I’ll take 10 margaritas, and keep em coming until fall.

Do you hear that, brokesters? Hark, in the distance, but growing stronger every day, is the faint jingle of SUMMER 2K13, barreling its way to your doorstep like so much tanning-oil lubed Santa Claus. We’re trying our not to get too amped up yet, considering we just got like the second biggest snowstorm of the year two days ago, but the signs are starting to pop up already. Namely, Habana Outpost, that oasis of warm-weather outdoor drinking (and exquisite peeing environs), opens its gates for the season in a mere  3.5 weeks. And if a summer of slinging frozen drinks and roasted corn sounds good by you, the bar is hiring this week! (more…)

Ah, Dekalb Avenue, ever so pleasant. Via NY Mag.

Cocktails are a magical device usually used to make your daily drinking budget evaporate before your eyes. This is troublesome as Brooklyn’s bartenders have get craftier every year, with homemade bitters and such. Lucky for you would-be mixology lovers that the Dekalb Classic is back this year, and we’ve got tickets to giveaway! The Classic is a competition running the whole month of April between bartenders at five bars on Dekalb Avenue, aka one of the best avenues in New York City, where you get to pick the winner. The $50 tix get you a cocktail at each of the five bars, which, in addition to saving you money over normal cocktail prices, helps raise money for a good cause:  helping the Pratt Area Community Council assist small business and provide affordable housing in the neighborhood. Details on how to win below. (more…)

They’re ready to dance. Are you? via Long Island University

If you’ve been following college basketball at all, you’d have noticed the LIU-Brooklyn Blackbirds have balled their way to their third consecutive Northeast Conference title. Somehow, this string of excellence wasn’t good enough for those bigshots at the NCAA to give LIU a ticket to the dance, instead relegating them to a play-in game. Well fine, the mighty Blackbirds can handle that. What’s one more game on the road to a tournament title? On Wednesday, they’re facing off against the hated (for now) James Madison University in the play-in game, and to celebrate the school is throwing a little viewing party for them at their Fort Greene campus. (more…)

You’d pick the day with Japanther, right? via Facebook

We’re a question-asking mood today. It probably has something to do with being at Ask Roulette last night and getting picked to ask a stranger a question. Regardless of why it is, we want to hear from you on a very important subject: which night of Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, coming to BAM the last week of April, would you go to if you could only pick one? (more…)

It’s true: Fabolous really loves Brooklyn. via Brooklyn Nets.

The Nets want you to know that they’re in Brooklyn. They really, really want you to know just how Brooklyn they are, and so this Sunday, they’re going to prove it, not just with art, not just with fresh kicks, but with a sneaker-themed art contest judged by Brooklyn rapper Fabolous, songmaster of “You Be Killin’ Em” fame. (more…)

[UPDATE: Brownstoner brings us the news (via the Daily News) that the eviction has been pushed back to March 31. Let's hear it for tiny victories! The party is still on though, so you should still go!]

It’s a story as old as New York itself: cool-looking building goes up, cool-looking building succumbs to the ravages of time/government and has to come down. People mourn, action is vowed, nothing actually happens, cycle repeats. Like it is now for Clinton Hill’s Angel House, the latest architectural curio in Brooklyn to land on the chopping block. If you visited it yet, or you just want to help the guy who owned it with his legal bills, there’s a party to support him tomorrow. (more…)

Future home of swinging jazz shows

Brooklyn has a plethora of empty lots. It’s uh, not something that’s gonna be mentioned in official Brooklyn tourism information, but it’s not like every city doesn’t have with that problem. The more important aspect of it is how you allow people to deal with the empty space. The city itself has done positive work on that front, like the Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation’s plans to turn a Bushwick lot into a garden, and now a private citizen is getting into the game with plans to turn an empty Clinton Hill lot into both a garden and a space for jazz shows. (more…)

A seething bed of labor unrest that has nothing to do with PJ Carlesimo

Now that we are rounding the final corner of the winter of our discontent, let us celebrate John Steinbeck’s 111th birthday with a labor conflict at the Barclays Center. According to the New York Daily News, about 120 construction workers at the oft-maligned arena have found themselves in dubious battle with their union, SEIU 32BJ. They’re paid far less than their Madison Square Garden counterparts and are threatening to stop paying dues if that doesn’t change. (more…)

Now you can watch Kris Humphries get posterized while waiting for a Calexico taco

One thing about the LIBOR Barclays Center that makes it such a destination is its myriad food options. We’ve gotta say, in our life of attending professional sporting events, nowhere else came close to providing food that was actually worth the ridiculous markup that comes with it being served in a sleeve or box branded with the home team’s logo. The only problem with all those food options is that when you get up to buy them, you end up waiting in a line and missing say, the only competitive part of the basketball game, like in our recent trip to see a game against the Heat. But now you can watch the game on your phone through the Barclays Center app while you wait on line for your food. (more…)

#HelloBrooklyn. Wanna make $11/hour?

We’ve had a chance to take a look at the impact the LIBOR Barclays Center has had on the local economy so far, but even for businesses that aren’t in love with it, stadium proponents could always say, “But there are jobs there!” Not all jobs are created equal however, and in news that’s not totally shocking, DNA Info found that almost every job at Barclays is part-time work and comes with no benefits. (more…)