Just call it Booze Aid!

By Aaron Short

Spirits are rising — to save the City Reliquary!

Brooklyn’s most revered mixologists will show off the borough’s smoothest spirits in a tasty taste test on Friday at The Brooklyn Kitchen.

The booze-and-schmoose fundraiser will benefit the City Reliquary, Williamsburg’s most beloved micro-museum and curator of do-it-yourself craft culture.

The Reliquary’s Matt Levy says it’s the perfect time to try all those Brooklyn-made cocktails you’ve been reading about, such as Kings County Distilling’s whiskey and Breuckelen Distilling’s gin — which Levy likes straight up.

“Brooklyn Distilling makes a mighty fine gin and I like all the cocktails being served — I’m an equal opportunity drinker,” said Levy, adding that there will be “no baptisms” allowed.

Thirsty guests can sample mixed drinks at five cocktail tables, including a wine station with Red Hook Wines and a beer station with — what else? — Brooklyn Brewery showing off its top shelf stuff.

Make sure you try Sother Teague’s “Jack Rose,” an applejack sidecar she developed at Rye, and a dark rum daquiri that Joel Lee Kulp developed at The Richardson.

And to ensure that people don’t pass out on the floor, there will be salty, alcohol-absorbing treats from The Meat Hook, Saltie, The Commodore, Roebling Tea Room, Momofuku Baker, and coffee from Oslo.

So get into the spirit! — just make sure to call a cab home first.

Booze and Schmooze with the City Reliquary at The Brooklyn Kitchen [100 Frost St. at Meeker Avenue in Williamsburg, (718) 389-2982], Feb. 25. 7-11 pm. $75-$100. For tickets, http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/155768.

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Brooklyn Kitchen on the move

A few months back we detailed the Brooklyn Kitchen's new Labs location and Meat Hook store at 100 Frost St. That site features two teaching kitchens, grocery items, produce, grains, brewing supplies and whole local protein.

As of tomorrow, it will now also be the permanent home for the Brooklyn Kitchen, as the original store location at 616 Lorimer St. is moving to Frost Street as well.

Looking to get that Le Creuset pot you've always wanted? The Lorimer Street shop is having a big sale Thursday through Monday as a result of the move, with 20% off everything in the store and deeper discounts on All-Clad, Le Creuset, Kikuichi, Messermeister and Lamson Sharp knives.

Need tips on what to do with those knives? Brooklyn Labs has a packed month of programming coming up in March, including a course on knife skills on the 1st. Boo-yah!

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Super Bowl, super parties

It's the first Sunday of February. That means one thing - Super Bowwwwl!

If you're not content to watch the game from your couch, head to these parties in Brooklyn around 6:30 pm, pick a team, and cheer.

Big screens: As many lanes there are at Brooklyn Bowl, there are screens. Pick one and watch the game this Sunday, and maybe bowl just for the fun of it, too, since you can't play football. Free. Located at 61 Wythe Ave. in Williamsburg.

Going all out: 200 Fifth in Park Slope is the type of bar that just waits for a big sports event, with its 65 TV screens and 40 beers on tap. This Sunday, they're throwing a Super Bowl party, natch. There is a $25 minimum in the restaurant, $30 if you're at the main bar. Located at 200 Fifth Ave.

Mardi Gras: Fort Defiance in Red Hook is celebrating Fat Tuesday early this Sunday, with a New Orleans-themed Super Bowl party. Don Mardi Gras beads and down Hurricanes, Jello shots and Abita while filling up on classic New Orleans fare like fried catfish and muffalettas. Oh yeah, the game will be on too. Starting at 5 pm. Located at 365 Van Brunt St.

Laid-back atmosphere: Park Slope's Pacific Standard will provide the screens, and a mellow alternative to the typical sports bar on the big day. Though there will be beer. Free. Located at 82 Fourth Ave.

Homebody: OK, so if you are staying home to watch the game, the Brooklyn Kitchen in Williamsburg has you covered: "We will be offering a Blitz of our most football-friendly, psychedelic sausages: the infamous Bacon Cheeseburger, Bratwursts, Buffalo Chicken & Bleu Cheese, Spicy Big Bites, Long Dong Bud's, and for the 'Classy' fan, the Red Wine & Rosemary." Oh my. Located at 616 Lorimer St. 718-349-5033.

The Chessbowl: Or, if you're completely avoiding a TV screen and sports bar on Sunday, head to Beer Table, which will be throwing their nerdy alternative, an unofficial chess tournament. Devise your own brackets, just for the hell of it. Free. From 6-10 pm. Located at 427 Seventh Ave.

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Hungry for the holidays

Our earlier post has gotten us in the holiday spirit a bit prematurely (it's not even Thanksgiving!).

But, it can't hurt to plan ahead. That's especially the case with the new offering of classes from the Brooklyn Kitchen, coming to their brand new space at 100 Frost St., and sure to fill up fast.

Some holiday-themed highlights that caught our eye that are perfect for that office Secret Santa or for yourself, include:

Sticky Holidays

December 1, 6:30 p.m.

Liz Gutman and Jen King of Liddabit Sweets prepare delicious holiday confections that you can give away to your friends... if you can keep your hands off of them. Come and discover the magic of candy you make yourself with these talented folk. Each student will go home with the recipes demonstrated and a sample of the sweets prepared.

Holiday Preserves

December 6, 2:00 p.m.

In the spirit of homemade gift-giving, Kelly Geary of Sweet Deliverance will demonstrate how to create seasonal preserves that make great holiday gifts, with recipes that will come in handy all year long. Kelly will also demonstrate canning techniques that will allow you to develop your own recipes safely and deliciously. Each student will take home a jar of preserves.

Holiday Cookie Workshop

December 12 and December 19, 11 a.m.

Nearly all day you can be baking and decorating cookies in their main kitchen, Lab #1. $10 gets you a baker's dozen, and advice from their very own Lila Dobbs, who will be standing by to answer all your cookie-related queries, and offer holiday baking tips.

Gingerbread Houses

December 15, 6:30 p.m.

Katie Robinson makes great cakes - she has worked at some of the top bakeries in New York, and has been featured on two Food Network Cake Challenges. But this month we're getting into the holiday spirit and she's teaching you how to make gingerbread houses. Everyone will get to build a house, and decorate it under Katie's expert tutelage. This class is decidedly hands-on, and students can bring their houses home.

Biscotti Making

December 16, 2:00 p.m.

Giving a homemade gift can be infinitely more rewarding than a purchased one, that's why Chef Brendan McDermott is teaching you how to make three different kinds of biscotti this season. Each student will get to taste the finished result, and take home the recipes. Imagine how cute your biscotti will look when it's wrapped up and ready to be gifted away...or eaten by you.

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Brooklyn Kitchen goes whole hog with 'Food Dork Community Center'

Previously we shared news about the Brooklyn Kitchen's new venture, Brooklyn Kitchen Labs. Here's a more in-depth look at the school/butcher/supply store, opening November 16.

By Aaron Short

Taylor Erkkinen and Harry Rosenblum, the popular co-owners of the three-year old Brooklyn Kitchen, always wanted a place to experiment with unusual ingredients and offer a range of cooking classes occurring with increasing regularity in their cramped kitchenware store at Lorimer Street and Skillman Avenue.

Down the street, Marlow and Daughters’ (95 Broadway) carnivorous butcher Tom Mylan (pictured) was growing restless. Mylan enjoyed teaching pig butchering classes at the Brooklyn Kitchen for the past two years, but wanted to do more creatively in a larger space.

“I really respect Mark (Firth) and Andrew (Tarlow) at Diner. They offered me a unique environment for us to grow but at a certain point, you have to go off on your own and do your own thing,” said Mylan.

His conversations with Rosenblum and Erkkinen and two-ex Diner chefs led to their purchase of a new test kitchen, Brooklyn Kitchen Labs, a 7,000-square-foot former warehouse adjacent to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. It is the kitchen of their dreams. On November 16, it will be a reality, rivaling the Park Slope Food Co-op as the epicenter of Brooklyn foodie activity.

“It was so big and beautiful we had no choice but to buy it,” said Mylan. “We want to work out our collective obsessions here and turn the place into a Food Dork Community Center for all our friends in the Brooklyn food community.”

That’s the hope anyway. In reality, Rosenblum explained that there will be two laboratories consisting of two teaching spaces, one 1,500 square feet and the other 1,000 square feet with room for 35 to 60 hands on demonstrations. There will also be a full-service custom butcher shop called The Meat Hook (run by Mylan), a bulk room of locally sourced dry goods and oils, brewing and baking supplies, and even a research library of out of print cookbooks for the particularly food-obsessed.

“We’re not going to be set up as an incubator for small businesses,” said Rosenblum. “We’re set up primarily for home cooks, people who come in and say, ‘Hey I want to make this thing or help me figure it out.’ We will be uniquely suited to that.”

Once the laboratory is up and running, Rosenblum explained that there will be chefs and cooking experts on hand throughout the day and on weekends to help neighborhood foodies figure out the latest culinary challenge, no matter how weird. Classes ranging from knife skills to bread-making to kombucha, an elaborate process for making fermented tea, will be offered at the labs, with all the care and expertise previously available at The Brooklyn Kitchen, but with more space and a commercial dishwasher.

“We should have a Persian or Latin-themed Thanksgiving sides class, but we’re going to see what people want to learn,” said Rosenblum.

Mylan is particularly excited not only about operating his own butcher shop, which he hopes will become “the best butcher stop in New York State,” but about learning from so many colleagues warehoused in the same space.

“I can’t wait to take a bread-making class or a pasta-making class,” said Mylan. “No one knows it all in food.”

The Brooklyn Kitchen Labs, located at 100 Frost St., will be open on November 16. For more information call 718-389-2982.

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Brooklyn Kitchen expands

The New York Times Diner's Journal notes that Brooklyn Kitchen Labs, your one stop for making your dinner in its entirety, with its cooking school, butcher shop, and brewing and winemaking supply store, will open November 16.

With classes often selling out at the Brooklyn Kitchen in Williamsburg, the owners decided it was high time to open a space for bigger classes.

A who's who of the Brooklyn culinary scene, the labs will feature Tom Mylan, formerly of the butcher shop Marlow & Daughters, and his new butcher shop, the Meat Hook, and Ben Turley and Brent Young, of the restaurant Marlow & Sons.

Brooklyn Kitchen Labs will be held in a 7,000 square foot warehouse two blocks from the Brooklyn Kitchen, at 100 First Street. For more information, call 718-349-5033.

Photo: Natalie Behring/New York Times

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Some help on those cupcakes

Photo: brooklynkitchen.com

Tonight, professional cake artist Katie Robinson will be at the Brooklyn Kitchen to help prospective competitors in the Williamsburg store's Third Annual Cupcake Cook-off, this May 11. Even if you're not competing, you'll get tips and recipes for cakes and decorating suggestions from a master.


Related: Next up, cupcakes

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Next up: cupcakes

Last year's winner, Kate Brown, with her salted caramel frosting cupcakes

There was apple pie. There was casserole. There was chili. There was meat. Now, there's cupcakes.

Next Monday, May 11, Brooklyn Kitchen will hold its Third Annual Cupcake Cook-off at Union Pool.

Last year's Best in Show was awarded to a chocolate cupcake with salted caramel frosting creation, so creativity is a must. Other entrieds ranged widely from fruit flavors including Kari Lobe’s passion fruit and cream cheese frosting to alcohol soaked batters such as the Mint Julep cupcake, as well as a "I can’t believe I moved to Bushwick for you"; specifically, a red velvet strawberry rhubarb pie cupcake.

More information here. Interested bakers can register by e-mailing cupcakes@thebrooklynkitchen.com.

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