The Redhead Said » New York stories

Bill Cunningham New York Movie

Charlene Jaszewski — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 09:23:30 +0000

I’ve been a fan of the Sartorialist’s blog for a while now. The Sartorialist (Scott Schuman) is a photographer of street fashion in New York and other cosmopolitan cities around the world. Little did I know, he was not the first to do this. The master of the fashion and street photographers is Bill Cunningham. Vogue editor Anna Wintour says of him, “We dressed for Bill.”

The movie, Bill Cunningham New York is a limited release film about the New York photographer Bill Cunningham.

After watching this film all I could think was “what a pure soul.” I could fill this post with all the platitudes in sound bytes that Bill uttered, but it would not do it him justice. Bill Cunningham is a man who had such pure love of fashion, be it on the runway or on people in the street; a man who didn’t care for money or fame (but had both); a man who has such a child-like enthusiasm for his work and for life. His subjects could be rich or poor, famous or not, he didn’t care; he just cared about what people were wearing and if it was fascinating.

Here’s an example: the film showed him on a trip to Paris. At one point, the french paparazzi were swarming Catherine Deneuve. Bill was asked why he wasn’t taking pictures of her. He answered simply, “She wasn’t wearing anything interesting.”

So do yourself a favor, catch the movie Bill Cunningham New York at your local indieplex. (see schedule here). If you can’t find it locally, never fear, it comes out on DVD on September 13, 2011!

Bill Plympton: Independently Animated

Charlene Jaszewski — Sun, 29 May 2011 05:16:54 +0000

If you attended the lecture from animator Bill Plympton at Museum of the Moving Image the other night, the word that is indelibly burned into your brain is INDEPENDENT. Plympton was joined by David Levy, his friend and co-author of the new book about his life and art, Bill Plympton: Independently Animated.
Plympton started work as an illustrator back in the 70s, but it wasn’t until he released his 1991short “Your Face” the world finally got a taste of his twisted visual animated humor.

I myself first discovered Plympton back in the 90s, through the excellent Spike and Mike Twisted Animation Festivals.

I am a big fan of abstract humor, be it verbal or physical, so Plympton hits the right spot with me. He’s also got a great sense of how to use every plane of space in an animation. A great example is his Guard Dog series. The dog is all exploding mouth and buggy eyes, flinging himself into all four corners of the screen.

Plympton showed us a few of his animation shorts and didn’t do a whole lot of talking, and just gave a brief history of his early days. The best part of the lecture IMHO was when Plympton told of his college days, when he was learning to be an illustrator. He admitted that he was a great “academic” illustrator, but his drawings felt stiff.
Then came acid.
“You know how the Beatles music didn’t really change until they started taking drugs? Drugs changed my life.” He told us how taking acid opened up his mind and allowed him to see things differently. He showed us this painting, the first thing he did after that first drug experience. It was obvious that this art was NOT made by an “academic” illustrator.

After college he made his living as an illustrator and political cartoonist (i thought he was quite good, see the Reagan drawings below) but apparently he didn’t make much of a living at it.

Then one day he decided to draw the art of Your Face. It’s a simple animation, of a drawn man, singing a silly love song. His face mutates in dozens of odd ways. Just watch the link above.

He submitted it to an animation festival. He said he “hid his face” because he was so embarrassed. But people went NUTS. A few commercial deals followed (for Taco Bell and Trivial Pursuit among others).

When he got more well-known, Madonna even contacted him about doing some animations for a video for her song/movie “Who’s That Girl?” Here is one of the drawings Plympton submitted. She did not dig it.

After he was nominated for an Oscar for the Dog Days shorts, Disney came calling. Which was ironic, because at the age of 13, Bill Plympton wrote to Walt Disney asking for a job as an animator but was turned down. Disney sent a lawyer over to his house and offered him an obscene amount of money to be an animator. “This sounds good!” Plympton thought. Then came the conditions.

“Negotiating with Disney isn’t like good cop/bad cop; it’s like bad cop/Antichrist.”- Bill Plympton

The reason he turned Disney down is that Disney insisted that anything he did even outside of his work for Disney would be OWNED by Disney. “And what if I have a dream? – ‘yeah we’ll own that too.’”

Plympton screened several shorts for us.

The Cow Who Wanted to be a hamburger (2010)

A departure from Plympton’s usual obsessively-cross-hatched style. Very cartoonish, garish colors, and that wavy animation style that gives me a headache (if you remember the style of Dr. Katz, you know what I’m talking about). The music was done by a frequent collaborator, Nicole Renaud. The music melds delightfully with the animation, with wind instruments making the cow’s moos. (Sample clip below)

Guard Dog Global Jam (2011)

Guard Dog is a fan favorite short. Plympton got the idea that he’d let fans choose a scene and let them animate it, and then compile them all together. The day he put it up on the web, he waited until the appointed sign-up time, very excited, and put it up on the website and then – nothing. He kept checking for an hour or so to see if anyone had signed up, and no one had. He said he got depressed for a while, until he talked to his studio manager, and found out that SO MANY people had tried to log on and sign up that they’d crashed the server.

Winsor McCay’s Flying House

Winsor McCay is an illustrator and animator from the early part of the 19th century. He’s most famous for his Sunday newspaper cartoon series The Adventures of Little Nemo in Slumberland.
He got started doing illustration and political cartoons.
Got hired at the Journal American as a political cartoonist. His employer William Randolph Hearst forbid him to continue his work as an animator. He became quite rich (with a house in Sheepshead Bay) but his career went downhill after that. It’s really sad because he was quite gifted. “He could have been better than Disney” said Plympton.
Another sad note is that his house in Sheepshead Bay is now filled with squatters and graffiti.
Plympton is such a Winsor McCay fan that he is restoring (at his own expense) the McCay short “The Flying House.” The film is quite dirty and faded. Plympton and his team are cleaning up the film, hand-coloring each frame, removing the word balloons and replacing them with actual dialogue (provided by actors Patricia Clarkson and Matthew Modine). Here is the original…

and here are some frames that have been colored.

Plympton mentioned he is “running out of money” to fund the project so they will be launching a Kickstarter for it this summer.

Pencil Test Clip for “Cheaters” (name to be changed)

The final treat for us was a clip from an in-progress short he’s working on, about a woman who falls in love with a brute, who both cheat on each other, and then try to kill each other. Here is a short clip I recorded. Plympton kept saying how much he loved drawing this woman, how she’s so romantic and flowy.

i love how the layers are transparent (won’t be like this in the final)

Plympton gave an original drawing to each person at the lecture. Here’s my cow!

I’m also including a link to
How To Kiss This spawned from a drawing Plympton had done. He also told us that the people in this short are just “schlubs,” and “I like to drawing boring people, because then you can make them surreal.”

Idiots and Angels

This is a different kind of film by Bill Plympton. A very dark noir-ish tale about a man who suddenly grows a pair of angel wings. NO dialogue, and music by Tom Waits. you can imagine how wonderfully creepy it will be. (The DVD will be out July 2011)

Bill Plympton’s site is : Plymptoons.com

Queens Kickshaw-A Welcome Coffee Addition to Astoria

Charlene Jaszewski — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:36:42 +0000

Queens may be a secret gem of ethnic foods, but it’s sadly lacking in coffeeshops with character. That’s all over with the opening of Queens Kickshaw!Queens Kickshaw is a charming little coffee shop/grilled cheese stop that opens today in Astoria on Broadway and 41st, just steps off a busy Steinway corner.

I was invited to a media event yesterday by my friend Meg of We Heart Astoria, and was thrilled when I saw the space, ate the food, and met the owners. (Meg also took a great photoset of the place, better than my fuzzy iPhone photos).

They are serving coffee from Coffee Labs, soda from P&H Soda (from Queens!) and a small but drool-worthy menu of grilled cheeses, whose ingredients are sourced where possible from local vendors.

Food and Drink

We started with a cappuccino (with latte art!) from their La Marzocco Strada espresso machine (which apparently coffee nerds wet themselves over).

When I noticed the P&H Soda bottles on the wall, I asked barista Zach to make me his favorite mix. He made me a hibiscus and lime soda. It was DELISH! (and beautiful to look at too!)

Jen, (one of the owners) started sending over little sandwiches for Meg and I to try. We started with the “classic” cheddar sandwich (on brioche), then moved on to the Gruyere with caramelized onions on rye, and my favorite of the day, the Gouda. The Gouda was made with black bean hummus, guava jam, and jalapenos on brioche. They were all incredibly tasty.

Here are the rest of the sandwiches they are currently offering:

Cheddar and Mozzarella on Brioche with Tomato Soup
Gruyere Pickled & Caramelized Onions on Rye with Cabbage Caraway Slaw
Manchego & Ricotta, Minted Eggplant, Capers on Multigrain with Green Salad & Pickled Golden Raisins
Gouda Black Bean Hummus, Guava Jam and Pickled Jalapenos on Brioche with Green Salad & Jalapeno Vinaigrette
Feta, Roasted Red Pepper and Dill on Focaccia with Green Salad and Olive Vinaigrette
Fontina, Marinated Mushrooms and Basil Pesto on Focaccia with Green Salad and Toasted Pine Nuts
Great Hill Blue, Prune Jam and Pear on Cranberry Walnut Bread with Green Salad and Pickled Blueberries

All their bread is from Balthazar. Oddly enough Ben told me he wanted to source from local Queens bakeries, but couldn’t get the right mix of someone who would take a minimum order, and also get on a delivery route. “Even Queens bakeries don’t deliver to Queens!” That’s a business problem needing an answer right there!

In the summer when they get their liquor license they’ll start serving craft beers! Alas, they don’t have a backyard patio.

BUT WHERE ARE THE SWEETS? As a sweets fiend (“a meal’s not complete, unless you have a sweet”), I noticed that their menu lacked desserts. I’m told they will eventually have Balthazar pastries, and Ben said it’s their goal to eventually have desserts made in house, including his grandmother’s brownie recipe!

Pour Over Drip Coffee

Just about the time I was needing more caffeine, I noticed Ben doing some pouring into what looked like single serving coffee filters. I was recently introduced to the Chemex pour over technique, and this looked similar.

The barista measures out a single serving of coffee grounds in a cup, and carefully, in a spiral motion, pours hot water over the grounds, and the coffee slowly drips into a cup underneath. He repeats this process one or two times, so the coffee can “bloom” and release its flavor. The Hario kettle he’s using is pretty cute too.

I asked if it was “sacrilege” for them to use the pour over to make me an iced coffee. “AH!” Ben’s eyes lighted up. “We have a gadget for that!” And he pulls out this contraption.

It’s also a pour-over gadget, but it has a container for ice cubes, so it cools down the coffee on its way down! They were still working out the kinks to get the strongest flavor, but the cup I had was pretty darn tasty.

Atmosphere

The Queens Kickshaw space (a former clothing store) was completely gutted, exposing brick walls and original wood flooring. Queens Kickshaw worked with the design and build firm EcoSystems, and wherever possible, used repurposed materials- from a tin ceiling…

to the tables (shipping palettes in a previous life from a company called Terramai)…

to the old desk lamps now happily providing light as wall sconces.

And my favorite, this little wall shelf made from an old vise.

There are more pictures of the interior and the stories behind their materials here on I Want More Food.

Their attention to sustainability runs to the coffee and food as well. Coffee Labs of Tarrytown New York provides the coffee (Ben met founder Mike Love at a food event). I asked Ben what he planned to do with the coffee grounds and he said he’s planning on giving some to the Brooklyn Grange (AND he’ll be getting veggies from them come summer!)

The Owners

The owners of Queens Kickshaw are husband and wife team Ben Sandler and Jennifer Lim. Ben, who’d worked in many restaurants in his day including recently at Nobu) is manning the space by day and Jen is keeping her day job (photo archivist for AP) for now. It’s their goal to get another manager on board so they can have longer hours.

I liked Ben and Jen immediately. They had such a friendly vibe. Ben said they started Queens Kickshaw because they live in and love the neighborhood and wanted a coffee/hangout place there. They are financing the venture with “our life savings” and investment from friends and family. Because of that, Ben said they did everything extremely BY THE BOOK when building because he didn’t want to jeopardize that.

They are very interested in community involvement. They chronicled the building of the space on their Facebook page (it took over a year)

I asked what I could do to help them promote Queens Kickshaw but he just said “we need word of mouth.” But Astoria is so desperate for a good neighborhood hangout, and they have done such a great job with the place, plus they are just such darn nice folks, that I think soon they are going to have more business than they can handle.

Update: I stopped by again today around 3pm to see how their first day went, and was told they’d had to shut down the kitchen mid-day for a breather, and had run out of coffee filters (for the pour over Hario dirnks). Everyone seemed worn out from the busy day, but happy that they got so much business!

Queens Kickshaw is located at 41-07 Broadway. They are open weekdays from 7:30-4:30, and weekends from 9-4:30. Be sure to stop by and say hi and indulge in a cheese sandwich!

You can also catch them on their Facebook page or follow them on Twitter!

[slickr-flickr tag="kickshaw"]

You're a real New Yorker if…

Charlene Jaszewski — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:42:33 +0000

I was just made aware of this How I Met Your Mother episode in which they say what they think makes a “real” New Yorker:

So we’ve got:

1. Stole a cab from someone who needed it

2. Saw a Woody Allen movie

3. Killed a cockroach with their bare hands

I would add the following

Had a homeless guy masturbate in front of you on the subway
Yelled out the window for someone in the street to shut the fuck up.
Lived in an apartment with a cube fridge
Paid to have your laundry picked up
Start avoiding Times Square because of the tourists
You don/t go see the ball drop on New Year’s eve

How Charlene popped her competition cherry at BAKED and Brooklyn Kitchen

Charlene Jaszewski — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 22:59:21 +0000

If you are friends with me you know that if a dinner or birthday party occurs, I am the designated dessert-bringer. I have many treats in my repertoire, but most of them involve chocolate. Oddly enough I’ve never entered any contests, but one day on my Facebook page BAKED (awesome bakery out in Red Hook, NY) was hosting a Brownie Bake-off at The Brooklyn Kitchen.

It was going to be held at local awesome place , and judged by Matt and Renaldo from Baked along with Natasha from High Times and Siobhan from Blondie and Brownie (whose food blog is now in my reading rotation!)

I got accepted as one of the contestants, and I planned on making my fudgy brownie recipe. However, when I made the brownies the night before, they were awesome, but TOO SWEET. (I know, shocking, coming from me!) I hadn’t made them for years, so maybe my tastes have changed? So I rushed around looking for a better recipe. Couldn’t find anything that tripped my trigger really, so I decided to just find a basic recipe and riff off that.

Basically, I took out any cocoa and threw in massive quantities of dark chocolate. And I improvised a little chocolate ganache topping.

I didn’t even have time to test them to see if they were good before I had to head off to my meetings for the day!

When i got to the Brooklyn Kitchen, I found I was one of 18 contestants. I sort of misunderstood the “popular vote” and while some people had made double or even triple batches of brownies, I only had a small 9 x 9 pan.

Like any ultra competitive person, I walked around and did a sweep of my competition. I started getting worried.

Although there was a good amount of “regular” brownies, there were also some crazy creative ones, like these Coconut Ginger Brownie with Salted Caramel Sauce (from empiricalbaker.com).

And these Chocolate-Chip-Cookie-Dough Stuffed Brownies from Bean & Apple (Amy and Eric whom I’d met at the Greenpoint Food Market I did!) Dude who makes up this stuff?

There were some other brownies, like ones with a marshmallow layer, but most other than these were pretty standard brownies. As I plated my brownies, I was able to take a nibble off the inevitable destroyed-while-getting-the-brownies-out-of-the-pan section.

DAMN.

The shit was good. Why did I doubt?

Soon the judging was starting. They finally let us walk around and nibble on all the brownies. I raced over to the Ginger Brownies. um POW! Not very chocolately, but this was the competitor I worried about because it was so unique. The chocolate chip stuffed brownies were also crazy good. It disappointed me that a lot of of brownies had been made with plain old Hershey’s cocoa. How dare they deprive me of real competition!

But, I still worried that my brownie was too…standard. But then my friend Ari had a bite, and what she said totally put me at ease:

“Charlene, you’re a brownie purist.”

So I stopped worrying and ate more of other people’s brownies. As I was getting sugar drunk, Taylor (the organizer) was pulling me over to the judging table. “They have questions for you!” So I get over there and Matt and Renaldo want to know, “Is there cinnamon in this?”

“No.”

“Nutmeg?”

“Nope.”

“What is it?”

“Guess! Just kidding. There are no extra flavors. It’s all in the chocolate. I used Scharffenberger’s, and a secret dark chocolate.”

The secret chocolate is one I discovered when looking for the perfect chocolate to enrobe my marshmallows.

SQUEE!! They were curious about my recipe. I took this as a good sign.

As the official judging went on, so did the popular vote. As I said, I didn’t understand how it worked. But basically people can vote for their favorites, each vote costed a dollar. So the more friends people brought, the more votes they could get. I only had nine brownies for people to sample, and I got nine votes, which meant that everyone who tried my brownies voted for me!

Finally, they were ready to announce the winners! Third prize went to brownies they deemed “best to put weed in.” (a nod to High Times judge).

Second place (with “reservations”) for “most original” went to the Coconut Ginger Brownies (and well-deserved!) “With reservations” was because they couldn’t decide if it was actually a brownie or not.

First place for “Best Overall Brownie” was… ME!!!! OMG! I have never won any baking contests evar! I was so ecstatic!!! I’m sure I squeed and flailed on the way up there to get my prizes (below). Not shown: the “edges only baking pan” that I promptly gave away. I am a gooey middle person thank you very much.

By the way the best prize of the lot below was the cookie cutter shaped like a VULTURE.

Bonus: the photographer took a few pictures of me chowing my brownies and a friend of mine told me later that I was on the front page of the Williamsburg Courier (which I unsuccessfully tried to find for my parents).

Postscript: I had a sugar hangover for two days.

New York Random Meet Story #11

Charlene Jaszewski — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 06:41:49 +0000

I go to Max Brenner to meet my friends @amyvernon and @cozywallet for some noms. Dahlia has brought her friend David, CEO of Postling. An hour in, two other ladies arrive, one is David’s girlfriend, the other is Jenn. We ask the usual questions about what we do, and somehow i get to talking about how i make custom cakes for my friends on their birthdays. I mention the nipple cake i made for a friend who was afraid of boobies.
“Wow!” Jenn says, i have a friend that cake would be perfect for! He’s an author and was raised an evangelical Christian and is scared of boobs.”
“That’s funny,” i say, “because i think i DID make the cake for your friend. Are you talking about Dave Dickerson?”
Sure enough, she was!
And then we both immediately texted him.

Penguins and pork; a day at the Brooklyn Flea

Charlene Jaszewski — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 00:03:49 +0000

I like to be surprised, so I like to let some time pass in between my Brooklyn Flea visits, so vendors can rotate and I can be delighted by new things. Today my Brooklyn Flea companions were my Twitter friends (converted to IRL today, whee!) Betsy (@btreinen) and Christine (@christinetaffe). First stop is always food at the Flea, and today had some new and exciting vendors. First, I introduced Betsy to the Asiadog. I got a Porkball sandwich from Porchetta (they didn’t have potatoes and crispy ends but they let me squeeze the pig and I felt better!) I squeed when I saw the Manchego Crispy Fritters from Good Fork. I’d always had Manchego in cold form, with say, a good crisp apple. But I needn’t have worried. They served it up hot and fresh from the fryer, with a sweet/sour sauce on top.

Betsy was enamoured with People’s Pops shaved ice, today in Deep Plum and Sour Cherry. Both were heavenly.

You can’t handle the cute!

Ok i love the food but the real reason I go is to see what’s new in craftland, or treats. Today I met Susannah of sktceramics. A yellow porcelain bee cup caught my attention. Susannah draws/paints, throws and fires everything. The drawings are so delicate, and she told me they each have a story, from the otter and bees that came from commissions, to the little penguin she says has a backstory of coming from the midwest (just like me!) and she actually has a series of paintings about it (which I am dying to see!) She even makes a musk ox cute. Here is the adorable necklace I bought.

Yeah, I dig cute things. Piss off.

I almost got this one (the penguin with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background), but I liked the round one better.

She told me she used to do flies. *nose cringe* Why is it that bees (which are also insects) can be made “cute,” but flies are still disgusting? bleah.

Piggy Banks

Foundation4.com drew us in with some zipper flower pins, lovely paper leaf chandeliers, and this adorable pleather piggy bank. But how do you get the money out? Open up the butt!

Twig Terrariums

On my way out I spotted Twig Terrariums, little scenes assembled inside various glass containers. I asked the ladies if owning one required any semblance of a green thumb (I joke that the only reason my cat is alive is that she meows to remind me to feed her) and they said just “mist it and keep it out of direct sunlight”!

and now, a few random photos.

THe cute paper bag I got an item in

I wish I’d bought this friendly bunny doorstop.

and officially I’m grossed out by hairy wrestler guy but how funny would he be on my desk? and what’s up withe the green tongue?

Greenpoint Food Market: Victim of its own success

Charlene Jaszewski — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 23:12:01 +0000

I remember watching Sex and the City before I lived in NYC and they would joke how “you’d better go to this restaurant before the Times writes it up and ruins it.” I had no idea how literally that is true.

The Greenpoint Food Market is a fabulous indie food market started by Joann Kim in Greenpoint, Brooklyn last fall. It was held in the basement of the Church of the Messiah on Russell Street. Joann ran it under the radar of the department of health and NY licensing, in that no one needed proof of food licensing, the food being prepared in a licensed kitchen, or liability insurance. Technically it was all “illegal” but I think all of us accepted the risks of such an undertaking. On a realistic note, when was the last time you ever heard of someone getting sick from Farmer’s Market or foodie market food? It’s all my friends and I live on most weekends.

I discovered Greenpoint Food Market last fall because of my foodie friend Meg and was pleased to see all sorts of up-and-coming treatmakers taking advantage of the low barrier to entry (only $20 a table) to get their food experiments out to the public. I had planned to do a booth of my marshmallows when I got my chocolate tempering machine in order, but decided to do a trial run with some other baked goods and frosting shots in April 2010. It was a fabulous experience. I met people who were serious, and treatmakers who were just doing it for “shits and giggles” on the weekends. Joann did a great job of picking new and interesting vendors, and it was always fun to see the new food every month.

But it couldn’t last…the word had gotten out about the fair, and in May 2010, the New York Times visited and wrote an article. Because of the publicity, the Department of Health got wind of the “illegal” setup, and warned Joann and the vendors that fines would be rained down (each vendor fined at a minimum of $500) if vendors did not comply with DOH regulations for food preparation and sale. For most vendors (myself included), this effectively means no more Food Market.

What It’s Going To Cost Vendors Now

Besides the costs of ingredients and labor, to sell food legally at the market the following rules must now be followed:

Certificate that food has been prepared in a licensed kitchen, which involves commercial kitchen rental time (varies, but can be $300 for a few hour shift)
Food protection certificate (must taken an online 15 hr class, then get certificate for $25)
The vendor needs to get a “temporary food vendor permit” EACH TIME he sells ($20 a pop)
Food booth costs ($20 and up)
Product liability insurance (minimum $300/year)-not required by Greenpoint Food Market, but it’s advised you do it to cover your ass

Obviously the biggest cost in this is commercial kitchen rental time. I had done a little research when I arrived in NYC, and was saddened to see how expensive it was. I would only need two hours every few weeks, and $300 would in fact put me in the hole profit-wise, since I’m only doing it on the side.

Why It Sucks To Lose Greenpoint Food Market

The big need that Greenpoint Market filled was an “experimental space” small food vendors need when they are first starting out. They can put out their product and see if it’s even viable. Your family and friends might think you make the best brownie in town, but everyone loves something when it’s free. Would someone pay for it, over and over? Is it different enough from other brownies that you could make a profit?

I think the Greenpoint market served another set: those of us are just doing this for fun and wanted an outlet to spread our goodies to excited consumers. I don’t have world domination plans for my marshmallows. I don’t have a desire to see them in every Target or Walmart (Dean & Deluca, maybe).

It makes me want to start a Renegade Food Market of sorts. Much like the underground raw milk scene in New York, you’d need to “know someone” to get into it. We’d have an exclusive list, and you’d only be notified of the fair location a day or so in advance. We’d have it in different locations every time. And we’d advertise it as something non food-related, like “Ham Radio Operator’s League #12.” I’m still sketching it out.

On a happier note – there are some initiatives going on locally in Brooklyn to get running some affordable incubator kitchen spaces for small vendors. There will be a Think Tank Potluck on June 26 to discuss these new rules and some options coming up. I’ll be attending and will report on the results!

Cool stuff I liked this week May 17

Charlene Jaszewski — Tue, 18 May 2010 17:22:53 +0000

I didn’t have many deep thoughts last week so how about a roundup of some cool stuff I discovered?

Cool Neighborhood Stuff

Little Soap Shop in Astoria

On Saturday I hung out with my good friend Meg (of weheartastoria.com and harmoniousbelly.com) and we puttered around Astoria. She took me to her favorite soap shop, aptly called, The Little Soap Shop, located at 22-07B 36th Street, Astoria. In a space no bigger than the average New York bedroom, perky owner Vivian Dritsas has assembled a lovely cache of handmade and glorious-smelling products: soaps, soy candles ($8-$22 in scents like honeysuckle, lavender, raspberry & guava), shea butter creams (seriously decadent), homemade lip balm, and other delightful things. Her soaps smell fabulous and they lather upwonderfully, and leave my skin so so soft. You can find basic scents like gardenia and lavender, but also orange grapefruit, brown sugar & fig, and a secret scent in such demand I would have had to wait WEEKS to get it, vanilla lavendar patchouli (it’s a BLACK soap which is a little intimidating).

Stop in and treat yourself! And peek into Vivian’s little soap lab in the back, especially on her steel table that she’s decorated with positive sayings!

Cool foodie stuff

Coconut Sugar

Meg had the great idea to do a brownie experiment using coconut sugar.Coconut sugar is made from the sap of coconut flowers. It has a lower glycemic index than regular sugar, and has a lovely mild taste – even a little maple-y. It comes in several forms – in a jar (where the top is covered with wax) – and the BIG ROCK kind that you need to grate.

Nourishing Gourmet has a great write-up on the different kinds of coconut sugars.

and that’s about it. Hopefully deep thoughts will return this week!

Food Fair Lessons Learned

Charlene Jaszewski — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 20:26:41 +0000

I’ve been making treats for years, and I’ve even sold them casually through retail, but this is the first time I’ve sold them at a booth at a food market. Here are some of the things I learned from being a vendor at the Greenpoint Food Market.

Before the fair……………………………..

Plan Plan Planity Plan

I was making baked goodies for the fair, and I had to make it the night before so it was fresh, so I really couldn’t do that in advance. But you CAN do things in advance like:

buying ingredients
buying supplies (plates, utensils, napkins, bags, tablecloth)
getting change

But in terms of doing the cooking/baking, plan for errors. Test any new equipment ahead of time. I did NOT do this with a new pan I got, and it turns out I need a lower oven temperature for it because it burned the bottom of my bars. I had to spend extra time salvaging the ones that were still edible AND making other items to make up for the bars that were ruined. FAIL that could have been avoided.

Make sure everything is priced

Some vendors didn’t have prices on their wares. When you put the prices out, you make it easier for the visitor to decide whether they might buy. If you don’t have a price, there’s another hurdle they have to get over. However, I found that if the sample is KICK ASS this is less of a problem.

Bring a friend

I was planning on manning the booth all by myself, but my friend Laurel showed up (I thought just for support) but she stayed with me the whole afternoon, and i was GLAD SHE DID! I didn’t realize that things like manning the sample flow and just chatting and bagging is better with two people. Plus, if things get slow, there is someone to talk to!

Don’t forget the extras

You need to bring more than just your food. Don’t forget:

a tablecloth
a dish to put the samples on
bags to put product in to take away
napkins (both for cleanliness and for food consumed right away)
utensils if needed
knife (for cutting samples if you’re doing it onsite)
paper towels for yourself (they never have enough onsite)
tape for hanging signs or various things

Bring enough change

I had foreseen this issue, so I brought with me $100 in change (I did however, bring too many quarters – $30 in quarters was entirely too much!) Bring many ones, and a bunch of fives. Better to have too much than too little, and you don’t want to lose sales if you have to tell someone, “Sorry I don’t have change for a twenty!” (because EVERYONE wants to pay with a $20!) But keep your money bucket out of range of people as they pass by! I was nervous someone would swipe it!

If you are a legitimate business, have a business card with your website on it

Especially when it comes to food, people like to gab about some new food they found. If that new food is you, make it easy for them to do that! Have a business card with your contact/website info on it, people can a) tell their friends about you and b)tweet/blog/Facebook about you when they get home! Make it easy for them to do that!

At the fair………………………………………………………

Have a gimmick to get people to come over

My gimmick at the booth was frosting shots. I had big pastry bags of frosting, and then we had doled out some pretty little sample cups of frosting for 50 cents! (a bargain!)

Stand – don’t sit at the booth if at all possible

Laurel and I stood almost for the entire time of the fair, because we didn’t HAVE chairs. Towards the end, we noticed some free ones, but I soon realized I didn’t like the position it put me in, lower than the buyer’s eye level. It’s easier to engage someone if you are at the same level.

On that note, price realistically, but not foolishly

If possible, visit that particular fair in advance to find out what the other vendors are charging for similar items. You don’t want to be charging $3 for cookies when others are only charging $2. However, if you are using more premium ingredients, your prices shold reflect that (also so you can make a profit). There’s nothing worse than taking money for an item, and kicking yourself when you know you should have charged more.

Greet the booth visitors!

I’ll admit, as a booth visitor I even get nervous roaming over the tables, sometimes hoping the booth babe won’t make eye contact with me JUST YET. But if you say something funny, it breaks the ice. I have food at my booth, so I like to say, (in a slight whisper), “You know, samples don’t have any calories!” It’s a new joke to every visitor but I’m sure Laurel got sick of it after the 100th time! No matter, I shut her up with some cookies!

Also, don’t be afraid to flirt with your visitors. Play a game with them. For a while when guys would come over and view the frosting, I’d say, “are you MAN ENOUGH to try a frosting shot?” Interestingly, more women were man enough than men.

Accept that you might not know what the heck will sell

Maybe you thought for SURE an item would be a hit, and no one is buying it. What went wrong? It might be the flavor of the market. It might be a season thing (my friend gave me some homemade coconut macaroons to sell, and we only sold a few.) I thought they were delicious, but they didn’t sell well. Laurel told me “not many people like coconut.” All my other items were chocolate-based, and chocolate is an easier sell. That’s not to say niche items wouldn’t sell. But it’s all a crapshoot.

About the frosting shots. I was SURE I had a hit on my hands. And in a way, I did. I had tons of people taking PICTURES of the “frosting shot” setup. But few bought frosting. The ones that did were PSYCHED that frosting shots existed, however. More men bought frosting than I would have expected.

Things ARE going to go wrong. Go with it.

Accidents happen. My biggest chocolate frosting bag exploded when I tried to dole out samples. I forgot to get napkins so I gave away more bags than I needed to. When the frosting exploded it ruined one of my signs. All i could say was OH WELL and just have fun with it!

Towards close of the fair, slash your prices!

No one wants to drag the unbought goodies home, and a little money is better than none. For the last half hour of the show, offer half price, or just “massive discounts” to your prices. Do a two for one!

Also at the end of the day, see if you can do a trade with other vendors!

This is a benefit I didn’t plan on! One of the other vendors came over and wondered if they could trade with ME. WHAT AN IDEA! By the end of the day I had gotten some homemade soda, wasabe pate from Cobra pate, and Bacon Marmalade.