Center for Fiction set to open in Fort Greene
By Julianne McShane The building only has three
floors, but it has thousands of
stories!
The country’s only organization
devoted to fiction will open its doors
in Fort Greene on Feb. 19. The Center
for Fiction’s move from the distant
isle of Manhattan to Brooklyn will
give this borough’s many scribes and
bibliophiles a chance to come together
in a new and modern space, said its
executive director.
“So much of our encounters with
others happen in virtual spaces now,
and for us it’s really important to have
a place that people can walk into and
talk with one another face-to-face in
— about books, about cultural experiences
they’re having, but also to help
one another process what’s going on
in the world,” said Noreen Tomassi.
“Brooklyn’s crawling with writers,
and there are so many readers here. It’s
such a literary place.”
The space features state-of-theart
facilities, including a 140-seat
auditorium equipped to livestream
events, and a studio where bookish
bigwigs can record the center’s podcast,
“Fiction Talks.” The upgrades
will help expand the center’s mission
to explore the role of fiction across
television, films, podcasts, and video
games, said Tomassi.
“Because of our technical capabilities
here, we’re much more able to
expand our notion of fiction beyond
just fiction in books to the way people
tell stories and hear stories in various
media,” she said.
But readers can still indulge their
love for a good old-fashioned book at
the center’s bookstore, which offers
classic and bestselling fiction, along
with a selection of poetry, kids’ books,
graphic novels, and nonfiction. Those
who shell out the $150 annual membership
fee can also access a sleek
reading room, the adjacent garden
terrace, and a library of more than
70,000 books, including rare 19thcentury
tomes and more than 16,000
crime-fiction titles.
The Center will launch its new
space with an already-sold-out gala
event on Feb. 19, which will be followed
by a regular series of readings,
COURIER L 56 IFE, FEB, 15-21, 2019 24-7
talks with authors, and writing
workshops, all of which will be open
to the public.
The executive director said she
hopes that visitors will feel comfortable
in the new space, and will use it
to connect with each other.
“We want to create a forum for
ideas and interchangements, and make
people feel like they have a home
here,” she said.
The Center for Fiction (15
Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Place in
Fort Greene, www.centerforfiction.
org). Opening Feb. 19. $150 annual
membership ($275 for couples; $325
for households of three or more).
By Bill Roundy Get hopping, ladies!
A Ditmas Park beer bar
will host a competition for the
best suds brewed by a woman on
March 30 — but the deadline to enter
is this coming weekend!
The owner of Sycamore dreamed
up the Brooklyn Women Homebrew
Competition as a way to recognize
local ladies during the month of
March.
“It’s during Women’s History, or
Herstory, Month, and I wanted to do
something to celebrate women,” said
Kathie Lee, who lives in Flatbush.
Her bar has a long history of celebrating
amateur brewers, she said, so it
made sense to continue that tradition.
“Sycamore was one of the first
bars to have a homebrew competition,
Brooklyn Wort in 2010 . It’s part of the
history of the bar,” she said.
Those who want to apply for the
female fermentation festival must do
so by Sunday, Feb. 17. The six-week
gap before the final event will give
late entrants enough time to work up a
brand new batch, said Lee.
Response to the contest has been
strongly positive, and several regulars
at the bar signed up as soon as they
heard about it, said Lee.
There is no fee to enter, but each
contestant must brew at least 2.5
gallons of beer, so she can serve
samples to the roughly 70 people
that Lee expects to show up for the
competition. Details for that event
are still being worked out, she said,
but the competition will definitely
have two prizes: a people’s choice,
decided by popular vote, and a judge’s
prize, determined by two professional
brewers: Katarina Martinez, the coowner
of Brooklyn’s Lineup Brewing,
and Mary Izett, from Fifth Hammer
Brewing in Queens.
Entered beers can be any style, and
Lee said that the only judging criteria
will be “Does it taste good?”
“We’re being very casual about it,”
she said. “It’s based on taste, but it’s
really quite open.”
Brooklyn Women Homebrew
Competition at Sycamore Bar and
Flowershop 1118 Cortelyou Rd.
between Stratford and Westminster
roads in Ditmas Park, (347) 240–
5850, www.sycamorebrooklyn.com/
brooklynwomenhomebrew. Sign up
by Feb. 17. Free.
ABy Alexandra Simon nd the award goes
to…
A Bedford-
Stuyvesant Caribbean eatery
was recognized as one
of the country’s best community
restaurants this
month. The A&A Bake and
Double and Roti Shop, run
by Noel and Geeta Brown,
was announced as a recipient
of the James Beard
Foundation’s American
Classics award on Feb. 1.
The honor recognizes spots
with “timeless appeal,” that
reflect the character of their
community. Of this year’s
five recipients, the Roti Shop
is the only New York area
restaurant, and the only one
serving Caribbean cuisine.
The thrilled restaurateurs
said there was a simple reason
they were selected for
the prestigious award.
“Our food is excellent
and cheap and we serve it all
day,” said Noel Brown.
Brown’s Fulton Street
restaurant serves up popular
Trinidadian fare, and the
award specifically noted its
doubles — curried chickpea
sandwiches served between
fried flatbread — along
with its bake, roti, and other
dishes from the twin-island
republic.
The food at the Roti Shop,
according to the Foundation,
is a “delicious reminder of
Bed-Stuy’s rich Caribbean
history.”
The Foundation’s other
awards rely on outside
nominations, but winners in
the American Classics category
are suggested by its
19-member Restaurant and
Chef Awards Committee.
The group of food critics
each year consider hundreds
of restaurants that meet the
three criteria for the award:
being in operation for at
least a decade, being locally
owned, and serving moderately
priced food options.
The family-run business
began serving its doughy
snacks and flatbread in
Bedford-Stuyvesant in 2002.
The neighborhood has seen
major demographic changes
since then, but Brown said
that the newcomers have
become part of their loyal
clientele.
“The area’s been changing
a lot, but a lot of the
new people are curious to
taste what we have — they
are always adventurous,” he
said.
Since the award was
announced, Brown said that
he has seen a slight increase
in patrons, but vowed to
retain the cultural authenticity
that earned the prize.
“I’ve seen a few new customers
and it’s been great,
but we’re taking it one at a
time,” said Brown. “We’re
not going to change and
everything will still be the
same. We’re going to keep
maintaining our home-like
vibe and atmosphere.”
A&A Bake and Double
and Roti Shop 1337 Fulton
St. between Verona Place and
Nostrand Avenue in Bedford-
Stuyvesant, (347) 425–0016,
www.aandabakedoublesandrotishop.
com. Open Mon,
6:30 am–4:30 pm; Tue–Sat,
6:30 am–7 pm.
Bookish bigwig: Noreen Tomassi, the executive director of Fort Greene’s new Center for
Fiction, hopes scribes and bibliophiles will use the space to form connections.
Beowulf Sheehan
Just like home: Geeta and Noel Brown serve different variations of
doubles — a doughy Trinidadian street food often eaten with chickpeas.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
Raise a glass: Brewer Katarina Martinez,
the co-owner of Lineup Brewing, will
judge the Brooklyn Women Homebrew
Competition on March 30.
File photo by Stefano Giovannini
Double up!
A NEW CHAPTER
Beer-ded ladies
Bed-Stuy eatery wins
major dining honor
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