V: Vanderbilt Avenue

I’ve been a frequent rider of the 69 bus, which traverses Vanderbilt Avenue, for the past 2 years. The section between Grand Army Plaza and Atlantic Avenue in Prospect Heights is constantly evolving. There’s an interesting mixture of old and new–a faded ad for Brooklyn BBQ is painted on the side of a building right next to a tiny French cafe. It’s a beautiful, brownstone-y stretch of blocks, and one ripe for visiting. Next time you’re in the area, get off the bus and take a stroll.

U: Uncle Louie G

Uncle Louie G is a Brooklyn-based ice cream chain with rich, creamy flavors and a decidedly neighborhood feel. This isn’t the place to go for organic basil gelato, but when a scoop of bada-bing cherry vanilla or pistachio nutz is what you’re craving (see the complete list of flavors here), then Louie G will hook you up. The outlet nearest me, at 157 Prospect Park Southwest, is just a window in a wall with a couple of picnic tables and garbage dumpsters in a lot bordering the park. On hot summer nights middle age couples share sundaes and kids ride up to order on their bikes. At one point my goal was to sample every single flavor they sold, but this got to be too much of a challenge when I fell in love with banana head and couldn’t move on. Uncle Louie G’s also boasts 40 flavors of Italian ice.

The chain has been so successful (it’s been around for less than 10 years and has already expanded to Manhattan, New Jersey, and even Florida) that borough president Marty Markowitz proclaimed June 10th to be “Uncle Louie G Day” back in 2002. It’s a little too late to celebrate officially this year, but with 8 Brooklyn locations, you can grab a cone and make today your own Uncle Louie G Day.

T: The Tooth

Ever wonder about the tall, clock tower building that looms over the edge of Fort Greene and downtown Brooklyn, right next to the Atlantic Terminal Mall? It’s allowed me to tell time from as far away as Park Slope, where I remember waiting outside in the freezing cold, watching the minutes tick by, when a show at Southpaw started very, very late.

S: Siren Music Festival

This Saturday from noon-9pm, Coney Island is home to the annual Siren Music Festival. The free, all ages show will include headlining performances by The New York Dolls and M.I.A. I’m personally most excited about We Are Scientists (graduates of my alma matter) and the up and coming, Bushwick-based White Rabbits (who you can also hear on tonight’s Letterman).

What could be more fun for a summer Saturday than free music and the beach? Just be sure to bring sunscreen!

Simple, Summer Food

The New York Times published a great article on simple summer food yesterday. They list 101 meal ideas that involve less than ten minutes of cooking time and just a handful of ingredients.

The article is definitely worth a look, but to make it work for our generation, you may need to make a few changes.

R: Rats

Now that Ratatouille and this study have come out, maybe my love of rats won’t be so strange. OK, I would certainly be freaked out to have one of the furry fellows living in my apartment, but I have an obsession with observing and reading about them. When it’s midnight at the Metropolitian stop and I’m waiting for the G, rat counting is my favorite activity. And have you seen how many there are on the border of Prospect Park? I used to think that the crunching leaves I heard in the trees along Prospect Park South West were squirrels, until one evening I realized that the noise came from a whole colony of rats. As I licked my banana head ice cream they multiplied before my very eyes.

Q: Q-train

Brooklyn’s got its share of MTA subway trains. While many people wax poetic about the literary F or root for the underdog G, my affections lie with the fast, reliable Q. It’s more of a functional relationship than one filled with drama and passion, but hey, maybe those are the ones that last anyway.

My vote for the Q is based mainly on two great features:

• neighborhoods traversed
• express status

The Q stops at a lot of my favorite neighborhoods as it snakes its way through the borough of kings. The DeKalb stop is a pleasant walk from Fort Greene and Clinton Hill (and across the block from Junior’s for all your cheese cake/egg cream needs) and Atlantic Avenue is a Brooklyn transportation hub and home of clothes and home improvement genius Target (what do you say to that, Manhattan?). The 7th Ave/Flatbush stop is perfect for reaching both Prospect Heights and Park Slope. The next two stops take you to the North and East sides of Prospect Park, and then you get the Brooklyn College area, the lettered avenues (Avenue Q!), and finally Coney Island.

Even better than the diversity of neighborhoods crossed is the speed with which the Q gets you to them. From DeKalb to Union Square is just 2 stops! Want to visit Pearl Paint for some art supplies or get dim sum in Chinatown? The Q will get you there from Park Slope in 15 minutes. And for some reason the Q seems to have a lot less construction delays than some of the other lines.

So if you’re in the market for a new Brooklyn rental, consider making proximity to the Q train high up on your list of requirements.

P: Pete’s Candy Store

Bored of the usual beer & chat? With free weekly poetry readings, bingo games, and spelling bees, Pete’s Candy Store is the perfect bar for those who need a little entertainment with their booze. The drinks are excellent (I’m partial to the French Gimlet with fresh lime juice), if a little expensive. I go on bingo nights, though, so I just think of the $8 price tag as part of the cost of the game.

My bingo curiosity and its proximity to cheap Polish food were what first brought me to Pete’s. The game is fun and rushed–you might want to sit out your first round and watch hands moving from card to card to drink to card before you dive into the madness yourself. You can play as many cards as you want, and almost everyone seems to win a prize (think leftover Halloween candy in July, paper lanterns, and AC/DC CDs) eventually. You will not be disappointed. I never win anything, and even I walked out of Pete’s clutching a set of duck shaped magnates after my very first visit.

O: Ocean Adventure

While we’ve yet to create any of our own Forever 22 podcasts, one of my favorite This American Life radio stories details an ocean adventure right in Brooklyn’s backyard.

The episode, In the Shadow of the City, first aired in February of this year. Each of the three acts features a hidden urban adventure–crazy stories happening in major metropolises, somehow just out of sight. Act one is “Brooklyn Archipelago.” It’s the hilarious tale of Alex Zharov, a sweet-sounding guy who gets shipwrecked on a tiny Jamaica Bay island during a day out with friends.

Alex takes the whole adventure very seriously, as well a shipwrecked young man should, I suppose, but imagining him making smoke signals and worrying about dehydration just miles from Time’s Square’s crowds tickles me every time.

So plug some headphones into your computer and eat lunch at your desk while listening to the show. Even if you’re stuck in an overly air conditioned office, you can still get out on Brooklyn’s water with Alex and This American Life.