[Review'd]: David's Tea on 7th Avenue

Guys, it's freezing outside, and there are only so many soy lattes you can drink before your eyes stop blinking all together. Luckily, there's a new place in town to warm your cockles with a spot of tea. David's Tea on the corner of 7th Avenue and 4th Street offers a plethora of tea options served hot or cold for $3 flat.

Though there is a place to sit and drink your tea inside the store, David's Tea is really more for enjoying at home. Their meager lounge area leaves much to be desired, like comfy chairs and tasty tea sandwiches. On the plus side though, the corner window view is great for people watching.

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[Review'd] A Tour Grows In Brooklyn (And How I Learned That Al Capone Couldn't Handle Park Slope)

Back when you could paint your brownstone pepto bismol pink / via Gothamist

Think you know everything there is to know about Park Slope? Think again, smart ass. Richard Kadlub, AKA "Big Rick," will gladly prove you wrong on his fantastic walking tour of our hood, adorably dubbed "A Tour Grows in Brooklyn." The three-hour journey begins on the gritty, industrial 4^th avenue, where I can only imagine the visiting Scottish woman in our group was thinking, did I really just travel 3,000 miles to see a car wash and collision shop? 

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[Review'd] Casa Ventura

Some people don't believe in ghosts & curses. Personally, The Blair Witch Project & the face melting scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark really freak my shit out. Tell me a story about how your roommate's friend saw a little girl sitting at the end of his bed one stormy night and I'll get radiating chills up & down my body as I imagine awaking to the same spectral sight.

The folks behind Casa Ventura, the new Latin American restaurant on 7th Ave & 3rd St that opens for dinner tonight in the former Barrio Barrio Plates Mix space, have no need for such supernatural tomfoolery. Sure the space has gone through some rapid changes recently. Sure it seemed like things were a bit askew a few weeks back. After sitting down with Avi Kravitz & Courtney Ebner (two of the partners in the business) and then trying the food last night at their opening event, all signs point to them ending whatever bad mojo had taken over the space.

The story of Casa Ventura starts back in the days of Barrio, when Jose Ventura (Casa Ventura's director of operations & fearless leader) and Devonna Middeleer (his wife) worked there. Avi & Courtney lived just upstairs and would always be in for dinner. After a while they struck up a friendship. Fast forward a few years, when the owner of Barrio offered to sell the place to Jose. He jumped at the opportunity & soon after, the two couples were in business together.

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[Review'd] Sea Witch

When I last lived in the vicinity of Park Slope, it was 2008-2009, and I resided in a 4th floor walkup on 4th Ave & 21st St. As far as stuff worth going to on 5th Ave past 21st street, there was basically nothing until you hit Sunset Park. Since then, the selection of bars and restaurants past 15th has grown & voila! As of this past December, there's finally something worth going to past 21st Street.

I'm speaking of Sea Witch, the bar on 5th Ave between 21st & 22nd Street with a name that evokes the nasty-ass Ursula skank from The Little Mermaid. Since its opening back in December, I've grabbed food and drinks there on a number of occasions, and every time, there've been a good amount of people hanging out in the bar: a crowd but nothing too crazy. A few weeks back, I finally got the chance to sit down with Andy Hawkins, the owner of the place.

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Raps, Ropes, and Boobs: Variety Show Residency Starts at Union Hall

If you've lived in Park Slope for more than a couple months, you know the options for entertainment stretch far beyond the usual bar bands and well-drink specials. There are so many vaguely geeky, kinda ironic events -- storytelling, science lectures, nerd speed dating, classes, freakin' pun competitions -- that even these indie-rock-band-of-the-night alternatives need to try something DIFFERENT to stand out.

"And I am Not Lying," a storytelling and variety show that just began a monthly residency at Union Hall (first Tuesday of the month, 8pm, $10), has one solution: mix it all up. A variety show, with acts lurching from standup to storytelling to burlesque to, um, rope tricks (!) is charmingly old-fashioned -- but pretty perfectly suited to the times. Y'all know what our attention spans are like these days, I don't have to tell you. (Feel free to post that funny thing you just saw on twitter while you clicked away for a moment. For me, it was a witty meta-joke about the "Shit so-and-so's say" meme. Pretty solid.)

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