A charming glimpse of
one of Prospect Heights’ foremost restaurateurs: Francine Stephens (of Franny’s brick-oven pizzeria and wine bar on Flatbush Avenue) practices banjo in the backyard of her restaurant before opening hours. She apologized for the disturbance on this particular spring day, calling herself a “beginner,” but it sounded pretty good to us. (Picture taken from my kitchen window)
Franny’s appeared in The New York Times earlier this month in “Honey, There’s a Fish in the Bathtub.”
Hands On New York Day (formerly N.Y. Cares Spring Clean-Up) is this Saturday, April 16. Basically it’s a day for New Yorkers to celebrate spring in the city while beautifying over fifty parks in the process. Prospect Heights locals can partake in nearby clean-up action at Prospect Park, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.: “Meet at the north end of the Long Meadow. Enter the Park at Grand Army Plaza.” One way to look at it: a way to contribute to the community by helping revitalize our shared outdoor spaces. Another way to look at it: a chance to indulge your obsessive-compulsive disorder by correcting flaw after flaw after flaw in our urban environment. Aren’t you just dying to pick up that crumpled potato chip bag lying in the grass, and that dried-up condom stuck to the path? A fun opportunity to right some of the world’s wrongs…. [Photo: J. Chesbrough; prospect park with the bike gang: April 18, 2004.]
…means outdoor drinking, of course! And at what better place than Soda Bar, which just doubled its backyard patio space (seen here, still sparsely furnished). Last summer, the occasional cat was known to emerge from that formerly boarded-up lot and greet our drunken, dangling fingers. We just hope she’ll come back.
As previously reported, The Jane Pauley Show visited Prospect Heights’ own Freddy’s Bar and Backroom last month to film Knit Night. Two weeks later, news hit that the show was canceled, and the debut of Freddy’s on national television was in jeopardy. However, although the show is ending production in mid-April, the knitting craft segment — “Creative Outlets” — made the cut and will air toward the end of April or beginning of May.
Knit Night organizer Tony Limuaco says, “The clip was about 30 seconds long at the taping, which is pretty long for a clip. It might get cut shorter, hopefully cropping out the receding hairline of a man from Guam, or possibly his gut…. So get your TIVO all set up and check the site for the air date…. As you show up at Knit Night this Sunday, March 20, walk in proudly knowing that Freddy’s has national coverage.”
See Dailyheights’ earlier post about this subject: “Knitting Is the New Bowling.”
A Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn volunteer meeting to oppose Bruce Ratner’s proposed Nets Arena and 17 high-rise development plan for the area will be held on Tuesday, March 15 on Pacific St. btwn. 5th & 6th Ave., starting between 6:30-7pm. For more information, such as meeting address, contact Heather.