Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Weekend spending

Whew! What a whirl things have been lately. When I wasn't assembling the carnival and taking photos at Coney Island, here is how I was spending my long weekend:

First, dinner at the excellent Clinton Street Baking Company. If you go, make sure you try the famous blueberry pancakes, but everything else I've had there is good too. Cost: about $50 per person, including wine.

Next, live music at the Mercury Lounge. $10 cover for a line-up of 4 bands, including the absolutely fantasticly fun Dansettes, who play a great kind of funky 60s-girl-group soul.

Then, a trip to the new Fairway supermarket in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Wow. This is one big, crazy supermarket, but I think I'll have to go there more often. A huge selection of really nice fresh produce is the main attraction for me, but I also found that their prices were lower than my local supermarket on several things, including my brand of yogurt (Stonyfield Farm, $0.79 vs. $1.19 elsewhere). The only drawback is the location-- I love walking to Red Hook, but I don't love walking back with groceries! But luckily there is a bus (the B77) that runs between Park Slope and Red Hook that got me home pretty fast. Once I move, I'd have to take 2 buses, which starts to seem way less convenient. This is actually kind of making me want a car. I don't think my grocery savings will be so extreme as to pay for owning my own vehicle, but I might have to look into ZipCar!
As it was, since I was on foot, I didn't buy much-- my whole bill was under $20. I also found that the lines were very short-- no overcrowding as mentioned by others. The parking lot was quite full and there were plenty of people in the aisles but there were lots of staffed registers and no wait.
If you've never been to Red Hook, I recommend a trip. There are frequent art shows hosted by the Brooklyn Working Artists Coalition, and some nice restaurants, and the harbor views are wonderful. It also used to be wonderfully quiet and peaceful, but I found it less so now that the Fairway is open, and an Ikea slated to open in the next year or so won't help either.

I also went to a barbeque and hung out in Prospect Park for a while: cost-- free!

2 comments:

optioned unarmed said...

Cars and co-ops are a great combination.

On the other hand, it is hard for me to imagine pancakes and wine together, but I think its just because I'm being overly breakfastcentric.

Anonymous said...

I'm a proud Zipcar customer in Boston, and I love it! Living on Beacon Hill, having a car can be seen as outward evidence of insanity -though sometimes you need to do major shopping/get the hell outta Dodge. It's convenient, and they have an amazing array of cars to choose from. If you do decide to join, send me an e-mail, and I can refer you - you'll get a $50 driving credit.