Red Hook - On the wet side of NYC

It's good to have friends, like Dom, who is a Bensonhurstonian, a knowledgeable Brooklyn tour guide and a long-time friend of us. It took us about 1,5 hours to get from Harlem (far up North on Manhattan), down to the Southern tip of the island and over to Brooklyn by train and then, by bus, down to Red Hook, an up&coming neighborhood of Brooklyn. Formerly a purely industrial zone and the port of Brooklyn, it all got started in 2008, when IKEA opened and introduced regular ferry service from Manhattan. In 2012 hurricane Sandy hit the area badly, when it was just about to prosper, and many of the small enterprises here got either destroyed or had to move. We have seen the neighborhood before the desaster and now, and good thing is: it's back again.

With Dom we walked Van Brunt Street (the main axle) and visited some highly interesting new (and old) businesses. Many of them are situated in old warehouses along the waterfront (great views from there, see pic). For example, we visited a female blacksmith (She-weld, on pic having produced new waste baskets), a glass bending company (Flickinger Glassworks), a wood-working artists' space with a barber shop included (!) (Natalie Shook), a local liquor store (dry dock), and, finally, Red Hook Winery, where we had a great tasting & tour (see pic). Excellent wines made by three different wine makers in three different styles from grapes from the North Fork of Long Island.

Took the bus back to Dumbo (where the Brooklyn Bridge starts) in the late afternoon and walked the Brooklyn Promenade, one of our all-time favs, at sunset, with a view towards the port and the Statue of Liberty, the Manhattan skyline and the newly constructed Brooklyn Bridge Park. The lights were just starting to come up when we left Brooklyn underneith the East River by subway.


An interesting day was topped off with a geat dinner at The Green Fig in the fancy Yotel (a boutique hotel) not far away from Times Square. Not only that the food was excellent, the chef, who served it to us in person, was a highly fascinating personality. 25 years young, from Israel, highly creative and adventurous. He served us about six different dishes plus dessert (a pumpkin combo with pumpkin mousse, sorbet and icecream, see pic), including a superb mushroom dish, duck (pic), lamb, fish and scallops. Just fantastic. Boy, we were stuffed at the end, walked back to 42nd Street subway station and struggled to nof all asleep on the subway back "home" to Harlem.