Photo (c) Valery Rizzo
This week’s picks! (Obviously, the Great GoogaMooga festival is the talk of the town, but tickets sold out for the Prospect Park food blowout weeks ago.)
Rockaway Beach Club Opens for Summer
The seaside food playground that made its welcome debut last year is back and ready to satisfy your beach picnic needs all summer long. Old favorites like Motorboat & the Big Banana, DiCosmo’s Italian Ice and Rockaway Taco will be returning, and you’ll also see some new faces. Check out the website for updates.
Saturday, May 19 at Rockaway Beach Boardwalk between 74th and 106th Sts, Rockaway (Queens)
DIG Dining Series
Hanson Dry hosts the latest installment of its intimate supper club, a monthly affair that features ingredients from local purveyors, with food by chef Nahvae Frost and cocktails by owner Christopher Buckley. Saturday’s three-course menu includes a salad of sweet peas, fennel, asparagus and a poached egg; and steak with gremolata and farro, plus beer, wine and specialty cocktails to pair with the grub. Check out the full menu and get tickets here.
Saturday March 24 from 2 to 5pm at Hanson Dry, 925 Fulton St between Clinton and Waverly Aves (Clinton Hill). $60.
Roberta’s Lamb Garden Dinner
Roberta’s kicks off a monthly summer dinner series with a five-course feast. The menu highlights lamb with dishes like fried lamb tongue and watercress, lamb shank with purgatory beans, and spit-roasted leg of lamb, plus wine and beer to accompany the meal. Check out the full menu and get tickets here, and stay tuned for upcoming dinners: frutti de mare (June), goat (July), and pig (August).
Monday, May 21 from 7 to 10pm at Roberta’s 261 Moore St at Bogart St (Bushwick). $95.
Hayseed’s DIY Workshops: Backyard Livestock101
For a crash course in the other side of the urban farming coin—the fauna to your garden’s flora—head to this class with Hayseed’s Big City Farm Supply. You’ll learn the basics of raising chickens and rabbits and how they can manage insects, fertilize soil, produce eggs and meat, or make great pets. Students will each receive a copy of either Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens or Storey’s Guide to Raising Rabbits to help get started at home .Get tickets here.
Tuesday, May 22 from 10am to 12pm at Hayseed’s Big City Farm Supply
Memorial Day Grilling Sausages
Scott Bridi of Brooklyn Cured gets you ready for the official start of summer at this tutorial on grillworthy sausages. You’ll get a hands-on lesson in making beef kielbasa, chicken chorizo, and one more surprise recipe. Afterward, you’ll get to sample the sausages you make, paired with craft brews from host 61 Local. Get tickets here.
Tuesday, May 22 from 7 to 10pm at 61 Local, 61 Bergen St between Court and Smith Sts (Cobble Hill). $45.
New York City Brewers Guild Founders Bash
Help welcome this brand-new organization, dedicated to the production (and appreciation) of locally brewed beer. The inaugural event features hard-to-find and special beers from guild breweries, including Sixpoint, Kelso, and Brooklyn Brewery. Admission includes a commemorative tasting glass, unlimited samples, snacks from Eataly and 508 Gastrobrewery, and for an additional $50, you can sign up for NYCBG membership, which grants you access to exclusive events, brewery tours and more. Get tickets here.
Tuesday, May 22 from 7 to 10pm at Brooklyn Brewery, 79 N 11th St between Berry St and Wythe Ave (Williamsburg). $75.
The Great Pinch Tail, Suck Head Event
Crustacean enthusiasts, rejoice: Brooklyn Brewery and Edible Brooklyn are here to make all your crawfish-devouring dreams a reality. Nick Suarez and Theo Peck of The Food Experiments will be serving up an old-fashioned crawfish boil, with all-you-can-eat corn, potatoes, and of course, crawfish, perfectly paired with bottomless Brooklyn beers, including warm-weather favorites Summer Ale and EIPA. Read more and get tickets here.
Wednesday, May 23 from 6 to 9pm at Brooklyn Brewery, 79 N 11th St between Berry St and Wythe Ave (Williamsburg). $40.
“On Evan’s very first brew day here, he got heatstroke.” -Craig Frymark Simply put, local upstart Barrier Brewing is killing it. The year-old, two-man operation has already made a name for itself by brewing an impressive variety of notably well-crafted beers on a tiny single-barrel brewing system, out of a small garage-like space in Oceanside, New York. Evan [...]
Christopher Nicholson’s day job is interesting enough. His daily commute takes him from his Greenpoint home to the Red Hook harborfront, where he’s a winemaker at the Red Hook Winery , shepherding Long Island and Finger Lakes grapes through the long and complex journey from vine to barrel to bottle. But his other work may be even [...]
A mere stone’s throw from bustling Flatbush Avenue, on the charming residential Carlton Ave, lies the restaurant 
Sycamore Flower Shop & Bar in Ditmas Park is like an oasis in a dream. Stumbling into Ditmas after passing through the surrounding city’s dense canyons of brownstone, brick and concrete leaves many first time visitors awestruck, as they’re greeted by block after block of big Victorian houses, sprawling lawns, wraparound porches and quiet tree-lined [...]
by Jacque Lynn Schiller The Clover Club in Cobble Hill is, if anything, gorgeous: rich wood, tin ceilings, chandeliers… But don’t let the opulence intimidate. The bar staff is friendly and know their old time cocktails. And someone in the kitchen, Executive Chef Craig Rivard to be exact, knows his bar snacks. We melted into one [...]
By Leda Meredith Two delicious vegetables plus several kinds of herbal medicine from one plant: what’s not to love? The plant is burdock ( Arctium lappa and A. minus ). One of the two vegetables it produces is in season for only a few weeks, and that season is now. I often say “One person’s weeds are another person’s dinner,” [...]