Brunch at Char 4 3/21/09

Sometimes I am generous enough as a friend to suggest a restaurant that I know my friend will enjoy but that will probably just amount to a $10 bowl of granola for me. This is because I am vegetarian and have friends like Kat, who like doubling and tripling up on their meats during meals whenever possible. For this reason I knew that Char 4 would be an instant hit for Kat. Pile sexy decor and an impressive whiskey bar on top of a menu that includes bacon in nearly everything and you've got the makings of Kat's heaven on earth. Her eyes would have popped out of her head when the waitress announced that the brunch special was hash, but fortunately they were a little swollen due to the alcohol content in the Bloody Mary and they remained in their sockets. I have to admit that their spicy chipotle Bloody Mary might just be the best Bloody Mary I've ever had, and they were totally cool about making my plate of grits without the suggested ingredient of bacon. And their biscuits were damn, damn good (served with chunky brown sugar apple sauce). I'm getting all hongray again just thinking about it a day later.
PS you can hear Kat complaining about her "Asian flush" from the booze in all videos below.



Oh yeah, and the bartenders and waitstaff are totally cute. Kat and I also spent a good ten minutes discussing the teeny tiny bathrooms and how somehow the use of space works for an overall successful bathroom experience. We're still not sure how they empty the garbage cans without diggin' in to scoop out the junk (ie, no liner, and that metal box is screwed into the wall). Bravo, Char 4. You'll be making my Bloody Mary next Saturday morning again.

All kinds of new stuff popping up

Last weekend a mysterious-looking dormitory appeared on Atlantic Avenue between Smith and Hoyt. I think the orange banners on hanging off the front of the building advertising ASA are for one of those art colleges that advertise on late-nite TV. I'm curious to see the inside of this building if, in fact, young'uns are actually living there these days. That building was empty and available as office space for as long as I can remember.



A few blocks a way, Re-Dress, a new re-sale shop specializing in vintage dresses for women in sizes over 14 just opened. Perhaps an act of genius or just one of those real-estate funnies, the store is directly across the street from NY Sports Club on Boerum Place, which in my opinion is the most jam-packed gym in the neighborhood. This gym used to be packed with sexy young dad-types but now it seems to be overflowing with out-of-place d-bags in track pants who must have recently migrated from the Upper West Side (if anyone knows where the sexy dads went, please email me. they are not at Equinox in Brooklyn Heights, in case you were wondering). So now I guess if no treadmills are available I can just go across the street and buy a plus-size dress (and stop at One Girl Cookies on the way home). At any rate, the storefront is really cute, and I never thought any business would ever open on that block, which is mostly taken over by a parking lot that is operated by enormous feral cats.

Rough weekend for weaves on Smith Street

I can't claim to know what kind of mischief all of my neighbors in Brooklyn get into on the weekends, but evidence on Smith and Pacific suggests that there was some weave-pulling going on. Two lonely braids were found abandoned last Sunday morning on the sidewalk in front of the now-empty location of Trout.