After 15 months of living in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, I'm moving onwards and upwards (literally, to the Upper West Side). There are many things I won't miss about Bed-Stuy (such as a long commute on the
notoriously dysfunctional A/C/E trains and chicken wing bones littering the sidewalk), but I must say that I have grown to appreciate a great many things about the neighborhood. Here are a few things I will miss:
Eating at Ms. Dahlia's Cafe
A small cafe with green chair pillows and pink ceilings provides a welcome bit of charm and flavor to the Bed-Stuy neighborhood. Ms. Dahlia's is more homey than hipster, more old-school than new-school, and more flavor than charm (though it is quite charming). I watched this small, women-owned-business grow during my time in Brooklyn, undergoing reconstruction to accommodate its rapidly growing popularity. Ms. Dahlia specializes in home-made biscuits and breakfast: turkey bacon, heavy biscuits with flaky outsides and warm insides, and eggs any style. Throw on some gravy if you'd like--you'll die of a heart attack with a smile affixed to your face.
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| Ms. Dahlia's Cafe |
Proximity to Prospect Park
About a mile and a half from my apartment was largest park in Brooklyn. On Sunday mornings there's an off-leash dog run, so a few times I would go with my roommate, Leeann, and her beautiful dog, Nala, to congregate with the pooches of Prospect. I've never seen so much joy! Dogs by the dozens sprinted the length of the park, playing with each other, catching Frisbees, and making friends with the wobbly toddlers who came out to play.
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| Pooped pups at Prospect |
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| Flowering tree at Prospect Park |
Sans puppy, I could get to Prospect park in about 15 minutes by taking the shuttle from Franklin. There are a few running loops around the park, so on the weekend I might go solo or meet up with a friend who lived on the other side of Prospect to get some outdoor exercise.
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| Stained-glass windows at the Fulton Shuttle stop |
Eating Dough Doughnuts
My first 15 minute walk to go try
Dough's doughnuts for the first time was something like a food pilgrimage. Since then, I have re-experienced the joy at both the Brooklyn Flea Market as well as the
Corner Grind coffee shop down the block from my apartment. Luckily, these massive doughnuts in all their creative flavors can now be found in Manhattan! (Check out their shop in Flatiron at 14 W 19th Street.)
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| Dough Doughnuts. Can you eat just one? |
Brooklyn Flea
In typical hipster stereotype, the Brooklyn Flea market contains used/vintage/antique artifacts and all manner of craft--from craft foods and beverages to hand-crafted home goods. The open-air summer flea market is a fun way to spend a lazy weekend. On an icy day during the winter, instead of going stir-crazy inside, I slid over to the Brooklyn flea's indoor venue to poke around maze of vendors.
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| Brooklyn Flea finds |
Indulging at Traif
While I can't say my apartment was "close" to
Traif at the edge of Williamsburg, it was far more accessible than it will be at my new locale. This was the restaurant at which my two roommates and I celebrated moving in together. Leeann, with whom I'd lived previously, and I tried to take a bus to the restaurant to meet up with our new and wonderful addition, Elle, at the restaurant. Leeann and I got lost and ended up in an Orthodox sea of black coats and tall black hats. We knew it wouldn't exactly be 'Kosher' of us to ask any of the locals to please point us toward the restaurant Traif, so we had to find our footing on our own. The food would have made wandering in the desert for 40 years worth it.
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| Bacon-topped glazed doughnuts at Traif |
Ordering Pearl Indian
On one of my last days in Bed-Stuy my roommate and I went to a pizza joint (
Barboncino--pretty great pizza!) about 10 minutes away from our apartment, and we passed the Pearl Indian restaurant by chance. Despite living in the area for over a year and ordering Pearl Indian food for just about as long, I had never seen their storefront. Nevertheless, if you were to look at my
Seamless history, you would see nothing but orders from Pearl. We found this to be a reliable, delicious, and fairly inexpensive staple for any and all occasions in which we had neither the time nor the energy to cook for ourselves. Italian food is too easy to make at home to order in, Mexican food and burgers can get soggy, and Bed-Stuy offered little in the way of Chinese or other reliable Asian cuisines. But Pearl had our backs--and filled our stomachs--for over a year.
M and M Community Laundry
My building did not contain a laundry facility, and a busy schedule made laundromats an ineffective use of time. After a disastrous first laundry experience at the wash-and-fold place across the street from me, I vowed to find something better. Again, I had never even seen their storefront, but they picked up my laundry, washed and folded it, and delivered it back to me in a timely fashion. For $20--tip included--I was able to wash what would have been 2-3 loads of laundry in the tiny machines supplied by residential doorman buildings. Nearing the end of my stay, the folks over at M&M even knew my personal preferences (cold water only).
Cheng's Market
Cheng's freshness and proximity (on Fulton and Arlington Place) made it a valuable convenience. The little market contained fruits and veggies as well as stock items, such as canned goods, baking essentials, pastas, milk, eggs, and other items we could run down and grab in our pajamas if we ran out preparing a Sunday morning breakfast.