Well, fall has finally arrived, and everyone is reluctantly sliding into their light jackets. I won’t lie, I’m sad. Summer in New York is my favorite, even if it does mean the city smells like boiling garbage and the subway is a direct conduit to the molten center of the earth. But don’t despair, fall has it’s upsides – like cozy sweaters, colorful foliage and pumpkin spice everything. There’s also plenty to do in Brooklyn in the fall and you can do it without back sweat! Here are just a few of the reasons to look forward to autumn in Brooklyn, like restaurant openings, craft beer festivals and a spooky theme park.
Summer beer is gone, but that just means that we’re moving on to fall beer, and we’re not just talking pumpkin ales. You can immerse yourself in the world of beer and see all the great tastes it has to offer at Brooklyn Pour on Saturday, September 26. Brooklyn Pour is a craft beer festival which features over a hundred beers from micro and craft breweries around the country, with the focus on brews made in the Tri-State Area. After being held at at One Hanson Place the last few years, the party is moving on to the at the Brooklyn Expo Center in Greenpoint this year. So gather your pickiest, beer snob friends and head over. Don’t worry about the beer belly, it’s sweater season anyway!
Do you love xiaolongbao a.k.a. soup dumplings? Are you tired of schlepping to Queens or Chinatown to get them? Then get excited! Because Chef Zongxing Tu is opening Yaso Tangbao on Lawrence Street in Downtown Brooklyn this fall- just in time for soup season. The restaurant is still under construction but should be open by the end of September. Check them out on Facebook in the meantime.
Winter Biergarten
The Grand Prospect Hall in Park Slope recently opened up The Brooklyn Bavarian Biergarten for all your drinking needs, and while the outdoor space looks great, lush with trees and decorated with string lights, you might find yourself kind of cold out there by October. Fortunately, they’re adding a Wintergarten indoors that will have five flatscreen TVs showing football games every Sunday. And of course, you’ll be able to choose from their 24 taps with German and Brooklyn brews and plenty of delicious Bavarian foods like perogies, pretzels with mustard, sausage and beet salad. We have a feeling this beer garden is going to be a Sunday Sunday staple for many Brooklynites.
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History buffs and architecture enthusiasts cannot miss the 13th Annual Open House Weekend, October 17-18. The weekend spans all five boroughs and includes tours of over 300 architecturally significant buildings and a chance to meet the people who worked on them. Visit their website for the itinerary and the chance to sign up for the buildings that require reservations, and follow them on Facebook as they reveal some of the spots on this year’s weekend, like Google’s New York headquarters, the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse and the Sunset Park Army Terminal.
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Sunshine Laundromat and Pinball’s bar
Doing laundry is never fun unless you’re at Sunshine Laundromat and Pinball in Greenpoint! Sunshine has always provided pinball to bored patrons, but they upped the ante when they announced they were adding a bar to the equation. The renovation/bar addition is happening as we speak, and when Sunshine is finished with everything (around Halloween according to Greenpointers) it will have a vintage bar, live music and a whole separate room for your pinballing needs.
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Chuko Bushwick
Prospect Heights ramen staple Chuko, is perpetually crowded, even with two Prospect Heights spots across the street from each other. So the owners decided to open a third location in Bushwick! The Bushwick location will be located at 144 Evergreen and will have a backyard where you can enjoy beer and $1 yakitori skewers. There have been a couple false starts with the exact opening date, but their hiring announcement points to an October opening for this soon to be hotspot.
Halloween Harvest at Luna Park
You don’t have to go all the way to Six Flags for your Halloween theme park action. In Coney Island, Halloween lasts from September 26 until November 1. Every weekend Luna Park will offer family friendly Halloween events such as Jack’s Pumpkin Shack (where you can guess the weight of a giant pumpkin and win prizes), creepy crawly crafts, dances, contests, karaoke, picking your own pumpkin painting, a dog costume contest, spooky stories and s’mores.
Brooklyn Poets is a non-profit organization which provides classes and other resources for Brooklyn poets. They also have a reading series featuring some of the best poets in the borough at venues around Brooklyn, which is back on the mainland after happening on Governors Island this summer. The reading series’ next edition is on November 5 at Smack Mellon (92 Plymouth Street, DUMBO) and best of all, it’s free! So it’s a great place to take a date to impress them with your cultured ways and still have enough cash left over for dinner.
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The return of the 773 Lounge
Not even a fire could stop Ditmas Park dive bar 773 Lounge. After a successful crowdfunding campaign, the bar was going for a September reopening, with nifty improvements like free wifi, but according to Facebook it looks like it’s going to happen in mid-October. Waiting a couple extra weeks is no problem, as having an unassuming and welcoming place to sit down and watch sports with some old-timers is worth waiting for.