Brooklyn-based author Joshua Henkin is about to publish his second novel, Matrimony. Here, Joshua offers BIB readers some tips on best Brooklyn dates and, apropo of his new book, wedding locations.
Best Brooklyn Date
After dinner and drinks, head over to
Pratt; at midnight, cover your ears and shield your eyes. The steam engines go off and, boy, do they make a ruckus. Not to mention a lot of steam. It’s likely to be cold out, so dress warm and hunker down with your date and a few hundred others. Blow smoke rings. Try to see your hands through the steam. Then go down into the bowels of the steam engine where you can see how it all works, the levers and gizmos. Drink some coffee. Meanwhile, the steam engine proprietor has thirty, forty, fifty cats, who have taken refuge there, and they’re drinking too—milk. Drink with your date. Drink with some cats. Share good cheer with your fellow mammals. It wasn’t Beth’s and my first date, but it was certainly the most memorable one. Only problem is, it happens just once a year: New Year’s Eve. Time your date accordingly.
Best Brooklyn Date: Runners-Up
Rosewater: On Union Street, just west of Sixth Avenue, this little restaurant doesn’t get quite the attention some other restaurants in Park Slope do, but it is the best restaurant in the neighborhood. Small and quiet with a Mediterranean/eclectic menu, it features lots of locally grown and raised food.
Convivium Osteria: On Fifth Avenue near Bergen Street. Beth and I went early on, when the menu was pretty much all in Portuguese, and the waiters didn’t speak much besides Portuguese, either. But the whole fish! And the carciofi! And the ambience! It was enough to make me want to learn Portuguese myself. Over the years it’s become more user-friendly—now I know what I’m eating before I actually eat it.
Areo: In Bay Ridge, on Third Avenue and 84th street. If you’re looking for a quiet dinner, skip it. It can be hard to hear your date. But if you just want to look at her or him, and eat great Italian food, and watch the crowd, you can’t go wrong.
Best Brooklyn Wedding Location
Having gone on your share of Brooklyn dates, you decide it’s time for a Brooklyn wedding. Head straight for Coney Island and the
New York Aquarium. For Beth and me, the other serious contender was the
Brooklyn Museum (now our older daughter, who’s nearing four, insists on going there every Sunday for the children’s art program), but the aquarium is the place to go, walking down the aisle with the sting rays swimming beneath you. You can even pay extra to have a dolphin show. We decided to skip that. But the walruses were lowing in their tank (is that what walruses do? Low? Croak?), and when one of our friends was making a toast, the walrus,
who’s a ham (we’d been warned) kept interrupting. He’s is in all the wedding photos. We’re thinking of adopting him. Why not? We already have a dog.
Labels: Bay Ridge, Best Brooklyn Dates, Brooklyn Museum, Coney Island, Joshua Henkin, Matrimony, New York Aquarium, Park Slope, Pratt Institute
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