Nice view. via New York Observer

We’ve all presumably been there: you’re supposed to meet friends somewhere that doesn’t have outlets, and your phone battery is making its final stand. Then it dies and you and your friend spend the next 40 minutes trying to find each other. There’s got to be a better way! AT&T is trying to make sure there is now, with a series of free solar-powered phone charging stations in few New York parks, including four Brooklyn parks, according to the Observer. (more…)

Jacques Torres will be there to talk chocolate

Brooklyn’s food industry is red hot. Like, Guatemalan insanity pepper hot. So what better time than now to feature the thriving restauranteurs and food scene-makers in a trade show devoted entirely to food? Lucky for us, we get just that next Wednesday with Brooklyn Eats, going down at the Pfizer Building on Flushing Avenue. (more…)

Team STooPS not on a stoop but at the next best thing: Simplicity Wine Bar, where they’re holding their afterparty on Saturday. Via STooPS Facebook.

Ever feel like it might be time to get out of your apartment, and you know, do something? Everyone knows that summer in Brooklyn is like an endless carnival of film festivals, readings, street fairs, and concerts…if you’re willing to travel to the right place. But what about opportunities for arts and music that are literally right in your backyard, or in this case, on your front stoop? For residents of Bed Stuy this Saturday, this fantasy is turning into a reality, thanks to the STooPS project, which is geared up and ready to bring Brooklyn artists right to your front door. Literally. (more…)

Mable’s Smokehouse & Banquet Hall
44 Berry St. (At Wythe)
Williamsburg
(718) 218-6655

What is it: No-frills beer and Oklahoma-style BBQ joint that caters to the southern man and woman inside every beer-chugging Brooklynite.

Why we love it: The huge open layout gives you a “not-in-West-Williamsburg-anymore” impression, but that’s only the beginning. The three-sided bar turns drinking into an easy game of eye-tag, but a projection screen playing movies like Roadhouse and Stand by Me lets you play coy, although after a few pints or a pick from their signature cocktails menu, that’ll probably be the last thing you’ll do. (more…)

Why the L train broke [WNYC]
Bougie hotel coming to the Rockways [Gothamist]
Wall Street Journal won’t drop this “bike lobby” thing [ANIMAL]
Bid on The ultimate hipster prop: Hemingway’s typewriter [BOOKTRYST]
Greenpoint may get bike share earlier than planned [Daily News]
Looters gonna loot [DNA Info]
BK metalhead tweens give no fucks about being bullied [Gawker]
Maybe let’s stop buying diamonds [Business Insider]
Ray Kelly is fine with the government listening to every phone call [NYP]

Get on the bus. via nycbeachbus Instagram

Fort Tilden might be out of commission for the rest of the summer, but that doesn’t mean the Rockaways are totally off-limits this season. Jacob Riis and Rockaway Beach will be open for business, and the Rockabus is already shuttling people back and forth from Williamsburg, Grand Army Plaza and the Lower East Side. But it looks like the hipster highway shuttle’s gonna have more competition than the A train this summer, because there’s another Rockaway bus in town, and it’s cheaper. (more…)

Hey guys, need a tune-up? via Flickr user nilexuk

It’s been a long, rainy winter/spring kinda thing even deep into June. Despite all that, we’re sure you’ve had a few days where you saw a temporary nice day, took your bike out and then WHOOPS. Rainstorm and all the attendant crap it kicks up from the street to your bike. Try as you might to clean it and fix it up, you’re not a professional bike mechanic. The guys and gals at Ride Brooklyn are professional bike mechanics though, and with this fantastic internet deal, you can get them to fix your bike up for half price. (more…)

It’s time to drum!

Like we’ve said before, we’re huge fans of Andrew WK, even if our coverage of him has usually been skeptical. But, he loves to party, we love to party, our interests pretty much fall in line. And his newest stunt, sitting outside in Times Square and drumming for a full 24 hours starting tomorrow, is something we can definitely get behind. (more…)

Juuuust like that. via Flickr user ronbrinkmann

We’ve gone over the fact that Brooklyn is maybe not the safest place in the world when it comes to cars. But hey, that was just anecdotal. Where’s the actual proof that you risk your life every time you step off the sidewalk or even get in a car around here? How about a study by Transportation Alternatives that found that Brooklyn had the most deaths by cars, 79, in New York City in all of 2011? (more…)

The awesome present, and the allegedly even more awesome future. via ESPN

We’ve had a lot of fun at the Mets’ expense this year, but believe us when we say it comes from a genuine place of love and heartbreak. Why else spend so much time on them? So when we say that tomorrow the season probably peaks, we’re only saying it as frustrated realists. But their season probably does peak, with tomorrow’s doubleheader against the hated Atlanta Braves featuring phenom-of-the-moment Matt Harvey pitching the first game at 1:10pm and phenom-of-the-future Zack Wheeler making his major league debut pitching the night game a 7:10. If you were ever gonna play hooky from work to post up and watch baseball on TV, tomorrow’s the day. Here’s a few places to do just that. (more…)