We love all the fringy, indie, ride-your-bike-to-’em doings here in Brooklyn, but every so often, who doesn’t like putting on their evening best and heading out for a Broadway show and dinner with the out-of-town crowd at some Times Square joint?
That’s why we’re happy to have a pair of give-away tickets to the Wednesday, Oct. 7 preview performance of Bye Bye Birdie, starring John Stamos and Gina Gershon, and a $100 gift certificate at Tony’s Di Napoli, which is one of those family-style, heaping-platter places where your doggie bags will feed you and your commune-mates for a week. (Let the vegans pick out the pork sausage).
The deal, sponsored by the ticket discounter Seasons of Savings, is this: we’ll trade you this expensive, but actually free, date for a cheap one: You have until Wednesday, Sept. 30 to tell us your favorite ideas for low-rent romance in Brooklyn.
Submit as many ideas as you like (but please put all 43 in one email) but quality counts over quantity. Post them here in the comments section for all to see and be inspired by. If we like your date(s) better than all the others, you get the tickets.
We’ll pick a winner on Thursday morning when we’re nursing our BK Meatup hangover. A hint: we already know about the Brooklyn Bridge, the Botanic Garden and the Coney Island boardwalk. Tell us something we don’t know.
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Brunch at Cheryl’s Global Soul http://cherylsglobalsoul.com/index.html
For $10 you get eggs, toast and potatoes plus coffee and a mimosa or bloody mary. The back garden is dreamy.
Matinee at Cobble Hill Cinemas (try to resist the popcorn, it’s actually still popped fresh!), late lunch of falafel at Zaytoons, and then head over to Tea Lounge for happy hour after 5 – half price drafts! A pint of Six Point Sweet Action is something like $2.50.
1. High quality jazz for $5pp at the Inkwell in Prospect-Lefferts Garden. No drink minimums, so just lean back on the couch for a snuggle while all that good music rolls over you.
2.The steps of the Brooklyn Museum of Art. For the price of a bottle of wine and whatever fixins you have at home, dine alfresco in a beautiful space. Play in the dancing fountain and feel like a kid again.
3.Make-up a picnic lunch and grab your drink of choice and head over to the Grand Army Plaza Arch. Sit on the steps and watch all the wedding parties coming for pictures. Plan or reminisce about your own wedding.
1. Walk to Prospect Park with picnic foods and drinks. Enjoy some ladder-golf/bocce/catch while relaxing in the sun.
2. Go to the Brooklyn Museum which is either free on the first Saturday night of the month or “pay-what-you-wish” during regular hours.
3. Visit Washington Commons (Park & Washington) during happy hour for $2 off all drafts (meaning some pints are $3) while you order some food in from either Chavellas (Mexican food at Park & Classon) or Bombay Massala (Indian food at Prospect & Franklin). Both give a lot of food for a little cash.
4. Go to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens on a Tuesday afternoon. (free!) After that, exit onto Flatbush to simply cross into Prospect Park and sit with a home-packed dinner watching the carousel go ’round or enjoy the beauty of the park.
5. Sit on the Promenade and watch the skyline while paper-bagging your bodega-bought drinks
Pick up various snacks from Sahadi’s and goodies from One Girl Cookies. Go to the playground at Henry and Pacific (at night there aren’t any kids!) Sidewalk chalk is always fun too. There is something about reverting back to childhood that can’t be beat. And then of course you can be generic and head over the promenade (sometimes generic can’t be beat!) You could even live on the wild side and stash some cheap wine in your coat to sip and stroll :)
1. Take the free ferry from Fulton Ferry Landing to Governors Island weekends from May to October. There’s always some sort of art festival or live music going on. On Fridays, they let you use their bikes for free.
2. Head to Red Hook for lunch from one of the food trucks at the Red Hook ball fields. Then if it’s a Saturday, check out the Waterfront Museum, which is on a barge (free admission!) Or, if it’s the first Sunday of the month, go to Sunny’s Bar at 3:00 for readings by New York authors.
Win free tix to see Bye-Bye Birdie: ) Otherwise: take the 7 train to the Vernon-Jackson stop in Queens for a romantic walk along the boardwalk, for the best view in NY; MoMa on Fri or Gug on Sat – pay as you wish hours; tasting along St. Mark’s little restaurants, end up at Wine Bar; free dancing at different studios on the last Fri of each month; $6 movie at AMC before noon; free kayaking or bike riding…so many great things to do in NY for cheap!
a walk in central park
For about $10 per person you can visit Smoke Restaurant on the Upper West Side a couple blocks south of Columbia University. It is a very intimate setting that has live jazz on the weekend during brunch hours in an open-air setting. The food is absolutely incredible and the live music is both entertaining and it can help eliminate any awkward silences on a first date!
take the water taxi to red hook, go to ikea and fill up a cup w/ coffee/hot chocolate from the cafe, walk around the store and have fun with all the displays, back to the cafe for meatballs, and back to the city on the water taxi!
Meet for an 11 AM juice & bagel date at The Bagel Store on Bedford in Williamsburg. Grab a table and proceed to form hypotheses on what the hipsters got up to the night before as they wander in (hungover and wearing the same shiny clothes from Friday) for their own tasty bagels. Be as outrageous as possible. Laugh a lot, especially when the awesome cashier woman gets impatient.
Bring your bathing suit, a bottle of vodka, an empty stomach and trek over to Mermaid Spa (near Coney Island). For $30 per person, get hot and sweaty with your jacuzzi lover. Later enjoy some borscht and dumplings with that secret bottle of vodka. There are other Russian baths throughout Brooklyn for $30, more or less.
Tuesday night Lobster Night at Wombat in Williamsburg! $13 will get you a whole lobster, prepare one of the three ways. Get the fries as a side, they’re on of the best I’ve tasted.
Wombat has a deal every night Monday – Thursday. $1 Oysters, Burgers and Beer for $12 on Wednesday, and Crab Legs on Thursday. Plus they have a $22 3-course prix-fix and $26 tasting menu during the week. It’s one of my favorite restaurants in the city!
Free kayak rental on the Gowanas Canal.
Sure, the water is icky, but it’s a conversation starter, plus you’ll get to see your potential mate in a swimsuit off the bat!
Incidentally, my beau and I did this on our first date, the anniversary of which is today.
Watch a free comedy show at Angles and Kings and drink and dance the night away.
Free shows at Freddy’s Backroom (every night!) and Yummy Tacos on Flatbush…
Go to Lomzynianka in Greenpoint. It’s a tiny little Polish restaurant off the Nassau G stop and the food is a-mazing. The decor is kitchy, but oddly romantic . . . it’s intimate and there’s no loud music playing. It’s BYOB and the huge Polish platter is only $7.50 – you can easily get away with spending less than $20 for a dinner for two!
Afterwards, take a long walk up Manhattan Avenue and go to the Brooklyn Ice Cream factory on Commercial Street (the strawberry is the best I’ve had). Enjoy your ice creams while walking back down beautiful Franklin Street!
1. Sunday morning start on Cortelyou Road with brunch en plein aire at the farmer’s market, then take a stroll around the gorgeous victorian neighborhood gawking at houses.
2. Bike down Ocean Parkway to the boardwalk and join in the free disco that seems to be permanently happening. Then walk along to Brighton Beach and enjoy a filling bowl of borscht at a beachside table while watching the gorgeous Russian youth flirt with each other.
3. Head to Williamsburg for a Friday evening of gallery hopping, drink cheap nasty wine at pretentious art openings and grow closer by making fun of all the hipsters.
4. One of my favorites is walking from the Pakistan-town of Coney Island Ave through Borough Park (down 18th Avenue and around) and winding up in Brooklyn’s own Chinatown for cheap dim sum (8th Ave around 64th St). You get to travel around the world in a mere few miles.
1) Head to the New York Aquarium on a Friday, after 3:00 it is pay what you wish. Follow that with a walk on the beach and dinner/snack at Nathan’s Famous.
2) Go to Lulu’s in Greenpoint. With each beer ordered you can get a free personal pizza.