Parkwanus-Sized Drama at The Pines?

Photo via The Pines Facebook page

LONG LIVE PARKWANUS! A mere twenty days ago, The Pines, Parkwanus’ rustically kooky Italian-Asianish restaurant became the neighborhood's first restaurant to receive a starred review from The NY Times' Pete Wells. While they did only receive one star, Wells noted that they seemed to be improving over time, comparing them to the 70's band Television...who apparently sucked for a bunch before they became awesome.

Then this past Friday, word got out that The Pines' head chef Angelo Romano was leaving the restaurant on Friday the 13th. BUT WHA??? Leaving so soon after a NY Times review? It's not like it was that bad of a review. I mean, it paled in comparison to when The Times' Sam Sifton dropped a zero-star "fair" rating on Eddie Huang's Xiao Ye, which closed a month-and-a-half later after one too many Four Loko-related raids.

So WHAT COULD IT BE?

Click to read more ...

We're ready for you Anne Hathaway!

Image Via Business Insider

So reportedly, Anne Hathaway is selling her existing $4.5 million dollar Brooklyn pad and is looking to relocate to another BK locale. We here at FIPS need more celebrity material (sorry Patrick, Steve, Maggie, and Peter), so Anne, here are 5 reasons for you to consider Park Slope your next hood.

Click to read more ...

FiPS Juicy: Best Stories of the Week

In case you spent all week trying to see the sex in Alyssa Milano's sex tape, here's a round-up of juicy FIPS news that graced the pages of our blog this week:

* Smile for the secuirty camera(s)!

* Oh to live on Carroll Street!

* Brooklyn under Iowa invasion

* ICYMI: Uniqlo opening next month at Atlantic Center

* What You Should Order At: Little Purity

Chutzpah: A new short movie about Anthony Weiner

Still undecided about who wil get your vote in the NYC mayoral primary next week? Here's a "short real" from Stateless Media about Park Slope's prodigal candidate, Anthony Weiner. What do you think? Do you like him more or less after watching this?

Park Slope Taxi Tales, Part Three

Image via Flickr/JGNYThis is the third and final installment of a three-part series on my time driving a taxi out of the garage on 4th Avenue in Park Slope. READ PART ONE HERE and PART TWO HERE.

When you tell people you drove a cab for six months, they all pretty much want to know the same things. Here's a rundown of the most frequently asked questions (I promise I won’t mention urinating this time):

1)     How much of the fare do you get to keep? All of it. Most guys lease the car for 12 hour shifts. So you pay one big fee at the beginning or end of day. Roughly $100. Then anything you make in the car is yours.

2)     How much money a day do you make? Cab drivers hate this question. It varies wildly. You could make up to $200 profit on your day. The number could be a lot lower though. I made $50 one day. That’s $4 an hour.

3)     What’s the deal with medallions? Every NYC Taxi yellow cab needs a medallion in the hood. People own these medallions. Sometimes actual drivers. However, they are worth over a million dollars now. So they are usually part of large fleets. 11,000 were issued in the 1930’s and that number didn’t change until 2004. When a car breaks down the medallion is taken out and put in a new one.

4)     Why don’t cars go to Brooklyn? Cars don’t go to outer boroughs for three reasons. First, they aren’t as densely populated as Manhattan. So it’s harder to find a new fare. Second, the lower income neighborhoods are in the outer boroughs. They generally don’t tip as well or sometimes at all. Finally, almost all violence against cab drivers happen in the outer boroughs. There is a neighborhood in the Bronx they tell you in taxi school never to go to. “It’s not worth dying over.”

Click to read more ...