SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

The ad below appeared on Craigslist Thanksgiving afternoon. It got us wondering which restaurant this could be.

RESTAURANT FOR SALE

Restaurant for Sale in the heart of Sheepshead Bay.
Seats 70. Full Kitchen.
Backyard with a lot of possibilities.
Low Rent and Long Lease.

We’re thinking it may be the New Clements Diner storefront, which closed back in August. At the time it was suggested the neighbors at Forces of Nature might expand, but nothing seems to have happened.

The ad has a number that we’ll call for details next week. But until then, I thought we’d play a game. Let’s guess the restaurant and the asking rent price!

We’re all workers, here, at the Pomegranate Supermarket in Midwood (1507 Coney Island Avenue).

When the store first opened up to critical acclaim, the first customers lamented about the high prices, the lack of cheddar cheese, and no place to park their cars.

Less than a year later, at the Brooklyn Blogfest, outside.in reported that Pomegranate Market was one of the most searched terms in the local cybersphere. We’re really not sure why everyone was so interested in our workplace. Yeah, sure they have nice, smooth floors, but everything else is just like Super Stop and Shop over in Sheepshead Bay, except it’s all kosher.

When the parking lot was not ready for the many moneyed folks who just could not see themselves pushing one of those pedestrian carts with their groceries piled high, many stayed away due to the lack of street parking. Now, well-dressed Pomegranate customers arrive in their large, shiny cars, stop at the gate, with traffic all backed up, and hand over their keys to the valet. Yes, you heard me right. The valet!

So, this is what makes Pomegranate Supermarket a cut above the rest, not the food, the service, or the way the treat their shopping carts — it’s the valet parking lot!

The parking lot is too small to hold us humble, unengined 4-wheelers, so when the fancy customers unload their goods and get into their cars, they discard us shopping carts anywhere they so desire. Just the other day, I nearly had a heart attack when the most loyal  shopping cart friend I’ve ever known, “Good Gray”, was left out on the street and he got hit by a minivan.

We all stood vigil for “Good Gray”, hoping and praying that he would make it through. That night all of us vowed that whatever happens, we would hold them all responsible for our poor friend’s demise.

The next morning, when “Good Gray” opened his eyes and said his first words, “I’m telling you, I crossed over to the other side. I kept seeing the light of two silverly moons. That’s what kept me going.” We were so happy just to see him conscious, we didn’t have the heart to tell him that the light he saw was just his double vision of the lamppost. But, who are we to say, anyway? The poor cart crossed over to the other side and made his way back.

So, we just have one thing to say to you, Pomegranate Supermarket: the next time you see scratches on those cars in your valet parking lot, remember the story of “Good Gray”. Maybe, then, you’ll remember that the sidewalks are for people to walk on, not for risking the lives of shopping carts.

When Sheepshead Bites first launched in May 2008, it started on a lark. After freelancing for the community papers after college, Ned Berke went into stale world of trade journalism. So he started this site on the side to continue doing what he loved most: reporting on the community he was born and raised in. He never expected an audience to listen.

But now – nearly a year and a half later - Sheepshead Bites has a lot to be thankful for. Because of our amazing readers, our tireless writers, and our (sometimes) supportive sources, we’re blazing a trail to build community ties and raise the profile of Sheepshead Bay. Continue Reading »

Carlo Fodera, a.k.a. Coney Island Carlo, is taking tattooing global in a new reality television show, Tattoo Masters Worldwide.

“Over the last couple of years I’ve been watching these reality shows on tattooing,” Fodera said in a trailer for the series. “There’s so much more to the tattoo world. There’s so many different venues, and so many different types of tattooing.”

From a new Gravesend location at 66 Avenue U, Fodera is launching a competition to showcase the explosive dynamism of contemporary tattooing. The new storefront is next door to one of his existing parlors, Studio Enigma. Fodera owns 10 shops in the five boroughs, and according to the website is responsible for about half the tattooing done daily in New York City. Continue Reading »

Last week, when the identity of lower Manhattan’s Sad Panda was revealed in documentarian Michelle Tay’s video, it reminded us of hungry pandas and our local panda food supply. Most of you may know that the black-and-white bears like to eat the shoots, leaves, and crunchy stalks of bamboo plants and in Sheepshead Bay, we appear to have our very own supply.

It’s not the first time that we’ve been reminded of pandas and bamboo. This January, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington. D.C. said that their resident pandas’ food supply of fresh bamboo was dangerously low, and they issued a request for bamboo from private supplies. At the time, we almost called the zoo to alert them to all the bamboo at the intersection of Avenue X and East 16th Street. Continue Reading »

In the 18th Century, Samuel Johnson said, “If you are idle, be not solitary” – and with those words, as if by magic, the New York State Senate was established; and a whole lot of otherwise idle men were grouped together, to be idle, but not solitary.

With the state facing a $3.2 billion budget gap, little has been accomplished except a continuous ticking-off-the-list of things we can’t do to fix the budget. Why can’t we do them? It’s this senator’s pet project, or that senator’s constituency (or, perhaps, campaign contributor). Meanwhile, New York State is just days away from declaring bankruptcy.

And who’s leading the shenanigans? Sheepshead Bay State Senator Carl Kruger. Continue Reading »

“The damage doesn’t stop the ride completely, but if something isn’t done to fix this problem, the issue won’t be a missing bike path – it will be a missing Belt Parkway. Just another 20 feet or so and the cars will fall into the water,” said a cyclist who frequently uses the path.

Related stories:
Hurricane Ida Batters Plumb Beach
Plumb Beach Destruction Goes Beyond Bike Path
Shore Parkway Greenway Honored By Daily News

Courier-Life is reporting that FDNY officials regard the fire at Loehmann’s Seaport Plaza as “suspicious” and possibly arson:

The early-morning fire that ate through a Loehmann’s Seaport Plaza restaurant may have been arson, FDNY officials said this week.

An FDNY spokesman said that fire marshals are treating the fire at XO Creperie, 2027 Emmons Avenue, as “suspicious” as they try to determine how the blaze was sparked.

Firefighters were called to the restaurant at 5:30 a.m. on November 21 after the flames triggered a fire alarm inside the restaurant, officials said. The blaze was put out within 50 minutes.

No one was inside the eatery when the fire broke out, although a firefighter suffered a strained shoulder as he doused the blaze.

Following the weekend’s fire at XO Creperie, Loehmann’s in Loehmann’s Seaport Plaza has announced they will be closed throughout the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Signs at the store previously said they’d open today, but these mailers went out to “Loehmann’s E-mail Insider” subscribers, leading one Sheepshead Bites reader to write in, “ugh this bums me out.  they were having a sale.  50% off already reduced!”

Bummer. The store will stay closed until further notice. The ground-level businesses remain open.

UPDATE: We’ve heard that management is telling people that they’re rushing the cleanup to try and reopen in time for Black Friday. It’s still uncertain.

Photo courtesy of "Beauty Playin 'Eh" via Flickr

With an estimated 200,000 New Yorkers on bikes each day, the city is rapidly becoming a two-wheel mecca. The 650 miles of bike lanes in the city – which may jump to 1,800 in coming years – were recently rated by the Daily News. The paper tasked its reporters with talking to biking advocates, shop owners, and bikers around the city to spotlight the best paths around.

And it’s (semi-)official – they found that the Shore Parkway Greenway offers the best water views in the five boroughs. The seven-mile path runs along Jamaica Bay to the Verrazano Bridge. Beginning in Queens, it winds through Plumb Beach in Sheepshead Bay, offers sterling views of the city’s wildlife reserve, and goes all the way down to the most beautiful bridge in the tristate area (yeah, I said it. Too bad, Brooklyn Bridge). The honor just goes to reinforce how important it is to get the bike path at Plumb Beach restored after suffering damage from Hurricane Ida, which shut down a quarter-mile of the route.