GOLDEN GIRLS VS DESIGNING WOMEN TRIVIA GRUDGE MATCH

So, this is happening.  TrivWorks got together with comedians Eliot Glazer and H. Alan Scott to create the most specific, most AWESOME trivia smackdown in the history of trivia smackdowns.

Yes, it's the Golden Girls Vs. Designing Women Trivia Grudge Match, hosted at The Bell House this Thursday, June 7 at 8pm.  Its mere existence shows that the trivia gods must have observed me for all of these years, wasting hours and hours on the couch, watching The Golden Girls and Designing Women marathons and designing drinking games around them like the pathetic drunk that I am (Drink every time someone says something sassy!). 

Needless to say, I am BEYOND pumped for this (they don't call me Harold Goldstein for nothing), and I needed to share my enthusiasm with other likeminded people.  Namely, the hosts, Eliot Glazer and H. Alan Scott, and Trivworks' own David Jacobson.  They answered questions like which Golden Girl and/or Designing Woman they'd be, and also why the gays can't seem to get enough of these shows.  

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GOOGAMOOGA: WHAT WENT WRONG (AND WHAT WENT RIGHT)

Okaaaaaaaay, everyone.  Googamooga is over, and the consensus (at least on the #googamooga Twitter feed, which is hilarious, by the way) is that it was a giant clusterfuck.  But now that we've all had some time to survey our weird sunburns and bank accounts, let's analyze what actually happened, shall we?

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THE FIPS GUIDE TO WHAT THE HELL YOU SHOULD BRING TO GOOGAMOOGA

Okay, jerks.  Googamooga is TOMORROW and you are probably moderately excited about it, since they’ve been sending us a barrage of daily emails that provide mediocre and confusing updates about who else will be on-hand for the festival. 

Here’s what it comes down to: it’s an all-weekend food fest punctuated with music performances.  If you’re going to be spending hours upon hours in the park, you’re going to want to bring a few creature comforts. 

Like every outdoor festival, Googamooga has a laundry list of shit you can’t bring with you (weapons, fireworks, lawn chairs, drugs).  Please note that you also can’t bring in any instruments of fun, like footballs, boomboxes, and frisbees.  Naturally, since they want you to pay for food and drink, you can’t bring coolers or any outside food. 

So what CAN you bring?  Lucky for you: we've put together a guide to what the hell you can bring with you to Googamooga, with items you can purchase right here in the neighborhood. 

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Fleisher's Gets a Food & Drink Award from TONY

Photo via Time Out New YorkFire up the BBQ's, meatheads—Fleisher's was named "Best Out-of-Town Import" at Time Out New York's Food & Drink Awards this week. 

The upstate original is a mainspring of the artisanal butcher movement (the Meat Hook’s Tom Mylan, among many others, got his start as an apprentice at the shop), and its owners, Joshua and Jessica Applestone, are true snout-to-rump evangelists. But their Brooklyn outpost is less a pulpit than a neighborhood base camp for carnivores, supplying not just gorgeous cuts of raw pasture-raised meats, but also rotisserie chickens, house-made charcuterie and local dairy. In choosing Fleisher’s over scene-courting colts, you’ve made an important point: Buzzy eateries come and go, but a great butcher has real lasting value as a community cornerstone.

Congrats, Fleisher's.  Who wants a burger? 

[BREAKING] More Drama with Casa Ventura

Photo via Park Slope PatchIf you've been following the saga of the old Barrio space, you know that the following events have happened:

1. Barrio closed, promising to open back up under the name Barrio Plates.

2. Barrio Plates was dunzo before it opened.  They promised they would reopen under the name MIX.

3. MIX went bye-bye and new owners came in, promising a new space called Casa Ventura.

Park Slope Patch posted a behind-the-scenes look at the space last week, interviewing new owner Jose Ventura (pictured above) and mentioning his business partnership with local propreitors Avi Kravitz and Courtney Ebner.  Set to open on April 21, Ventura boasted, “This is going to be like no other restaurant in the neighborhood.”

Well, want further proof that this space is doomed? Ventura, Kravitz, and Ebner have officially parted ways. 

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