I Hope Nothing's Fishy With This Pickle, Dog.

Once upon a time, in a mystical, magical land called Park Slope, craft beer was kinda Yeti-like. There was The Gate. There was Bierkraft. There was...well...pretty much nothing else. These days in the area around the Slope, there are plenty of places to grab a craft beer or two or six. That's great and all, but when it comes to bars, it's often the same beers over and over again: A Sixpoint on tap. A Brooklyn Brewery beer on tap. Perhaps a Founders or a Victory. MAYBE one unique beer...not usually though...

...and at the same time, throughout the NYC’s twee-est borough, the artisanal food & drink movement has been booming. Just ask The NY Times...and ask them again...and then ask them one more time, because they really have a lot to say on the subject.

Did you hear that pickles are in? It's true! I'm not jus' talkin' bout yer annual LES Pickle Fest. I'm not jus' talkin' about Gus's or even Brooklyn's own The Pickle Guys. I'm talking pickle-producing, up-and-coming whippersnappers. Brooklyn's McClure's Pickles has been making a name for themselves for a few years now. Thirty-something Shamus Jones, of Brooklyn Brine, has gone from making pickles and selling them in dark alleys to making pickles and selling them out of a Parkwanus storefront.

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MY FAVORITE PARK SLOPE: PLACE TO WORK AT, THEN DRINK AT

Finding the perfect Park Slope coffee shop to work in is work itself.  Upon moving here, I first tried Root Hill, which boasts the best coffee in the Slope (in my haughty opinion). But those cold plastic chairs can really only comfortably sit an elf on the shelf. And so the search continued.

I've since learned  that I'd never find everything I was looking for in one coffee shop: bold coffee, yummy food, ample comfy seating, hot baristas, plentiful sockets... but one place comes close: Tea Lounge. When it comes to coffee shops, I'm a bit of a size queen. I crave anonymity in these settings, and find the intimacy of Cafe Grumpy, De Luxe, Postmark... hell, any other coffee shop except Tea Lounge, to be insufferable.  I want to blend in witha sea of deadpan stares and bloodshot eyes hovering over glowing apples. I want to sink into some big old honkin' couch that is bad for my back, but I don't give a shit because *damn* I could fall asleep right now. I also want a place where I can nibble on more than some gourmet scone (the grub here is pretty good, especially their salads: mix pix with grilled chicken is the way to go.)

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Greenwood Park Beer Hall VS. Die Koelner Bierhalle

With the U.S. Oktoberfest season getting underway, it's high time for you to get thee asses to a large gathering of drunk people & hoist up a stein in celebration of the harvest, or whatever the hell it is that Oktoberfest is supposed to commemorate.

For the proper Oktoberfest feel, you obviously have to get yourself to a beer garden or beer hall, right? Which one though? That is the question here in Park Slope.

First came Greenwood Park, a beer garden that opened its doors in the shadow of Greenwood Cemetery last June. Then in early August, Park Slope became home to another beer haven when Die Koelner Bierhalle opened for business on St. Marks near the corner of 4th Ave. 

So, which one has the upper hand?

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Brooklyn Brewery Brews a Beer For Lewis Skolnick

Photo via Brooklyn Brewery

Nerds sure do know how to party! Other than the scene where the Tri-Lambs perform that sweetass musical number in the first Revenge of the Nerds film, my fave scenes in the Nerds saga are the ones when the Tri-Lambs throw bitchin' parties where everyone gets wasted, Booger chases the babes around & we all have a hearty chuckle at the nerds' collective shenanigans.

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Get Some Beer For Your Board Games!

This past weekend, a Park Sloper hosted a BBQ with TONS of beer. She must be nursing one hell of a hangover this week (either that, or she's a wine drinker), because she doesn't want ANY of the leftover brew from the party. In fact, she wants to share it with all of you. She doesn't want cash for it. That would be silly. But she does want your unwanted board games.

Via Craigslist, Katie has posted a request for Apples to Apples, Taboo, or any other board game in good condition, and in return will give you some of her post-BBQ beer. Kind of a strange request, but if you've got Life, Risk or Girl Talk just collecting dust in a closet somewhere, it's kind of a nice trade-off.

Here's what she's got stashed:

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