The Brooklyn Sampler, Winter Wonderbox edition
Right now people want you to buy stuff. This holiday party-studded final stretch of December is an American bacchanal of boozing and buying, and with Brooklyn so defined by its creative class and service economy there are tons of local businesses that crave your gift dollars. Including us.
We’ll be at Vine Wine in Williamsburg tomorrow from 3pm to 6pm selling The Brooklyn Sampler (more details on what’s inside below). You can order one online today and pick-up, or bring cash or a card and we’ll sell you one on the spot for just $15. It’s kind of a perfect set up because Vine is hosting a champagne tasting at the same time–try some fancy bubbles, finish your holiday shopping with us, then go home and watch some Christmas movies.
We’ve picked a few other Brooklyn-branded items that promote borough pride, but first, here’s our shameless plug for ourselves. This is our own ode to locally made, truly good stuff—we picked five shops we love and showcased goodies from each in a gift box. (If you get Birchbox, you’ll be impressed with how many Sampler items are full-size.) You’ll find an organic, skinnyskinny lip balm that we’ve now addicted to, a quarter pound of coffee from one of our fave roasters, Brooklyn Roasting Co., a Tumbador chocolate bar that takes every inch of willpower not to devour in one second, a sample of Dalaga‘s own perfume made by MCMC Fragrances that immediately puts you in a fancy mood, and a cute, Brooklyn Bridge-themed holiday card from PostScript Brooklyn. It’s $15 plus shipping, or come see us at Vine Wine tomorrow. (You can also order online and then pick-up at Vine, just email us first.) There are only 66 left and we’d like to sell out because it’s really hard to work five feet away from all those chocolate bars.
Ok, here are our other, less self-involved boroughlicious picks for the season.
Wear your Brooklyn pride
The Brooklyn Necklace: Remember the nameplate necklace you rocked in the 80s? You can get a Brooklyn one now, to wear your pride around your neck (or to give to some poor boy or girl named Brooklyn). It’s sold at the Brooklyn Historical Society or directly by the designer, Aziza Brown, in her Etsy shop, and comes in gold ($45) and silver ($35).
Brokelyn shirt: Brokelyn’s recession-inspired twist on our fair borough’s name was genius, and their logo, created by graphic designer superstars The Heads of State, is pretty sweet too. Now the site has collaborated with indie fashion designer Bob Bland of Brooklyn Royalty, who created a limited edition line of super soft, flowy tanks and t-shirts in cool colors, for just $20 apiece.
Edible Brooklyn the Cookbook: Edible Brooklyn’s cookbook has recipes from dozens of Brooklyn chefs, farmers, bakers and other food luminaries. Learn how to make SCRATCHbread focaccia, follow Caroline Fidanza‘s recipe for Spanish potato tortillas (she describes it as, “One of the most wonderful dishes one could possibly know how to prepare.”), check out the five-cheese mac recipe from Stinky Bklyn and get your chutney on with a recipe from Anarchy in a Jar. And, BB editor-in-chief, Annaliese Griffin has a recipe for seared scallops in there. Just to, you know, take it back to things about us.
