(718) 260–2500 Brooklyn Paper’s essential guide to the Borough of Kings March 29–April 4, 2019
Fans fl ock to concert series held in underground cheese cave DRINKING Culture club Cave music: Taylor Ashton
CINEMA
Direct her
Call it the Attack of the 50 Film Women!
A short cartoon about serial killers, the Devil,
and traffic jams will screen as part of 50 femalemade
movies at the three-day Women’s Film Festival,
starting at St. Francis College in Brooklyn
Heights on April 4. “Panic Attack!” (pictured)
is a comedic take on the way that women’s fears
and frustrations often persist even after being
ignored, according to its creator.
“I think women have a tendency to stuff down
things that are driving them insane and making
them furious,” said Eileen O’Meara, who lives in
the distant land of Los Angeles. “Men are more
allowed to be angry, but culturally we’re supposed
to shove stuff down more, and maybe it
does come out in anxiety for women.”
O’Meara drew, animated, and voiced the threeminute
film, which follows a woman on her
morning drive as her routine worries (“You’re
going to be late!”) escalate to more dire predictions
(“Did you leave the coffee on? You
better turn around or the house will catch on
fire!”). The artist said that the animated short
was an effort to put her own constant stressors to
artistic use.
“I was so overwhelmed with anxious thoughts
myself, I was trying to figure out a way to make
it a constructive part of my life,” she said. “Part
of me was trying to turn the tables on the stuff
that was torturing me.”
The free, fourth annual festival — which runs
from April 4–6 — will offer women filmmakers
a chance to connect with each other and their audience
— a rare opportunity, since female moviemakers
were excluded from such spaces for so
long, according to the event’s director.
“All film festivals for the first 100 years or
so were men’s film festivals,” said Fort Greene
resident Augusta Palmer, who teaches communication
arts at the school. “I think it’s still good
to have some women-only spaces in terms of
the production of the films.”
St. Francis students and faculty chose the
50 films from more than 200 submissions, according
to Palmer. Festival highlights include
the comedy “Heather Has Four Moms,” about
a teenage girl whose four lesbian mothers oppose
her losing her virginity with her boyfriend,
and “The Trail,” a horror film about a biracial
couple who get lost on a hike together. The fest
will also include panels focusing on the business
side of the industry, including discussions
about crowd-funding and distributing films on
April 4.
Women’s Film Festival at St. Francis College
(180 Remsen St. between Clinton and Court
streets in Brooklyn Heights, www.sfc.edu). April
4–6. “Panic Attack” on April 6 at 4 pm. Free.
— Julianne McShane
MUSIC
NIGHTLIFE
By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Paper
The Crown Heights underground music
scene is tight!
A monthly concert series located inside
a century-old subterranean tunnel has
become so popular among Kings County
music fans that its operators have chosen
to ditch their first-come, first-served ticket
policy in favor of a lottery system. They
hope the new policy will even the playing
field between quick-clicking cyber-jockeys
and more casual attendees.
“The last three concerts sold out less
than a minute after tickets went on sale,”
said property owner Benton Brown.
“People were furious.”
The tunnel was originally built by 19th
century beer-maker Nassau Brewery to
hold barrels of lager as they aged. Brown
and his wife Susan Boyle use one of the
three sprawling, 1850s-era vaults beneath
their Bergen Street property as a cheeseaging
facility, under the moniker Crown
Finish Caves. The grotto holds upwards of
30,000 pounds of curdled dairy, which can
spend up to a year fermenting in the cool
darkness 30 feet below ground.
But once a month or so, the couple hosts
some of the city’s most intimate musical performances
in one of the vacant vaults. The
70 tickets they sell online evaporate almost
instantly, consigning hundreds of would-be
show-goers to hopelessly massive wait lists,
according to Brown. A recent show featuring
jazz vocalist Queen Esther left 860 people
on the stand-by list feeling bleu.
The music is great, said the Crown Heights
cheese maker, but the show’s unique and exclusive
venue provides an undeniable draw.
“It’s an experience,” said Brown. “You’re
going to a kind of space you’ve never really
been to before.”
The cheese cave’s next show, featuring
fiddlers Sammy Lind and Nadine Landry
on May 2, will feature the first audience
chosen by lottery. Would-be attendees can
start signing up at Crown Finish Cave’s
website on April 15.
The cheese makers will also raffle off
chances to buy five pairs of tickets to the
next show to customers who buy cheese at
their monthly pop-up sales event, held at
their Bergen Street dairy business. Brown
described the raffle as “the easy way” of
getting into the shows. Interested cheeseeaters
should keep an eye on the business’s
Instagram page to hear about the next popup
sale.
Barrel in
Big Alice is getting bigger!
A Queens brewery has opened its new taproom
in the borough of Kings, where the people
are! The co-founder of Big Alice Brewing
said that its new Industry
City location, which
opened on March 1, has
attracted a whole new
crew for its brew.
“It’s a different crowd
mix for us,” said Kyle
Hurst (pictured), “There’s
a lot of families who live
in Sunset Park, and people
who just happen to
stumble upon us.”
The original brewery
is hidden in an industrial
Queens neighborhood, where its only visitors
were dedicated craft beer fans specifically seeking
out the brewhouse, he said.
“We’re in such a desolate location,” said Hurst.
“If they come to Long Island City, they are there
for craft beers.”
The bright new space, dubbed the Big Alice
Barrel Room, has about three times the footage
of the tiny brewing spot in Queens. Much
of the floorspace is given over to the namesake
wooden barrels, where various beers spend a few
weeks to a few months soaking up the flavors
of the wood, and of the barrel’s previous occupants.
The new spot has given the brewers the
space and opportunity to experiment with new
combinations, said Hurst.
“Different barrels impart different flavors,”
he noted. “Whatever was in the barrels previously,
you’ll get those characteristics. We’ve
done some work with Islay Scotch barrels, and
you get a smoky, peaty flavor.”
All the beer is still brewed in Big Alice’s
Queens location, then transported in tanks to
Sunset Park to be stored in the barrel room.
For visitors, the Barrel Room has 16 taps pouring
Big Alice beers and a few guest ciders, along
with bottles and cans. A stage against the interior
wall will soon hold trivia contests, musical
acts, and other entertainment, said Hurst.
Big Alice Brewing Barrel Room (52 34th St.
between Second and Third avenues in Sunset
Park, www.bigalicebrewing.com). Open Mon–
Thu, 11 am–10 pm; Fri–Sat, 11 am–11 pm; Sun,
11 am–8 pm. — Bill Roundy
performs in the vaults
of the Crown Finish Caves
in Crown Heights.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
Catch a show at Crown Finish Caves
925 Bergen St. between Classon and
Franklin avenues in Crown Heights,
(718) 857–2717, www.crownfi nishcaves.
com. May 2 at 8 pm. $32.
by Aidan Graham
Brooklyn Paper
Talk about an intoxicating performance!
A new show will combine beer,
ballet, and burlesque into a heady
brew that satisfies all your senses.
“Brooklyn Beerlesque,” pouring into
the Brooklyn Brewery on April 8,
will pair provocative performances
of music and dance with compatible
local lagers, ales, and stouts, said the
show’s creator.
“We take the beer and we’ll come
up with a dance piece closely linked
with the history and the quality of the
beer,” said David Slone, who lives
Williamsburg. “For example, we’ll
take a Russian stout and put on a Russian
themed performance.”
Each ticket to the hour-long show
includes a flight of beers that correspond
to the show’s six song-anddance
numbers, along with a free
full-sized pour. Slone, who is a licensed
Cicerone, or beer expert, will
also introduce each of the intimate
numbers.
“We’ll have five performers —
me as the emcee of the event, three
dancers, and a surprise guest,” he
teased.
Together they will present an
alluring ale-powered show for up
150 guests in the brewery’s taproom,
which was recently remodeled
to allow a more intimate feel,
said Slone.
“Brooklyn Brewery has revamped
their tasting room, which allows us
to make the performance more immersive,”
he said. “We can talk about
the history and style of the beer, talk
about the performance, and guests
can ask questions.”
The performers are part of Slone’s
theatrical dance company the Love
Show, which often performs across
the river in Manhattan, as well as at
Bushwick’s House of Yes. If the debut
performance at the Williamsburg
brewery goes well, the group hopes
to make it a monthly event.
Slone first planned the boozy burlesque
spectacle for 2012, but it was
shelved when the brewery realized
that it would violate the city’s archaic
cabaret laws, which were passed during
Prohibition. Those laws were repealed
in 2017, and Slone is ready to
give it another shot.
“Up until recently, you couldn’t
have more than one person moving
rhythmically in a place that didn’t
have a cabaret licence. It was basically
used by the city to shut down
dance clubs,” he said. “Now that those
laws are gone, we’re back!”
Thirst troupe
Boozy burlesque show set to
conquer Brooklyn Brewery
A crafty show: The Love Show Dancers will present a beer-themed
burlesque show at the Brooklyn Brewery on April 8.
Bryan Kwon
“Brooklyn Beerlesque” at the
Brooklyn Brewery. 79 N. 11th
St. between Wythe Avenue and
Berry Street in Williamsburg, (718)
486–7422, www.brooklynbrewery.
com. April 8 at 7:30 pm. $35 ($30
in advance).
Big Alice Brewing
Eileen O’Meara
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/www.brooklynbrewery
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