SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

The Sheepshead Bay / Plumb Beach Civic Association held its annual Memorial Day and Armed Forces Day Parade on Saturday, drawing scores of neighbors to watch antique automobiles, local veterans and school kids honor the men and women of the nation’s armed forces.

Like other Memorial Day observances, the event remembers the local heroes who gave the ultimate sacrifice serving and protecting our nation. But SBPB Civic’s event falls on Armed Forces Day, a lesser known holiday to honor Americans serving in the five U.S. military branches, making the parade an opportunity to honor those past and present.

A battalion of vehicles from the Baron DeKalb Knights on Bikes and the Antique Automobile Association of Brooklyn led the procession down Emmons Avenue, from Ocean Avenue to the veteran’s memorial at Brown Street. They were followed by the Fort Hamilton High School Junior ROTC and the Bishop Kearney High School band, along with the NYPD Auxiliary Ceremonial Marching Unit and the Marine Corps League Color Guard, among others.

The procession stopped just before Driscoll Tucker Park at East 27th Street, where taps was performed and ceremonial flags flown, while SBPB Civic President Kathy Flynn tossed flowers in the water to honor the fallen.

The event honored several living local veterans who served in conflicts as far back as World War II. Six local students were also recognized for writing award-winning essays and art pieces about Memorial Day.

View the photo gallery.

Photo courtesy of Esfir Neyman

We received this photo and a message from SBites reader Esfir Neyman:

We have a stripped vehicle on Emmons Ave for over a month. Reported to 311 – nothing is being done.  In addition we have cars parked without plates on Emmons between E 26 and E 27th streets which we reported to the city as well, but they are still there.

It’s been a while since we’ve received a stripped car e-mail, which I hope means the situation is improving. Now let’s see if someone trucks the cars Esfir writes about away. Best of luck.

The Madison-Marine-Homecrest Civic Association is celebrating the holidays tomorrow with refreshments, music and a panel on community service.

The meeting will take place at 7:30 p.m. at Kings Chapel (Quentin Road and East 27th Street).

The panel, titled “Inter-relationships: Neighbors Serving and Sharing,” feautres Dr. Alvin Kass, Rabbi of the East Midwood Jewish Center & Chief Chaplain for the NYPD, and teacher Sally Hipscher.

Refreshments will be served and music will be played. Elected officials, the 61st Precinct Community Affairs Unit, and neighbors will attend.

For more info, call (718) 375-9158.

A new market serving halal products has opened at 2705 Avenue Z, off East 27th Street… you know, just a block away from the 2812 Voorhies Avenue mosque, an area that opponents claimed has no Muslim residents.

Well, regardless, the Sheepshead Bay Halal Market has been open for a few weeks and looks well stocked. It replaces B&R Electronics & AC Service, the television and appliance repair shop that has been in this location for as long as I can remember. But, fret not, B&R is still alive and kicking – they’ve just moved around the corner to 2577 East 27th Street.

Good luck to the halal market and B&R in their new locations!

Tappen's Hotel, Emmons Avenue and East 27th Street. Source: Forgotten New York

Remember last month, when The Village Voice’s Robert Sietsema compiled a round-up in which Sheepshead Bay nabbed the top three slots out of five for “Five Dead and Gone Classic Brooklyn Restaurants?”

Apparently they missed one (although, to be fair, so did we). It turns out that yesterday, in 1950 — and I’ll bet even Lisanne didn’t know this (although…now that I think of it, she probably does) — a fire gutted the venerable Sheepshead Bay landmark Tappen’s Restaurant on Emmons Avenue and East 27th Street.

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Welcome back to The Bite, Sheepshead Bites’ weekly column where we explore the foodstuffs of Sheepshead Bay. Each week we’ll check out a different offering from one of the many restaurants, delis, food carts, bakeries, butchers, fish mongers, or grocers in our neighborhood. If it’s edible, we’ll take a bite.

You gotta love our neighborhood! You can sample just about the entire world’s cuisine and still never leave Sheepshead Bay. This week we move on from our Eastern European foods and friends and head over to Azerbaijan for kutabs. Never heard of kutabs? Neither had I. But that’s the beauty of our ‘hood; new and exciting foods call from almost every corner.

Join The Bite as we knock on the Middle East’s door with kutabs

Maksim Gelman

The NYPD released the above photo of Maksim Gelman, the 23-year-old suspected of stabbing his 54-year-old stepfather, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, earlier this morning.

Police have also confirmed that Maksim Gelman made his getaway in a gray 2004 Lexus ES330 with the New York license plate DHE8322.

It is believed to have been a domestic dispute, and Aleksandr Kuznetsov was pronounced dead at the scene.

“I guess he had to be a little bonkers at the time. He must’ve just caught him by surprise,” Anthony Riggio, a super at the Waterview Village condos on East 27th Street and Emmons Avenue, where Kuznetsov, Gelman and his mother had been living for 9 years, told the New York Post. “It’s a sad thing. Never in a million years,” Riggio said.

The New York Post is also reporting that Gelman has a police record – and since the above photo looks like a mugshot, it sounds about right.

If you have any information, you can call (800) 577-TIPS (8477), text “TIP577″ (plus your message) to “CRIMES” (274637), or submit tips online.

Photo by Mike N.

A 54-year-old man is dead after being stabbed several times this morning in a condo on East 27th Street off Emmons Avenue.

(UPDATE: Photo: Maksim Gelman, Suspect In Stabbing Aleksandr Kuznetsov)

The incident appears to be the result of an early morning family dispute at around 5:00 a.m. The victim was dead when police arrived, and witnesses told police they saw a younger man flee the apartment in his car.

Police are looking for the suspect, described as a 20-year-old, six-foot-tall white male. He was seen driving a grey Lexus, license plate number DHE8322. If you have any information, you can call (800) 577-TIPS (8477), text “TIP577″ (plus your message) to “CRIMES” (274637), or submit tips online.

We’ll provide more information as it becomes available.

This is a breaking news story and may have inaccuracies. It is subject to change. If you have information, photos or video, please e-mail us at nberke [at] sheepsheadbites [dot] com.

Thanks to Mike N. and Nicole G. for the tip.

Shopping carts photographed early New Year's Day. (Photo courtesy of a reader)

We would have had our picture posted since last week, but we were recovering from a serious hangover that lasted a couple of days.  Believe me, I would take a serious hangover like that one any day over having to spend a night in the slammer – which is where I and Party City, over here, were almost headed.

You see, we figured we would roll out the old year and ring in the new one by doing what everyone else in the neighborhood is, apparently, doing – drink it up — when some rookie cop started walking toward us at the corner of Avenue Y and East 27 Street. Just before he made eye contact, I threw my drink cup on the ground (if you look closely, you can see the cup in the picture).  He started questioning us, “Don’t you guys know it’s illegal to drink alcohol on a public street?, How old are you kids, anyway?, Where’s your ID?, Don’t you guys have a bed you can find yourself in, tonight?”

We were already drunk, but we managed to come up with some answers real quick: “See a drink in my hand, officer? We’re older than you think.  Don’t let our good wheels fool ya. Check our ID right there on the handle. That cart over there is Party City. He lost his voice when a car hit him, a couple months ago. Sure, officer, we’ll get right home, just this minute.”

Man, was I scared, ‘cuz Party City is a minor. I just wanted him to keep quiet, so I lied to keep him from having to talk. We tried to roll off into the night as the flat foot walked away, but, to tell the truth, our wheels were like liquid and we both just crashed right into the pole and the postal box.

Man, that was a rough New Year’s Eve and a tough couple days after, but would we do it again? Apparently, research shows that terrible hangovers don’t limit future liquor consumption. So, yes, I guess, you’ll see us drunk as a skunk around the streets of Sheepshead Bay, sometime in the near future.

Happy Belated New Year’s, everyone!

Jamie Guigno took this photo of the inside of M&M Catering on East 27th Street and Avenue Z the day it closed down. Before M&M Catering it was M&M Meat Market – both businesses were owned by her father, Mike Fischetti. The employees – many worked there for years – wrote the above on the door as a final goodbye. For those that remember, M&M was a neighborhood staple. But Fischetti, who passed recently, lives on through the non-profit organization he founded, Guardians of Hydrocephalus Research Foundation. You may recognize the name from the fading ad on the side of the same building that hosted M&M, which for many of us is as much a curious legend of the Bay as anything else. We’ll have more on the Guardians of Hydrocephalus and the Fischetti family in the weeks to come – but we thought this was a touching photo.

Jamie Guigno is a local photographer, and can be booked for private events through her website. You can see more photos from her Flickr photostream.