Saturday Morning Pie and Flea in Brooklyn

Saturday a.k.a. cheat day the one day of the week where I abandon all my healthy habits. This Saturday I decided to start early by having apple pie for breakfast. When you only have one day a week no regular slice of pie will do so we drove to Brooklyn to have a slice from Four and Twenty Blackbirds.

Four and Twenty Blackbirds 439 3rd Ave Brooklyn NY 11215 www.blackbird.com

Their pie selection varies in accordance with the ingredients available during the season. The first time I was here I had a rich and creamy slice of Lemon Chess pie. This time around I tried their well know Salty Caramel Apple Pie. The slices are big enough to share especially if you get a super rich flavor.

Salty Caramel Apple Pie Slice

The apples are sliced thin, the crust is crisp and flaky on top and buttery smooth on the bottom and there's a yummy sprinkle of salt baked onto the crust. I thought it was great and so did hubby but our friend was not so impressed. In his words the pie is "ehh" he said it tastes just as good as Waldbaums Scrumptious Apple pie that you can buy for $9. In any case I say try it out for yourself. I plan on going back soon to try a slice of their Honeyed Fig Pie. Oh and if you go be sure to get there early especially during the holidays because the pies sell out pretty quickly.

You know how there's always room for dessert, well turns out that when you eat dessert first there's no room for anything else! So with full bellies we headed over to Fort Greene to check out the Brooklyn Flea Market.

The Brooklyn flea has something like 150 vendors in a 40,000-square-foot schoolyard. The website says rain or shine but be warned if you ever show up on a rainy day you will be lucky to find a couple of vendors out which I learned firsthand.

The Brooklyn Flea176 Lafayette Ave. (btwn. Clermont + Vanderbilt Ave.)

There certainly are lots of vendors, and I was happy to see that it wasn't all jewelry like many flea markets tend to be. The majority of vendors were selling vintage housewares, furniture and clothing and there was also a hearty mixtures of craft vendors and about 10 food vendors.

Here were some of my favorites:

The Gifted Putterer www.thegiftedputterer.com

3 cheese and apple grilled cheese sandwich

great upcycled planters

Almost missed these guys

It took us about 3 hours to wind our way through the entire market, you can miss some really cool things if you turn your head the wrong way for just a moment. So be ready to spend some time here and pay attention.

Sunday Morning in Astoria

After a leisurely breakfast I talked my husband into going for a "short walk" that turned into a little adventure.  We started off at 23 Ave and 25th St home to Tony's Bike Shop OR Astoria Bikes I'll let you decide.

Tony's Bicycles  35-01 23rd Ave Astoria NY 11105 tonysbicycles.com

 

 Tony's Bike Shop is packed from floor to ceiling with all kinds of bikes and accessories.  Don't walk in here expecting to browse unsupervised you will need some professional assistance, luckily they have plenty of knowledgeable and helpful staff.  Gotta love that.

We walked away with some free maps and some Jelly Belly Extreme Sport Beans.  The beans were only a couple of bucks and they're loaded with caffeine oh and they kinda made me think of Jim's magical legumes but the taste is vitamin-ish so next time I'll pass.

 

Next we strolled through some quiet residential streets heading east on 23rd Ave turning left onto 36th street where we found The Little Soap Shop

The Little Soap Shop 22-07 36th St. Astoria NY 11105 thelittlesoapshop.net

This tiny shop is packed with homemade soaps, skincare products, jewelry and gifts.  The owner Vivian, explained each item we asked about and in the end I walked away with an $18 jar of Almond body butter.  I've had it for almost a week now and I use it every day.  I don't wear perfume any longer because the light sweet almond scent lasts all day.  I even put a little in my hair to make it shiny.  Oh and this jar is going to last me forever so its well worth what it costs.

Vivian said they would be closing for a weekend (maybe this weekend) to do a quick shelf reset and make room for new products.  I will surely visit this store again. 

 This cracks me up, maybe because I can think of a few people who could use a little stinky foot   cure.  This is one of the stores best sellers!

After leaving the Little Soap Shop we turned south on 35th St. and made a right onto Ditmars Blvd passing a couple of shops we stopped at one of our everyday favorites Astoria's Finest Bagels on Ditmars between 33rd and 34th St.

Astoria's Finest Bagels 33-06 Ditmars Blvd Astoria NY 11105 astoriafinestbagels.com

If you are anywhere near this place you really should stop in.  The coffee here is beyond amazing.  Let me try and explain just how amazing:  

   1.My husband, an avid tea drinker has been converted after taking a couple of sips of my iced coffee one morning.

 2.Almost every time I'm in there, which is at least once a day, I will hear someone talking about how great the coffee is.  

  3.Some days when I'm walking with my iced coffee and I see people walking out of Dunkin with their iced coffee I actually feel bad for them.  

Try this coffee, you can thank me later.

With our caffeine fix taken care of we continued heading west on Ditmars Blvd and stopped at Nook n' Crannie on Ditmars between 29th and 30th St.

Nook n' Crannie 29-18 Ditmars Blvd Astoria NY 11105 betelofamerica.org

Nook n' Crannie is one of my favorite thrift shops.  They seem to specialize in housewares and furniture and unlike most thrift stores everything is in really good condition.  The shop keepers vary from day to day.  On this particular day we had the luck of being helped by a thickly accented man who knew each item like the back of his hand.

Here's a shot of that helpful shop keeper (the guy on the right), I didn't get his name so I'm just going to call him Mr. Know-it-all.  Oh and if you take a look at the sign on the wall you'll see that Nook n' Crannie isn't your run of the mill thrift shop, it's got purpose.

Mr. Know-it-all explained that this pretty baby was used to carry hot coals, and could be passed over a cold bed to warm it.  More importantly it could also be used to make a grilled cheese sandwich!  Oh the joy of multi-purpose gadgets.

Here's what I walked away with:  a cool vintage looking key that I got for free!!!! And a Mason Cash individual creamer for $2, a very cute addition to my creamer collection.

The key makes for a really cute short necklace. 

Loaded with tiny treasures we continued going west on Ditmars Ave and stopped at Inside Astoria between 27th and 28th St.

Inside Astoria 28-07 Ditmars Blvd Astoria NY 11105 (718) 956-4000

Put this shop on your list of places to go whenever you need a quick, thoughtful and often inexpensive gift. I couldn't get enough of their selection of coffee table books. 

These three are on my wishlist.  I will be returning to Inside Astoria often and especially come Christmas time.

Still trekking along Ditmars Blvd we turned left on 26th St to find Creators' Co-op a small shop run by 10 individual artists who each share the stores responsibilities and fill the shop with their own creations.  They also host classes some of which are free!!!!

Creator's Co-op 26-16 23rd Ave Astoria NY 11105 creators-coop.com

I found out about this store from an advertisement placed on a traffic light post.  I was in love with the concept, each artist has been hand selected for their original work.  Here are my thoughts on the place:

The children's clothes are very original and I love the sculptures made of mixed metal houseware items.  You could tell everything was well made but a lot of it I've seen before.  I was most excited about the classes, you can find class info on their website and in Boro magazine or on Boromag.com.

After 2 hours and 14 blocks we called it quits.  That was fun.  Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.