It’s East Williamsburg or Industrial Williamsburg or West Bushwick – I guess it all depends, despite how stupid it sounds, on how you look at the relationship you share with your area. For the culturally-insulated, West Bushwick may sound edgier, emblematic of a flower punk ethos budding throughout the warehouse lofts. To a certain extent, the DIY set inflate their own obstacles to create a foundation for accomplishments grandiose enough to appease their personal vanities, and maybe that’s what you need to survive other all-too-clear realizations in the area, in general. On the other hand, for the gentrified hip, East Williamsburg retains a bit of status, albeit an indentured popularity, if it even has one.

The transients, the artists, the hipsters, the scattered permanents in their row housing, the blue collar workers at Boar’s Head – we all call it home. But no one else comes here. Some say it’s booming, others lament when their delusions are revealed and exaggerate the squalor. The newest residents in the neighborhood (comparably), at best, are a loose organization of romantic outlanders; a bit of sharpie in the 248 McKibbin Dorms reads: When love is outlawed, only outlaws will have love.

In the beginning though, Bushwick was a German village; later rediscovered by Italian immigrants around the time of World War I, and after World War II, settled by Puerto Ricans. But when the last brewery closed its doors in the seventies and the riots of ’77 ravaged the neighborhood, Bushwick seemed destined for industrial rot. It’s remained in a state of suspended decapitation more or less ever since, harboring only those that needed low-rent shelter until art types started moving in. And Bushwick or not, the turf caged between the Montrose and Morgan Avenue stops on the L Train shares the same contemporary features.

Old warehouses. Shotty corner bodegas. Makeshift business operations. A general sparse malaise… Two friends of mine were robbed a few years back in broad daylight while on the phone with their mamas. But things have certainly changed; barren becomes dicey and dicey becomes cool and the slow hand of gentrification does its magic. Some folks got wise back in the early nineties and started packing people into loft spaces, and small co-op businesses and art deluges sprouted up. It isn’t necessarily pretty, but those that call it home, even briefly, know the corner of Seigel and Bogart.

All neighborhoods have a center, or at least they did, and urban planning departments across the country are returning to the “life center” concept in attempts to repair predecessor mistakes. It’s a general axiom of economic development; concentric circles of service and influence and all that jazz. Communities can’t exist as a donut. So to walk this area and see nothing, and then stumble onto a corner with an upscale (spendy) full-service market, an adjoining art house movie rental/wireless café and a filthy, whiskey-serious bar around the building (among other entities like Ad Hoc Art), you pretty much know you’ve found it. And in all reality, if this place does pull itself up and out of its studded, paint-splattered Carhartt’s, it’s likely to center on this corner, especially with the proximity of the Morgan L stop.

Brooklyn Naturals LLC 49 Bogart St (between Grattan St & Moore St) Brooklyn, NY 11206 (718) 381-0650 Hours: Mon-Sun 6:30 am – 1:30 am

The anchor is clearly Brooklyn Naturals , a surprising boutique grocer right on the corner. Yeah, it isn’t cheap – at least not for produce or beverages, but the selection is unquestionably satisfying for anyone not expecting an organic, vegan market… or a fresh meat smorgasbord. You’ll find a good selection of craft beer and if you’re willing to spend the money, Red Jacket Orchards brand juices will completely overtake you. Get there before 11am and you’ll be able to grab one of the faster, delicious bagel sandwiches in the area. And their lunch sandwiches are equally blissful, but then anything with avocado and brie is, isn’t it? And there is plenty of health-conscious flare throughout the store – Burt’s Natural products, etc. A note to the wise, don’t eat the sushi late in the day. It isn’t good to begin with, but the rice is pretty much dehydrated by sundown.

The Archive Café and Independent Video Store
49 Bogart St
(between Grattan St & Moore St)
Brooklyn, NY 11206
(718) 381-1944

Hours:
Mon-Fri 7:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m.
Sat-Sun 10:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m.

And then right next door,The Archive Café and Independent Video Store. Now, rental fees are less than ideal – around $2.50 a day – but you have to remember that you can’t stay in business without customers and they won’t have them until the area residents stay around the area at night. And for the cost, you’re going to find one of the most lean, precise selections I’ve ever seen. A high concentration of Criterion Collection titles, top-shelf documentaries and all the camp and cult releases you’d have on your NetFlix queue. French New Wave, Italian Camp, Japanese Shock – it’s all here. They’ve even separated the major directors. And you’re likely to catch something showing in store on the projector, but none of it comes off pretentious. If this area were ever to have a town meeting, this would be the place. What may fail as a coffee shop on multiple levels, works for open public space. Communal tables, an uncluttered (read: unutilized) seating area, free Wi-Fi and even a community listing board, but you’re not coming here for the prepackaged paninis or the passable coffee. Why would you, with the grocer next door. Still, if you’re free-lancing and looking for a place to work, it remains respectfully quiet throughout the day. But if you’re looking for something a bit more exciting, ask to use the bathroom and get lost along the way.

The Archive Café and Independent Video Store 49 Bogart St (bet. Grattan St & Moore St) Brooklyn, NY 11206 (718) 381-1944 Hours: Mon-Fri 7 am11 pm Sat-Sun 10 am-11 pm

Every corner needs a bar, or at least that’s the way it is in Wisconsin. Yet, few seem to revel in their obscurity the way Kings County does. It’s almost acclaimed the way the rusty “XXX” rides the red light above the door. A lone sprig tree stands guard. Known primarily as a whiskey bar, Kings County is a dim, candle-lit dive that seems to attract the affections of either gruntsmen or hipsters, and there’s no rhyme or reason or schedule or tendencies to indicate which it will be on a given night. You can probably bank on the hip kids being around on Sundays after 10pm, when the jukebox, pretty amazing in its own right, is replaced by half-hour, homegrown DJ sets from anyone with an iPod. But with prices as they are, diversity follows; anyone with a taste for the drink in the area has been inside, and plenty have gone with each other. Smokers will appreciate the onsite sale of cigs and the luxurious smoking parlor in the back i.e. alleyway. And the best thing? Non-alcoholic drinks are free – where else are you going to find that in New York?

So call it what you will. You have to admit it’s getting better, a little better all the time…

Kings County 286 Seigel Street (between White and Bogart Sts) Brooklyn, NY 11206 (718) 418-8823 Hours: Daily, 4pm-4am Cards: American Express, MasterCard, Visa Happy Hour: Daily, 4pm-8pm; $3 drafts and $5 Buds with shot of Jack Daniels