Ladies and Gentlemen, Brooklyn's Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club

owners ashley albert and jonathan schnappThe $2 million it takes to open a shuffleboard court/bar in Gowanus was raised in $50,000 increments on Kickstarter. Owners and friends Ashely Albert and Jonathan Schnapp considered Greenpoint too, but they fell in love with the 17,000-sqauare-foot space at 514 Union Street. And while they didn't hit their original open date in April last year, Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club is a few days from opening to the public.

The rules are easy. You'll catch on after a game or two. Just make sure you learn the lingo. You don't want your biscuit to end up in the kitchen. Avoid double soup at all times. Be careful with the hammer and don't drink the tang. Biscuits are the pucks you slide across the shuffleboard. The kitchen is the "10 OFF" zone at the base of the triangle. Land a biscuit there and it's minus 10 points. Double soup is when you end a round with two biscuits in the kitchen. The hammer is the last biscuit in each round and the tang is the stick you slide with. Any game with food-centric lingo is a winner in our eyes.

Royal Palms started a Monday night league that sold out so fast Albert and Schnapp set one up for Tuesdays as well. That means for $450 a team of four gets a 10-week run with two playoff bouts to be the best biscuit pushers in Brooklyn. Albert and Schnapp are nationally ranked competitors, by the way. Albert's 68th among females and Schnapp 82nd among men. Local winners of the winter and spring leagues will join them on the next international shuffleboard championship in Ontario this year. But that's just one reason to spend time at Royal Palms when it opens.

Draft beers are available in Ball jars from the likes of Firestone, Narragansett, Victory, and Lagunitas and food will be served from a rotating roster of food trucks. The trucks will be parked outside the venue against a gate that opens to shufflers inside. Red Hook Lobster Pound was there last night.

League play aside, RPSC charges $40/hour for games on any of the 10 standard, 39-foot courts. We got to play in last night's league and took a bunch of pictures. Already itching to go back. We'll see you there.

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Gowanus Whole Foods is Open

Whole Foods Market bought the plot of land on Third and 3rd in Gowanus eight years ago. Construction began in early March this year and, nine months later, the store has opened its doors. Two hundred and fifty thousand reclaimed bricks, 400 employees, 20 checkout lines, and dozens of rows of sustainable food fill the 50,000-square-foot space. So too does a an impressive butcher counter, a variety of fresh fish, multitudes of local products, a bulk section, prepared foods, a coffee stand and separate roaster, and the almighty vast selection of craft beer. We braved the winter weather with hundreds of other enthusiastic shoppers on opening day today. Here's a look around.

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Checking In On the Gowanus Whole Foods

We brought you pictures of the Gowanus Whole Foods project back in March, after foundation beams were placed and the 52,000 square-foot skeleton was taking shape. Nearly three months later, support beams are in place and the exterior shell is being put up. Construction is moving quickly, but the Gowanus Whole Foods is still a ways from opening. A worker said the goal is to open in January.

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Backyard Party at The Pines

Chef Angelo Romano and co. hosted a party in the place beyond backyard at The Pines last night. The event was a preview of what's to come when the space opens to the public Saturday, May 18th. There were five different ciders being poured to go along with a number of wood-fired dishes Romano was cooking on his new ten-foot grill.

Among the food were carrots with quark and caraway, octopus with ramps and chicken skin with dashi (both pictured above), and cabbage with lamb neck and cucumber. The final menu is still being developed, but The Pines website has a teaser up, which lists dishes like grilled halumi with ramps and celery mostarda and half lobsters with lardo and lemon butter. The backyard will be open Thursday - Sunday from 3pm - 10pm.

Whole Lotta Groceries

Whole Foods Market has owned the lot at the corner of 3rd and 3rd in Gowanus since 2004. After plenty of backlash from the community, and years spent cleaning and remediating the once industrial lot, construction only somewhat recently began. Now that it has, the 52,000-square foot megastore (25% smaller than the original proposed grocery) is going up at a mind-blowing rate. Foundation beems are all in place and progress can easily be detected on a daily basis.

There will be a 20,000-square foot greenhouse on the roof, growing vegetables to be sold inside. Plans for the greenhouse were developed after developers decreased the number of onsite parking spaces from over 400 to 250. The market is slated to open this fall.

As for the Coignet Building on the corner (360 Third Ave), that isn't going anywhere. The 140-year-old, former New York and Long Island Coignet Stone Company office building is landmarked. That means, as NYC.gov explains, "the Landmarks Preservation Commission officially recognizes the building has special historical, cultural, or aesthetic value and that the building is an important part of New York City's historical and architectural heritage. To help protect the city's landmarks from inappropriate changes or destruction, the Commission must approve in advance any alteration, reconstruction, demolition, or new construction affecting the designated building." Whole Foods has invested in improvements for the building, and those include a new roof and exterior repairs. Oh, and it's for sale. Property owner Richard Kowalski is taking bids.

St. Patrick's Day at Fletcher's Barbecue

Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue was recently on the receiving end of some high praise from Times critic Pete Wells. After eating at three of the city's newest barbecue restaurants (Mighty Quinn's, BrisketTown, and Fletcher's), Wells wrote, "The sides made the strongest case for Fletcher’s." Yesterday, in celebrating St. Patrick's Day, one of those was butter braised cabbage. It was part of an $8 special that included corned beef and Irish soda bread, which owners Bill Fletcher and Matt Fisher sourced from nextdoor neighbors Four and Twenty Blackbirds. For $14, you could wash it all down with a bottle of Brooklyn Brewery's Dry Irish Stout.

Matt Fisher had brisket curing for the better part of the month. After nearly two weeks covered in all spice and bay, they were steamed and then sliced to order. The meat was tender and juicy, with a fatcap that was eager to melt in your mouth. Grainy mustard spiced things up, and the hearty chunk of soda bread turned out to be an excellent sponge for the cabbage's butter broth. It's the perfect meal to fortify your stomach at the start of a day that requires drinking Guinness for the majority of it.

A Look Around Runner & Stone

Chris Pizzulli and Peter Endriss opened Runner & Stone last week on Third Avenue in Gowanus. Peter Endriss, former Head Baker at Per Se, is responsible for everything coming out of the upstairs bakery. Apple turnover, cheese danish, brioche, and cannele are some of the pastries that accompany an array of croissants at R&S when the doors open at 7am, and buckwheat pear, hard cider spelt, bolzano rye, and mixed flour miche are some of the breads on offer. Chris Pizzulli is the former Chef de Cuisine at Park Slope's Blue Ribbon. His menu (currently 13 items) is made in the downstairs kitchen and none of it costs more than $19.

About 30 bottles make up the wine list and, with the exception of one Champagne, everything falls below $70. House-made cocktails are $10 each and have an Italian lean (Runner & Stone Negroni and the Base Stone Spritz with prosecco, Aperol, and limoncello).

The restaurant takes its name from the two stones used to grind grain in a traditional mill: the runner stone and base stone. On the back of the menu, guests are informed, "Runner & Stone's interior was designed by Latent Productions and focuses on the synergy of prime materials coming together to be much more than their individual parts, mirroring the philosophy behind everything we make in the bakery and kitchen." Runner & Stone opened Wednesday and Thursday for breakfast only, with dinner commencing on Friday, the 21st. We got to sneek in for a few pictures before it did.

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Brunch at the Pines

The Pines launched brunch service over the weekend. The menu Angelo Romano put together for the occasion is a far cry from another generic tablet of poached eggs and yogurt. It's laced with the same creative backbone and diversion from common ingredients that has defined Romano's cooking since the restaurant opened in September. There are poached eggs on the menu, but they wear a fresh guise; mushroom hash with fingerling potatoes and a smear of creamy robiola cheese. If you wake up with a strange desire for smoked bluefish salad and waffles, or just feel like having one of the better brunches the city has to offer, head to 284 Third Avenue in Gowanus. The Pines awaits.

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