyn. This is a collaboration between DumboNYC and our talented friends over at Blue Barn Pictures. Different directors from Blue Barn Pictures, a creative content agency, bring their own approach to each interview to create a distinct profile of the person being interviewed and place them within the Dumbo community. Blue Barn Pictures truly love what they do and support the community in a positive way, and for that we’re grateful to have them be a part of Dumbo.

{DumboNYC.com/category/crossing-dumbo/}

The following are selected links from this past week on blogs and websites with discussion about Dumbo (and its neighboring areas):

• 189 Bridge St, $6.8MM, 5100sqft, 12Jan2012, WSJ
• One Girl Cookie Story, 15Jan2012, NYDN
• Designing Brooklyn’s Future, 09Jan2012, WSJ
• Vinegar Hill Rental Prices up 27% from Q3 to Q4, 10Jan2012, Curbed
• Walentas’ Clock Tower bachelor pad, 13Jan2012, TRD
• Farragut Homes Man Allegedly Kills Friend In Knife Fight, 08Jan2012, NY1
• Friendly “Play-Fight” Turns Fatal In Farragut Houses, 09Jan2012, Gothamist
• Keri Russell and Baby Visit Dumbo, 09Jan2012, Celebuzz
• Dumbo’s Clocktower Penthouse Now Asking a Mere $19M, 10Jan2012, Brownstoner
• Situ Studio, a Dumbo based design and fabrication firm, 10Jan2012, NYO
• Metaverse Mod Squad Adds Jon Paul Buchmeyer, Vice President, Digital Engagement, 11Jan2012, PR
• Brooklyn Heights Cinema to be demolished(?), 11Jan2012, BK Paper
• Brooklyn Heights Cinema Owner Kenn Lowy Responds to Possible Closing, 13Jan2012, BHB
• Brooklyn Heights Cinema Could Be Razed, 13Jan2012, LMag