Exploring Wiliamsburg

Neighboring Bushwick also has its own blog: BushwickBK.com, which keeps residents up-to-date on local news, restaurant and store openings, and so forth.

As far as Williamsburg goes, I not only used to live there but find myself there a lot - judge me if you will, but it is the closest area spilling over with things to do and I can no longer be caught dead in the LES as it has gotten so lame. Hotel Delmano on Barry and N 9th is a really cool bar with delicious drinks where Drew Barrymore and Scarlett Johansson have been known to hang out. Anna Maria's pizza on Bedford between N 7th and 8th offers the best slice in the neighborhood for your after-the-bar eating needs - it always looks packed but the line never lasts too long.

Great! These are just the kinds of things I'd want to know.

I actually wrote a topic on Williamsburg a couple of weeks ago. When I read about Williamsburg, I found the history to be very interesting to read.

If you've never really explored the area, you should just take the L to Bedford and wander down Bedford and the surrounding streets. During the weekends the area is especially crowded with shoppers and restaurant-goers, but there are also a lot of used book and jewelry vendors set up on Bedford. El Almacen is a great Argentinian restaurant on Driggs and N 7th, and Caracas Arepa Bar on Grand between Havemeyer and Roebling is another good one.

Thanks for all the recommendations BroadwayBK I have been to Sea Thai Bistro in Williamsburg quite some time ago but I remember the food being pretty amazing.

Thanks BroadwayBK I want to do a little Williamsburg adventure sometime soon, maybe over the weekend, and I'll write in with results...

Here's a good resource for all you Williamsburgians out there! http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/archives.html Personally, I'm a bigger fan of Morningside Heights and Hell's Kitchen, as far as trendy neighborhoods go, but then again I'm a born and bred Manhattanite who will probably still be muttering about the cool factor of the borough in 100 years when all the artists and hipsters and theatres and galleries have all moved on to Staten Island...

Thanks for the post, ajadedidealist. I appreciate the link. If you look at the topics from about three weeks ago, I created a topic about Williamsburg. You may find the posts there to be very informative.

Here is the original post I created about Williamsburg. http://www.streetadvisor.com/new_york/forums/the-neighborhood-of-williamsburg.

Um, guys? The Free Williamsburg link is exactly the one I posted at the beginning of this thread? At the top? Look again?

@ ajadeidealist Though I am a Manhattan snob in many many ways, I assure you that 1) Morningside Heights is super-lame, and I vouchsafe its long-term lameness by the fact that I have lived there and know the area profoundly, and 2) no art gallery will ever ever ever move to Staten Island (I happen to also be an art snob, in addition to my Manhattan snob credential, and know this fact to be true inside my very bones).

Well, Uraniumfish, you may be right. Then again, you may be wrong. Whose to say. I think that anyone who lives in Staten Island may like to see a gallery there, especially if they are into art.

Freewilliamsburg is a great site. They're pretty spot on with the food reviews (except for the fact that they like Cheers Thai) and they always have great postings on shows and events. All of the stuff by Bedford is great, but I really think that back by Lorimer and Graham is where it's at. Harefield Road anyone . . . ? Come on!

For a long time I never read Freewilliamsburg because I thought it was some sort of weird guide to free stuff, which I thought would be really lame free stuff. But it turns out it is just a cool neighborhood blog - perhaps THE neighborhood blog down there in Billyburg.

@NeverSleeps I admit that's what I first thought about Free Willimasburg too. But then I ended up using it on a few occasions to look things up.

Thanks to Free Williamsburg I just found out my most favorite ice cream company, Van Leeuwen has opened a new location on Manhattan Ave. Man, Willy gets all the goods.

@Uraniumfish While you're in Boerum Hill shopping for a sofa, you should get some ice cream from Blue Marble on Atlantic. It's the best ice cream I've had in all of Brooklyn and maybe even the world.

@NeverSleeps I love that place. Is Boerum Hill the new Williamsburg? Why is that neighborhood so popular among those of us who post on these forums? I think we may be on to something....

Boerum Hill is really beautiful. It's a real neighborhood. But, I dunno about the new Williamsburg. Williamsburg is a lot closer to the city and I don't think the hipster quotient to Willy is anywhere near being threatened.

I was completely being facetious. Something is always being called the new Williamsburg, or the new hipster-ville, but it almost never is. And Boreum Hill is more of a place for an older crowd. I doubt that drunken kids in leggings and bandannas would find much to do there at 3 am.

Ahahahah! Sorry BroadwayBK. Not a ton of sarcasm in these parts so my radar wasn't up. Completely agree. I don't forsee Willy losing it's title to even the LES any time soon. But, man, I would love to see drunkards with leg warmers and PBRs in Boerum Hill at any hour.

@Uraniumfish Did you ever get a chance to do any furniture shopping?

@NeverSleeps I did a first look-see but didn't get to the dirty business of dealing down the prices yet. There's a lot of great stuff on Atlantic, though I didn't see a lot of beds/sofas. I'll need a second look. But wait, wasn't this thread about Willy? @BroadwayBK I think I'm the only one keen on Boerum Hill. Maybe it just seems like a frequently mentioned place because I manage to bring in up in every other post. Okay, I'll try to tone down my enthusiasm a bit. It's just that I've been spending a lot of time there...

The last guy I dated loved that area, and knew it really well. He lived in Crown Heights, but as there isn't much to do there we went on a lot of dates in Boreum Hill. It's nice, and it seems like a quiet place to live. Have you been shopping around for apartments there? I'm curious about the offerings down there.

@BroadwayBk It seems like every other shop on Court Street is a real estate place, so I've been doing a lot of window shopping. You can see rents coming down, even there, where I think the population is fairly solid professional types and the rents tend to stay high. As I probably mentioned, I am monitoring the situation, but won't really be ready for action until the summer.

Whereabouts do you live now (obviously, don't be specific for safety reasons!)? What made you decide to move?

@Uraniumfish I know what you mean about those real estate places with the ads in the windows - it was always just too cold for me to linger too long.

@ajadeidealist I think I'm at the stage of life where I, um, want to expand. Make space for those kind of roommates that are really small at first and hang around for about 18 years. They'll need a room of their own, which I don't currently have in my cramped little place.

Haha, @uraniumfish. Took me a second there to get what you were saying...hilarious! Pity they can't pay you rent though.

They can totally pay your rent if you become a stage parent. Put those babies to work ;)

@JenMac Why didn't I think of that with the kid sooner! All the income we missed out on! Should have had five or ten, and done the whole Jackson family thing...

@JenMAc Oh yeah, that's already in the budget. How do you think I'd afford the extra space anyway? Man, they better turn out cute or else!

@Uraniumfish I bet they will..or at least they will be sassy.. and that's not such a bad thing.:)

I think sassy is a prerequisite to be a child star. @Uraniumfish But be careful as you don't want another Drew Barrymore on your hands!

So, in a fight between the Osmonds, the Partridges, the Bradies, and the Jacksons, who would win? My money's on the Brady Bunch. I bet Marcia is a hair-puller

@ajadedidealist Psh, the Bradys couldn't do nothing! The Jacksons probably learned how to fight from their abusive father, my money's on them.

I love how far these conversations completely diverge from the original topic. What about Williamsburg, people?!

To get it back on Willy: Motorino got another write up on being the best pizza in NYC. It was so crazy busy last night. People were waiting down the block. I mean, it's good pizza but that's one hell of a wait when it's not all that warm outside yet.

For those in the know in Willy: what's a favorite music venue over there? I'm thinking indie shows, in that direction...? I'm asking because there's someone I want to impress and I want to take her out to a the kind of concert that will show her I am a man in the know... Thanks for -- ahem -- helping with this one.

Brooklyn Vegan is a good source for the indie scene. Here's the site's venue map: http://www.brooklynvegan.com/venues/

@JenMac Is that place really that good? It only gets average ratings on Google from local users.

@DBlack: What kind of music did you have in mind?

@JanMac: I wonder if Motorino has a pizza place in Manhattan. It would be awesome to have a really good pizza. I just wouldn't want to travel to Williamsburg to get it. I am not knocking Williamsburg, I am just saying I prefer to go local to get something. Local to me is a block or two away. No more than a half a mile is about as far as I will go to get something to eat, unless someone is really having a very cool special featuring my favorite food. Only then will I go out of my line of sight to get it.