PHOTO: TOM RUPOLO
BROOKLYN CRAB: 24 Reed Street, 718.643.2722.
Next on our visit is Pier 41, Liberty Warehouse, a magnificent brick warehouse with arched windows and doorways. It’s been adaptively reused as a banquet hall, a glass studio and a winery. Pier 41 was built in 1873 as part of the waterfront that made Red Hook a major shipping and warehousing center in the mid-19th century. At RED HOOK WINERY, while sipping Riesling, Rosé, Viognier and Petit Verdot made from grapes grown on Long Island and upstate New York, we chat with Virginia—that’s actually not her name, it’s the state she’s from, but we wind up calling her Virginia because we never learn her actual name. Virginia has lived in Red Hook for a little over a year. She likes it, and was here when Superstorm Sandy brought water midway up the walls of the building and volunteers rallied to bail out the winery. www.redhookwinery.com At the end of the warehouse is STEVE’S AUTHENTIC KEY LIME PIE—by some standards, the best key lime pie in New York. They are made in small batches from fresh-squeezed Key limes from Florida and handmade crust with real butter. We sample a small tart. www.stevesauthentic.com We walk up the street to BROOKLYN CRAB—Virginia recommended it—and climb the steps to a tree house of a building where we sit at a table in the bar area. Our plan is to eat everywhere in Red Hook, so we’re just going to have a bite here. We order six Maryland blue crabs boiled in a spicy mixture. Our condiments are in a basket on the table, as is a roll of paper towels—essential for this messy operation, beginning with peeling back the key on the underside of the crab, cracking the shell and peeling off the top, then the gills, to get to the succulent white meat. It’s a lot of work for not a lot of meat, but that’s what makes it taste so good. I end up with Old Bay-seasoned crab juice all over me. brooklyncrab.com After a good scrub down, we head for the WATERFRONT MUSEUM, a barge that the curator bought for a dollar and restored in 1986. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the more than 100-year-old barge has been located here since 1994. The museum was founded to preserve the flavor of life along the river. Just outside the museum is a landscaped waterfront park connecting to Liberty Warehouse. www.waterfrontmuseum.org The ADDED VALUE RED HOOK FARMERS MARKET is open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and offers veggies, poultry, pork,
beef, fish, smoked meats, eggs, baked goods and more from farms throughout New York State. Food demos, author appearances and live music add to the family-friendly atmosphere. www.added-value.org/the-farmers-market We visit another large warehouse that has been turned into an art gallery on two floors by the BROOKLYN WATERFRONT ARTISTS COALITION. The enormous Civil War-era space is not only ideal for exhibiting art, but each arched window, with its views of the harbor and the Statue of Liberty, is a work of art. BWAC (pronounced bee-wack) was organized in 1978 by 16 artists looking for a place to exhibit, and has grown to become Brooklyn's largest artist-run organization. www.bwac.org We continue on Van Brunt Street, poking in shop windows, noting areas still in need of restoration. Superstorm Sandy wasn’t kind to Red Hook, and there are signs of recovery underway. We pass a sign that says “Chocolate Factory Tours” and follow it excitedly. Founded by Daniel Prieto Preston, an inventor and aerospace engineer whose family has been farming organic cacao and sugar cane in the Dominican Republic for more than 100 years, CACAO PRIETO produces bean-to-bar chocolate daily and distills a line of small batch, cacao-based liqueurs and rums. From the website we learn that the warehouse space smells like chocolate and is full of shiny machinery that makes you feel like you’ve stepped back in time. But, bummer, Cacao Prieto is closed on Saturday! We shall return. Products ranging from preserves to soaps and Nutella-like spreads are available through the website, as are liqueurs and, of course, chocolate. cacaoprieto.com After checking out the Lobster Pound—lobster rolls and lobster bisque to go—we opt for the sit-down comfort of THE GOOD FORK, Red Hook’s fine dining establishment. Owned and operated by the husband of its Korean chef, The Good Fork offers contemporary fare with a Korean twist—sides of kimchi and Korean pancakes. We share a special appetizer of scallops that melt in your mouth. My brother enjoys a ricotta-based gnocchi with ramp pesto, and I make a meal out of the Prince Edward Island mussels in a coconut broth. www.goodfork.com After dinner, we cruise around, looking for the site of my old apartment. I think it was Pioneer Street, but I can’t be sure. There’s absolutely no way to verify where it was, so I might as well just make it up. Sure, it was Pioneer Street. U
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