This weekend's post is actually about what I'll be doing this weekend! It's the Fancy Ladies Dive Bar Society's first Red Hook outing. We are touring Nobletree Coffee to see how their beans are roasted #roastthembeans, then Cacao Prieto, which is a whiskey distillery and chocolate factory in one. They do private tours, but we didn't sign up early enough, so instead we are going to overwhelm whoever else signed up for our time slot. I also LOVE Van Brunt Stillhouse, another distillery out there; Stillhouse bourbon is my favorite summer whiskey, so I need to get back there soon.
In the spring and summer, Red Hook is a bomb place to spend a Saturday. Because of the amount of space and existing warehouses, it's home to many distilleries, roasteries, and other large-scale operations. Gowanus is similar, with Industry City as a hub of make-it-yourself local businesses. These neighborhoods are also home to massive outdoor beer garden/restaurant establishments like Pig Beach, again because of how much room there is further away from the city center.
It's a drastic change from Manhattan, and I highly recommend that tourists, or Manhattanites who generally refuse to leave the island, make the journey. It also has NYC's IKEA, which is always a fun time. Just don't try to return items on a Sunday because it's a DMV-level wait.
The beautiful, clean, sparkling Gowanus Canal
Musically, it's still Weed Week over here, and today is literally 4/20, so I was going to go with Snoop Dogg. But he's hella West Coast, so I ended up going with Fly Gypsy's version of Snoop's "I Wanna Rock." It's about Brooklyn, where Red Hook and Gowanus are, and it reminds me of a time in my life when 4/20 meant a lot to me. Hope you enjoy! #worldstar