Photo by Noah Fecks

Dean Street
755 Dean St. (at Underhill St.)
Prospect Heights
(718) 783-3326

What is it: A laid-back gastro pub that doubles as Pro-Cro neighborhood joint, nestled in a quiet corner of Dean at Underhill.

Why we love it: You can enjoy a drink and a chat with the friendly regulars or sit down to a meal from new executive chef David Glenn, who hails from the successful pop-up New Orleans-inspired café the Tchoup Shop. (more…)

Williamsburg’s Saint Austere rolls out the welcome meats for Dine in Brooklyn. via Facebook

Manhattan can have their stupid Restaurant Week, we don’t need it. That’s because Brooklyn has its own temporally-suspect restaurant event, and it’s going down this month! The 10th annual Dine in Brooklyn starts on March 11 and will last until March 21, featuring over 200 participating restaurants (in list form or in google map) offering a mix of three-course dinner menus for $28, three-course lunches for $20.13 and some “two-fer” brunch/lunch/dinner deals. This is the week to try out places your mouth has been watering over, but you haven’t been able to fit into your budget. (more…)

Photo by David Colon

Brooklyn Ice House
318 Van Brunt St. (between Pioneer & King)
Red Hook
(718) 222-1865

What is it: No-nonsense dive bar with 60-plus beers on tap, board games, and a food smoker; Red Hook watering hole with a jovial end-of-the-world quality to it.

Why we love it: We ranked it #11 on our 2012 Best Dive Bars in Brooklyn list for a whole mess of reasons. Among them: you can play Merle Haggard on the jukebox, or drunk Jenga with your pals. There’s a live-and-let-live attitude to the place, like an unruly but cozy living room. (more…)

Get the owl. People will think you’re wise AND you’ll scare mice. via Sara Antoinette

Afraid of post-Halloween let-down? Trick yourself into believing Halloween lasts forever by commemorating the holiday on your body. Here’s three places you can immortalize that black cat or full moon in ink for only $31. (more…)

Open your hearts for a girl and her dog. via Gayla Kitaro

If you find yourself literally unsettled in Brooklyn and in need of a couch to crash on, not to be confused with surf on (because this wave of misfortune has already toppled you) how do you impose upon your friends without irrevocably damaging relationships?

My roommates and I were running from a roach-infested apartment still harboring the remnants of recently evicted hoarders one flight down and a landlord who was far from sympathetic.

How did we end up in this situation? After all, two of us graduated from Oberlin! Our first mistake was signing on the place the day we saw it. Hasty and foolish, yes, but after an exhausting (two day) search, this was the best four bedroom we’d seen, and right in the heart of Bedford Ave’s commercial district in Bed-Stuy. (more…)

So your ex-boyfriend is coming to visit you in Brooklyn for a two-week trial period to “see if he could see himself actually living here” and while you believe it’s impossible to for him to really know in such a short, pressure-cooker of a visit, you miss him and you want him to move here, so you’re entertaining the idea that this trip could seal the deal.

You two dated three years — two spent together in New Orleans, one apart when you moved to New York — until the distance became too much and you had to break up. But it turns out you still care about each other and most of your problems resulted from being apart. You both are working off the premise he’s just not that into New York, but definitely still into you. So what makes up the perfect sales pitch?  (more…)

Gristle’s flash sheet this week.

Summer is in full swing, and while you’re probably feeling more sunburned than spooked, this Friday is the 13th, and who knows what might happen? Might as well get a cheap tattoo to commemorate your fun, reckless summer, as Friday the 13th has become a regular special day in the tattoo industry. Bring in your own self-designed unlucky mermaid or ghostly shipwreck to Citizen Ink, or pick out a sketch from a shop’s flash sheet — like the ripe red cherries with a “13” tag from Gristle or the barbecue pit labeled “13” from Asylum. Here are five places that are offering specials this Friday, which is the last Friday the 13th until September of 2013! (more…)

Now through July 1: party like these guys. Photo courtesy of LA Times.

The 2012 Euro Cup kicked off yesterday and runs through July 1. That means almost a full month of socially-acceptable day-drinking, hooligan antics, affecting accents, making sweeping generalizations about the essence of entire nations, superficially rooting for the team with the cutest players and impressing your friends with your new knowledge of European microbrews. During the group stage, through June 19, games air at noon and 2:45 daily. No (day) job? No problem! We compiled a list of where to get deals while you watch. (more…)

Oysters at Cornelius. Photo courtesy of 3fortheroad blog.

It’s summer time, and you’re in the mood for some salty slurpies to go with that afternoon beer. Sure, they’re a delicacy, but bar food is bar food, and if they’re gonna charge $2.50 for one mouthful of slime, you’d rather go stick your face in the Gowanus Canal. Here’s where and when to get ‘em for a buck each: (more…)

Either you really do believe Lena Dunham (center, above) is the voice of our generation, or you’re one of her peers who regards her with an “unstable blend of worship, envy, and disdain,” tuning in in case her show flops (against all media predictions); or in all sincerity, you’re banking on this one being the Great Brooklyn Hope after the disappointments of CBS’s 2 Broke Girls and MTV’s I Just Want My Pants Back, oh, and HBO’s last try with How to Make it in America. Whatever the reason, you’re determined to watch HBO’s Girls when it debuts Sunday, April 15, 10:30 E.S.T.  Ironically, the show that just might capture what it’s really like to be young, broke and hapless in BK, airs on a channel you can’t afford.  (more…)