Brooklyn Heights Blog

While the NYPD and Starbucks have remained mum about Monday’s Starbucks slap that became a viral sensation, new details are emerging about the incident.

According to a tipster, the “Slapper” was a bald man who was not a regular customer at the coffee shop, but was with a regular. Read more »

Yesterday’s post about a Brooklyn Heights Dad being slapped by another patron at the Montague Street Starbucks has gone viral, as we believe is the vernacular. Read more »

This dispatch just in from a BHB tipster claiming that a Brooklyn Heights Dad got a schmack on the head from another patron at the Montague Street Starbucks. Allegedly, the smacker  felt that the smackee was not parenting properly by ignoring his fidgety baby while waiting on a latte.  Do we call it instant justice or is it past the legal limit?  Full eyewitness account after the jump: Read more »

More details are emerging on Montague Street’s upcoming Summer Space program, which begins next Sunday, September 13. The first Sunday, titled the Festival of Nosh, will feature free samples every hour on the hour, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. List of vendors, and a festival map, after the jump. Read more »

I moved to Brooklyn Heights in 2000.  At first, I didn’t like it.  At first, I thought no one liked me.  Now ten years later, I have a coterie of friends, neighbors, haunts, and even dogs I really like— especially, Hamilton, the white bulldog.  Here is my list of the top 5 things I love about my neighborhood, and if you feel inspired, add 5 of your own. Read more »

The Brooklyn Paper’s editorial board is saying “yes” to Two Trees’ controversial Dock Street DUMBO Project. In giving approval for the plan in this week’s edition they write:

What is often forgotten when passions run high is that David Walentas is not a drive-by developer who wants to destroy DUMBO while grabbing a few quick bucks.

He spent the last 30 years, patiently and meticulously, building modern DUMBO from a warehouse district into one of the city’s most-desirable neighborhoods, maintaining its architectural and historic integrity. He still lives on Main Street with his wife, Jane.

He’s made millions, yes, but we hardly think his opponents, many of them well off residents of Brooklyn Heights, want to make the intellectually dishonest argument that risk-taking, responsible investors should be denied a profit.

And lest we forget, all of the buildings that have earned the ire of DUMBO residents and workers — including the ugly Beacon Tower that destroys the view of the Manhattan Bridge and the 33-story J Condo — were the ones NOT built by Walentas.

While Walentas was nurturing arts groups and Mom and Pop stores, someone else brought in the generic Starbucks that DUMBO residents love to hate.

Time and time again, David and Jed Walentas have proven to be responsible stewards of their DUMBO holdings. Their Dock Street project should be approved.

This would be all fine and dandy if the paper hadn’t made such a big deal about its unbiased coverage.   Literally yesterday, Brooklyn Paper publisher Ed Weintrob added a comment to a Dock Street story on its website proclaiming: Read more »

The NY Sun may be gasping its last breath, but that’s not stopping nabe resident/columnist Sandy Ikeda from taking one last swipe at Brooklyn Heights’ infamous restaurant scene:

NY Sun: How Government…: Restaurants in the Heights must cater to the huge lunch-time crowd pouring from those institutions from 1 to 2 p.m. on weekdays because that’s where most of their business comes from. This market demands cheap food served and consumed quickly, not fine meals served expertly and savored slowly. For some reason few places can successfully combine the two. Consequently, few places to get an exceptional dinner.

Thus, on the first block of Montague Street west of the municipal buildings, other than a dozen or so banks, there’s a Chipotle and Eamonn Doran. The former is strictly fast food but the latter is an Irish bar that serves only passable meals at dinnertime. On the next two blocks there’s nothing special: a couple of diners, middling Italian restaurants, and other assorted ethnic places including Turkish, vegetarian Chinese, Thai, two mediocre Japanese restaurants, as well as a Starbucks and a Connecticut Muffin (my “office”). In fact, the only widely acknowledged “nice place” on Montague is Heights Café at the far end of Montague, about as far from Borough Hall as you can get.

Starbucks announced a couple of weeks ago that it would close 600 stores nationwide.  Today the first 50 stores in the dead pool were announced.  While 3 are in New York, the long rumored to close Montague Street branch is not one of them. Yet.

Filming in Brooklyn snapped a few photos of the Gossip Girl shoot on Clark Street today.  Sadly, no sign of our hero Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick… reportedly already inside).  One thing is for sure he wasn’t drinking a steaming cup of Starbucks.  Let’s hope the crew stopped by Tazza.  Got pics from today’s shoot?  Post them to the BHB Photo Club on Flickr. Read more »

Every Sunday for the month of July, between 10am and 5pm, the Montague BID will transform Montague Street into a “pedestrian piazza” — which they stress will NOT be a street fair. Between Clinton Street and Montague Terrace, tables and chairs will be set up in the middle of the street, and the local merchants — such as Korres, Starbucks, Design Within Reach, and I kid you not, Key Food — will peddle their wares and give away swag. La Traviata and Caffe Buon Gusto will have expanded seating areas, and Hair Profiles will offer “al fresco” haircuts!

What about traffic? Read more »