DIY: Trivets (What? Hint: You Want One)

It has been an incredibly busy summer but as fall begins, I have promised myself I will at least make time for ONE little DIY project that has been on my list for a while.

I have some beautiful old kitchen tiles from our summer home in Cesme which we replaced a few years ago during a renovation. I have been saving a few to make trivets so that I can continue using them in my own kitchen. Although I'm planning to make my trivets with "used" tiles, you can also use store bought/new tile or really anything similar.

My kitchen tiles in their original glory!

The main challenge I face is the caked on mortar on the backside. After some googling, I found these instructions on how to apply muriatic acid for a project like this. After that, I intend to apply self-adhesive thin cork sheet (or rubber cement regular cork sheet), and voila! A way I can continue to use my beloved tiles!

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Sunset Park

Sunset Park is one of Brooklyn’s most diverse neighborhoods, with an old world, friendly vibe that residents love. The park itself serves as the perfect centerpiece for the surrounding row houses, amazing Chinese and Latin American restaurants, and offers beautiful views. Industry City and the Brooklyn Army Terminal also have begun to offer industrial co-working spaces that promise to bring the same arts and design professionals that made Williamsburg in to a world-wide brand.

Compared to Williamsburg, Sunset Park offers a similar vibe with more than half the price - $517 per square foot versus $1146 per square foot in closed sales in the most recent quarter.

“Sunset Park is unique in New York's gastronomic demimonde… Domincan, Mexican, Peruvian, Ecuadorian, and Salvadoran places, and the stray diner and Hasidic spot, are all tumbled down the hill toward the Upper Bay, while an ever-expanding Chinatown on top lures you with Vietnamese, Yunnan, Sichuan, Cantonese, Malaysian, and the occasional Thai place. You pick. Either way, dinner will be cheap and tasty. Sunset Park is one of the city's great unsung food destinations” – The Village Voice (09/2014)

- SIGHTS -

Sunset Park – Not just a namesake for the neighborhood, Sunset park is the highest point in Brooklyn and offers spectacular views in to Manhattan, Brooklyn, and even Staten Island (1624 10th Avenue @ 16th Street, Hours: Thur – Sun 12pm-6pm)

- EAT -

Ba Xuyen – This beloved Vietnamese sandwich shop is good enough to make locals hurry home from work in Manhattan just so they could score a banh mi for supper. ​Recently, the place has added a wider selection to the menu and now also serves good apps along with Chinese pastries and cakes in the Hong Kong style. (4222 Eighth Avenue, Hours: 7:30am – 6:30pm)

Green Fig Bakery - Conveniently located just uphill from the 36th Street express stop, this newcomer offers amazing coffee, overstuffed sandwiches, little square slices of pizza, along with assorted vegan cakes, cookies, and pastries. (462 36th Street)

- DIM SUM -

East Harbor Seafood Palace – The largest of the neighborhoods Dim Sum Meccas, waiters sport maroon tuxedos and bow ties in an expansive 500+ seat dining room replete with massive chandeliers (714 65th Street, Hours: 9am – 11pm Daily)

Pacificana – Huge crowds, long waits, but according to the raver reviews and regular visitors, this dim sum spot serves up enough spectacular bites to be worth any wait (813 55th Street, Hours: 9am-11:30pm Daily)

If you are interested in exploring our entire Brooklyn Series at once, please reach out and we can get you the full brochure.

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Stone Street

Stone Street is a tiny cobbled street, a time capsule of New York’s past that sits at the base of the towering skyscrapers of the Financial District in Manhattan. It is home to the oldest buildings in New York City, the last remaining remnants of “New Amsterdam,” the original settlement created by the Dutch West India Company in the 1600s.

Originally known as Brewer Street (or Brouwer Straet in Dutch) Stone Street got its first name in 1632 when the Dutch built North America’s first (but certainly not last) brewery right here in NYC on the newly cobbled street. During the 1700s, the street became known as Duke Street. The area was largely commercial and included neighboring South William and Pearl Street. However, after the Great Fire in 1835, which destroyed more than 700 buildings in downtown New York many of the burnt out original Dutch buildings in the area were rebuilt with quick and simple facades, giving rise to blocks of severe brick and granite buildings that were used mostly by merchants and importers handling products like cotton and tobacco.

By the beginning of the 20th century, as the first generation of downtown skyscrapers demolished many older buildings to make way for a new development in the area, The Real Estate Record and Guide quoted a 1904 account that described the area as “a melancholy street of monotonous warehouses.” Stone, William, and Pearl Street held the last vestiges of any original buildings, but were ignored from the end of the 1800’s until the early 1900’s. In fact, The New York Times mused in 1901 that the crooked streets “remained… only to bewilder modern New Yorkers.”

Amos F. Eno was the first owner in the area to commission a restoration of the original architecture of the area. In 1903 he hired architect C.P.H. Gilbert to rebuild 57 Stone Street in Dutch Colonial Revival architecture. Over time Amos reconstructed many of his other buildings on neighboring William Street in the Dutch revival style, evoking how they would have appeared in their original state in “New Amsterdam.” Gradually other area owners and investors began to follow suit and a rebirth of Dutch renaissance design continued through the end of the 9120’s. Perhaps the pinnacle of the restoration, Block Hall was renovated in 1929 at 21-23 South William Street, with a dazzling half-timbered facade and mansard roof, designed by William Neil Smith as a businessmen’s lunch club. Named after the Dutch explorer Adrian Block, Block Hall had a gym, squash courts, dining rooms, a billiard room, telephones and stock tickers.

During the Great Depression and the decades that followed, the area again fell in to neglect. While Stone Street originally ran from Broad Street to Hanover Square, it was divided into two sections by the construction of the Goldman Sachs building at 85 Broad Street in the 1980s.

It was only in the mid 1990s that a joint partnership between the Landmarks Commission, the Alliance for Downtown New York, and Stone Street owners began to transform Stone Street from a forgotten back alley into one of FIDI’s liveliest destinations. Restored buildings, granite paving to protect and repair older cobblestones, and period streetlights have brought the area back to a modernized semblance of its original form. It is now home to half a dozen restaurants and cafes, with outdoor tables that have become popular for locals and tourists alike, especially on warm late spring, summer, and even early fall nights.

Today the cluster of historic buildings along Stone, South William, Pearl Streets and Coenties Alley form the Stone Street Historic District. It was officially designated as a historical landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1996 and is now pedestrian-only.

As summer ends and fall begins, take advantage of a few more weeks of balmy evenings and take a stroll on Manhattan’s first street. Other notable landmarks to check out in the area include The India House, located at the Hanover Square end of the street, and the final building to get a rehabilitation in the area, 19 South William Street, which is now home to a buzzing Biergarten that also happens to be on our short list for Oktoberfest 2016 destinations.

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