February 15–21, 2019 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 AWP 11
Tommaso’s
Carnevale Menu
Friday, February 22nd through
Fat Tuesday, March 5th
HOT & COLD ANTIPASTI
15 different items special to Carnevale
PASTA
choice of:
Lasagna Carnevale Santa Lucia
CARNE
choice of:
DESSERT
choice of:
Coffee or Tea
Saturday, February 23rd, Saturday, March 2nd
and Fat Tuesday, March 5th – $60.00 p.p.
All other days – $50.00 p.p.
Continuous Entertainment! Operatic Arias, Folks Songs and Broadway Standards
I ta l i a n Re s taur a n t
1464 86th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11228
(Between 14th and 15th Avenues)
718.236.9883
www.tommasoinbrooklyn.com
By Alexandra Simon
Brooklyn Paper
And 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.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
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 has
served popular Trinidadian fare to the
neighborhood since 2002, 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.”
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.
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
It’s a giant show with an intimate
feel.
An expansive new exhibit on iconic
Mexican painter Frida Kahlo offers an
amazingly personal look into the artist’s
life. “Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can
Be Deceiving,” now on display at the
Brooklyn Museum, brings a host of her
private items to the United States for the
first time, including her clothes, jewelry,
cosmetics, medicines, and orthopedic
corsets, which she wore after a bus accident
broke her spine at age 18.
The exhibit demonstrates how Kahlo
meticulously fashioned her public persona,
both in her appearance and in her
artwork, according to one of the show’s
curators.
“The show expands our understanding
of Kahlo by revealing the unique
power behind the ways she presented
herself in the world and depicted herself
in art,” said Catherine Morris.
Among the objects on display are
two of the plaster corsets Kahlo wore
while in the hospital after her accident.
She used a mirror to draw the communist
symbol of the hammer and sickle
on the front of the casts, integrating
them into her wardrobe and making
the bulky items seem like deliberately
chosen pieces.
The exhibit also shows how she used
her sartorial choices to champion the
cultural renaissance known as Mexicanidad,
by publicly wearing Tehuana
dresses she bought from indigenous vendors
in Mexico City.
The curators sourced Kahlo’s belongings
from her lifelong Mexico City home
Casa Azul, or Blue House, which is now
a museum dedicated to the artist.
At the Brooklyn Museum, the artifacts
are arranged to focus on different
themes in Kahlo’s life, including her communist
politics, her turbulent marriage
to fellow painter Diego Rivera, and her
visits to the United States.
Kahlo visited New York several times,
first in 1931 when her husband was commissioned
to paint a mural at Rockefeller
Center, and again in 1937 when
she returned to exhibit her own work.
She immediately fell in love with the
city, but the disparity of wealth she saw
reaffirmed her political convictions, according
to the exhibit.
The show also features a surprising
connection between Kahlo and the Bard
of Brooklyn. A collection of Walt Whitman’s
poems, translated into Spanish,
was found on her bedside table when
she died in 1954.
The curators of the show hope that
the display of Kahlo’s work and her life
can help to offset negative portrayals of
Mexico that are common in American
politics, and that it can offer visitors a
more accurate picture of Mexico’s vibrant
cultural heritage, according to the
museum’s director.
“As we see how our neighbors and
friends in Mexico are being portrayed
here in the United States, the time is now
to spotlight more dignified and truthful
and celebratory portraits of Mexico’s
great history, great traditions, and great
culture,” said Anne Pasternak.
“Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be
Deceiving” at Brooklyn Museum 200
Eastern Pkwy., at Washington Avenue
in Prospect Heights, www.brooklynmuseum.
org, (718) 638-5000. Running
through May 12. Timed tickets $20–
$25, untimed $35.
Viva La Frida!
A vast new exhibit looks at the
Mexican artist’s life and work
Double up
Prestigious honor
for Bed-Stuy eatery
Icon: “Frida Kahlo: Appearances
Can Be Deceiving” hosts an array
of the artist’s personal belongings.
She visited New York City several
times — this photo by Nickolas
Murayher shows her on a Manhattan
rooftop in 1946.
Brooklyn Museum
Family business: Geeta Brown,
right, and her husband Noel, serve
a customer inside their Bedford-
Stuyvesant restaurant.
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