Red Hookers, livin it up at the end of the world.

This past weekend, New York City experienced yet another out of body, bizzaro, non-winter weekend. In celebration of this Global Planetary Charring, we decided to venture out into the wild outlands of the borough, Red Hook.

Our afternoon began with a ride on the infamous B71, making our way down Union St. all the way to the BQE where the driver let us off at the last stop. We began the adventure on Columbia St. following our eyes and noses, we ventured in and out of some very interesting establishments. A memorable visit to DUB (Down Under Bakery) for a most delicious and inspiring veggie curry pie – a meat free version of the iconic meat pie (savory filling tucked away in crispy flakey pastry dough). The visit later inspired us to cook up a 3 tiered vegan Shepherds pie for dinner. Apparently, one small pie is just not enough.


We continued our walking up Columbia St., walking past a number of interesting bars and restaurants.
From Columbia, we found our way to the main strip, Van Brunt St. We were like those cartoon characters, caught in the drifting, wafting smell of bakery. There was a huge asterix drawn right beside the name, Baked. It didn’t take much to get us through the doors. Café, bakery, neighborhood chocolate center. We drooled over peanut butter brownies, mini cupcakes, scones and cookies. After having consumed way too many pastries before noon in one day, we thought we needed to cut ourselves off.

Some interesting things we noted on our walking tour:
1) Nativity Scenes are not only prevalent all over Brooklyn, but are amazingly intricate and way out there.

As we were walking towards the waterfront, we walked on Van Brunt on a pretty industrial stretch of road. We had to stop and take this picture of a spirited scene of the Holy Family and friends with giant cranes and towers gracing the background. Later in the afternoon, we walked by a house that had illuminated Jesus, Mary and Josephs complete with a “tv monitor” scrolling the Twin Towers and messages of world peace. Very inspiring.

2) We found the hidden lot where all the Mr. Softie Trucks hibernate over the long winter months. (Though this weekend, we could have used a melty Strawberry Shortcake ice cream bar to help us through the day…).


3) In spite of all the hype, Fairway Red Hook rocks. We sampled our way through lunch, I met Will, one of the owners of the joint who I recognized from the uptown Fairway. He gave me a very generous helping of imported French artisanal ginger chocolate. We came home with olives, snacks and very happy tummies.

Tune in next week as our borough travels continue....