Dekalb Market - As If There's Not Enough Going On

Good golly miss Molly there's been a drought of posts here. Sorry you 30 readers of this miniscule blog!

Dekalb Market, somehow sandwiched along Flatbush between Willoughby and Fulton, will be opening July 23rd. What is it you ask? Shipping containers. It's full-sized Legos. With stuff inside.

As City Point is starting to finally move along and Willoughby Park at Albee Square shows signs of life with blinding colors and labor protests that have died down since a few weeks ago - Dekalb Market is looking to bring a stable of food, retail, and more to the area. Just in a really odd way. From the minds of Urban Space - it's another market that Brooklyn seems to be really enamored with these days. At least they'll have pickles right?

In other news, Brownstoner reports that a Gap....outlet will be coming to the Fulton Mall. The only Gap I like is a Gap outlet. You know why? Wanna guess? The gap in prices that's what. I wonder if the Gap was like, "Fulton Mall, let's go there and start small...with an outlet".

Shake Shack is finally getting started - the gut renovation of the pizza joint on the corner visibly began this week - and if it's anything like the Times Square one - this thing is going to be nasty flashy. I wonder if Wendy's and Burger King are going to fall on tough times. Not that I think Shake Shack is that great....

All the ellipses are due to it being the morning...random thoughts float by...

Speaking of Gaps:

Where's the Beef? Burger Joints Running Wild in Downtown Brooklyn/Cobble Hill

Today was the 5th Ave Park Slope street fare filled with the typical attitudes including beer, sterling silver jewelry, calzones, crepes, and stroller mania. Blue Ribbon was doing sushi outdoors which was uber tempting.

I had a wonderful smoked brisket sandwich with some chipotle cream sauce, greasy good. As we ended our loopy walk, we passed by the new Five Guys location right in the Metrotech. It seems like they've realized that this is becoming a residential area as it's open on the weekend and doing good business it seems. To me it's really exciting to have food options north of the Fulton Mall; not that there aren't any (fried fish and souvlaki are available on Saturday) but especially on lazy Sundays it's a welcome change for me (I can still do without the Aeropostale and the idea of redoing the mall, but the Arby's was a good try, everybody loves food).

Of course, with the new Five Guys in Cobble Hill, it's like a Five Guys party since there's one on Montague. I have a feeling this is overload, but Metrotech could use an established franchise that's good.

However, it's not just Five Guys. We have the new Shake Shack coming to Fulton Mall. Moo Burger opened up on Court. There's another burger joint on Atlantic by the Brazen Head that's getting going. Heading into Carroll Gardens you have Dubuque and I'm pretty sure there's even another new restaurant specializing in bun/patty/bun on Court or Smith. I can smell it. Atlantic's also got Jake's Way Back burgers and I just really can't wrap my head around it right now. Oh and all this about Smash Burger opening up multiple locations in Brooklyn. When has Denver been highly anticipated in Brooklyn?

Checkers across the street from the Court Street United Artists. JB Burger I think opened up not that long ago right on Smith. Am I saying this is the pinnacle of burger heaven such as the highly respected 67 Burger in Fort Greene? No, but the choices of stuffing your face with ground meat is getting beyond tempting.

Maybe this summer we'll have to see who has the best fries in the neighborhood as well; if there was only a place that did Belgian-style fries on the regular...

Photo from the Brooklyn Paper...Five Guys has a littany of toppings, unlike Shake Shack. And they overload on the fries. It's too good.

Metrotech BID: Getting Trendy With The Facebookz and Handy Shopping Guide

Shopping in Downtown Brooklyn is down and dirty (at least for now). One would never think that there would be enough to warrant a nice sheen when it comes to a little press and marketing; the charm is that it's a microcosm that isn't neatly packaged.

However, surprisingly the Metrotech BID, who is trying to champion the neighborhood that alternately is the hottest neighborhood in Brooklyn and one of those areas where nobody knows really where/what it is, has fashioned a sort of organized flow chart for the holiday season. So if you know you can get your family something at Macy's or Jimmy Jazz, or any sneakers to speak of, maybe you'll take a look and enter the Holidays in the Heart of Brooklyn sweepstakes. This includes 2 nights in the Sheraton awkwardly situated among scaffolding currently; dinner at Morton's (which is the kicker for me), and a nice discount at the TKTS.

So the microsite is nice and the Facebook page is really well done considering it just started and they invested into a little creative work and some decent messaging/copy even with only 92 likes. You enter the sweepstakes on Facebook (although Wildfire's application can be used on the microsite as well but they chose to funnel traffic I'm guessing) and take a look at their shopping guide.


Two things about this guide: one, it's nice that all the local businesses I see are getting holiday cheery with small discounts across the board, whether dining, apparel, etc.

The other thing is though; how do we ask for the discount? Do we just print out the section where they are listed? Do half of these businesses know they are doing discounts? It's not like Tanger outlets or Woodbury Commons where everything is name brand and part of a larger real estate structure. I know that's what this shopping guide is supposed to do, organize into a bigger marketing picture, but I'm just a little skeptical that I'm actually going to get "10%" at Jack's Barber Shop down the street. 10% of what? 10% of a haircut? 10% of the barber's mind?

Exciting stuff but not quite there yet. Although I did 'like' the Facebook page and would love to see it develop from a good digital strategy. Until then, there's always the scrappy Downtown Brooklyn Facebook page...



and Solange's pretty awesome cover:

Taino Soleil Replaced by Downtown Ale House: Iiiiinteresting

Downtown Ale House has taken over the former spot of Taino Soleil and this is good news for DoBrah folks who still feel like they need just a little extra something to get their options flowing. I see a new nabe spot although Taino Soleil had a spirit all its own.

So here we go, there's a slightly full range of scrumptious food including 3o cent Sunday wings and reasonably priced apps and burgers. An ale house should mean some selection which it does have currently listed on the site. There is plenty of space and some TVs leftover from the previous incarnation so I see a bright future ahead with sports involved maybe. Anywho, the space is needed to help build some sort of nightlife surrounding the Fulton Mall. This plus the Shake Shack, although miles away in terms of hype, constitutes some place for people to go and eat or drink after hours and should draw some attention due to the proximity to an important piece of real estate in the area. The actual block this is on isn't the best but it's a good space and from the photos it seems like they were able to put a lot of materials from Taino to use.

I will definitely stop by at some point! Oh did I mention Tuesday Karaoke? Tuesdays are always the new Thursdays...

Metrotech Chillaxes on the Security, Now Allowing City Busing Plus Other Newsies

Conan is better than ever by the way, or if you want SEO-optimized I guess I should say Conan is the funniest late night show on TV.

Nope that dog run for Downtown Brooklyn might not get going until there's a little more oomph in the petitions, however, ever since the Metrotech here in Downtown Brooklyn decided to open up to vehicles (if there was a hospital in there and your wife was going into labor they STILL probably wouldn't let you in) I'm curious to see how traffic patterns will change.

The B54 bus that bobs and shakes to Ridgewood in Queens but also travels down Myrtle will be cutting across the Metrotech Center, part of a diversion and also part of a future revamped Jay Street-Borough Hall subway station. You know, because the areas a changin'.

What's awesome is that there is so much good stuff happening on Dekalb and Myrtle in general. I could cross over Flatbush in about 3 minutes but it's pretty awesome to add yet another transportation arm; it's what makes this area really fantastic, given we have all the subway lines except 3 (not including shuttles) and a gazillion buses at Fulton.

In more news, Filene's Basement is coming to the Fulton Mall, as well as a long-awaited Shake Shack. All that hubbub over the changes is definitely starting to come to pass. CityPoint is setting up shop online with a new One Dekalb retail center (in the old Albee Square about two blocks away), which actually will be close enough to the point where the quiet blocks of the Metrotech are probably going away over the next couple of years.

That was the most interesting thing about the B54, starting to see more traffic through the Metrotech, I gotta make sure I look both ways again. It was nice to have a super quiet block, serene next to the mall. It's still quiet for sure, but I definitely want to not only see the changes, but feel them as well.