Openings: La Taq, luna la mer, La Flor; Erykah Badu Headlines Afropunk Festival in Prospect Park, Jazz in July, Purple Rain 40th Anniversary Party

Park Slope's first weekly newsletter since 2021

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Welcome to Park Slope’s weekly newsletter, Park Slope Pulse. We spend hours curating the most important news and events each week ✨ for free ✨ to save you time sifting through listings and articles, and you’ll get to know more about a fellow neighbor! Park Slope Pulse gives you the first insights to make plans or start conversations.

Here’s what’s happening this week:

• Afropunk Festival, a celebration of alternative Black music and artistry, will return to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park August 23rd-24th! The global music festival began in 2005 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and has since traveled cities across the globe, including Atlanta, Paris, London, Dakar, and Johannesburg. This year’s festival, AFROPUNK BLKTOPIA BKLYN, will take place at the Lena Horne Bandshell in Prospect Park and will be headlined by singer/songwriter Erykah Badu. Tickets are available via Ticketmaster [TimeOut].

• Stella's Caribbean Cuisine on 9th St (between 5th and 6th Ave) is closed until further notice due to a fire in their building which caused significant damage to the restaurant. Stella’s, which has been in business since 2020, is known for their authentic Caribbean food. If you’d like to help support their efforts to repair the ceiling, buy new equipment, and keep staff afloat, consider donating to their Go Fund Me.

• Openings: After much anticipation, La Taq is opening this Saturday! Cafe & kitchen luna la mer, located on 468 4th Ave at 10th St, will open next month. The name luna la mer means “moon and sea” and represents a culinary combination of the French and Italian way of cooking - simple and fresh ingredients meant to be shared by friends and family. La Flor Pizzeria recently opened on 766 Classon Ave at Sterling Place. Owner Giancarlo Villa has spent his career working in pizza restaurants around city, starting with helping to open Pronto Pizza in the Bronx when he was eighteen, and moving on to spots like Robertas and Upside [Brooklyn Magazine].

Luna La Mer owners Brittany Melhado & Lawrence Mash

— Mychal & Viv

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Special Feature: Exceptional Dental Care Comes to Park Slope

Dr. Paul Lee and Dr. Victor Chow met at NYU dental school, where they quickly bonded over their shared passion for dentistry. They both had a vision of providing top-notch, patient-centered care using the latest technology. This shared goal led them to dream of opening Five Dental together in Park Slope: 555 5th Ave, Brooklyn

Five Dental offers a variety of services including family dentistry, cosmetic dentistry, Invisalign, teeth whitening, general dentistry, and dental implants.

Book an appointment this Summer and get $1000 off Invisalign including FREE Consult & Scan.

[To get featured here, email info@parkslopeliving for more info]

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Our Top Picks

Thursday, July 25 (Today)

• Jazz in July @ Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 6-8pm: Celebrate summer at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden with live jazz! This is your last chance to enjoy this weekly series, which is presented by BBG in partnership with local arts organizations. Bring a blanket, spread out, and enjoy jazz music in a beautiful surrounding. Free with garden admission.

  

  Jazz in July (Photo by @brooklynbotanic)

• Midsummer Nights 2024 @ The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, 6:30 pm: Tonight’s concert features Brooklyn-based guitarist, vocalist, and producer Key Hutchinson. The year’s series is curated by rising jazz star and BKCM Jazz Leadership Fellow Melanie Charles, who handpicked a lineup of artists who are expanding the borders of contemporary jazz in NYC, infusing elements of R&B, hip-hop, Latin, African and experimental musical traditions. Limited seating—FREE. RSVP encouraged.

• Sip & Paint @ Art Collective Cafe, 6-8pm: Get ready to unleash your inner artist! Join Art Collective Cafe, a Park Slope coffee shop & wine bar that brings culinary and fine art together, for a fun & creative evening in a relaxed atmosphere. Instructors will guide you through creating your own masterpiece as you sip your favorite wine, coffee, or tea. $39.30.

  artcollectivecafe

  

  A post shared by @artcollectivecafe

• Summer Movie Series @ The Old Stone House, 8:30pm: West Side Story (2021): The Old Stone House, Park Slope Fifth Avenue BID, and the Brooklyn Arts Council sponsor this free outdoor summer movie series which continues weekly through August 8th at 4th Street Plaza, between 4th and 5th Avenue. Live music pre-show by Tambor y Cana at 7:30pm. FREE. Registration encouraged.

Friday, July 26

• Lola Star's Dreamland Roller Disco- Beyonce Night @ Lakeside in Prospect Park, 7-10pm: This themed, immersive roller skating event is a part of Lakeside’s Roller Dance Night Series. Expect to be transported to a fabulous roller disco “dreamland” with an MC and a retro DJ spinning dance floor grooves. Tickets include skate rental, and drinks and food from Bluestone Cafe will be available for purchase. Recommended for ages 21+. Tickets start at $28.45.

• Friday Night Fireworks @ Coney Island, 9:45pm:  Catch this spectacular show lighting up the Coney Island skyline every Friday through August 30th. Want to show off your vocal chops? Don’t miss pre-show karaoke at 7pm. FREE.

• Purple Rain 40th Anniversary Celebration @ Brooklyn Bridge Park, 6:30-10:30pm: It’s been forty years since the release of Prince’s legendary album and the movie Purple Rain, and Brooklyn Bridge Park is marking this special anniversary by celebrating art, culture, and community on the waterfront. Join them for a Prince dance party from 6:30-8:30pm followed by the film screening at sundown. FREE. RSVP encouraged.

Saturday, July 27

• Revolutionary Spirits @ Green-Wood Cemetery, 3:30-6pm: This tour & tasting experience begins with a trolley ride through the cemetery to uncover the influential figures of the Revolutionary War and the distillers who left their mark on the early days of New York. The trolley then heads to Fort Hamilton Distillery, where you’ll sample rye and whiskey while learning about barrel aging and rye whiskey production in New York! Ages 21+. Tickets start at $51.99.

historicgreenwood

A post shared by @historicgreenwood

• Rhapsody For This Land: The American Odyssey in Music @ Emily Warren Roebling Plaza, 6pm: St. Ann’s Warehouse, WNYC, and Brooklyn Bridge Park are presenting a free outdoor concert under the Brooklyn Bridge commemorating the 100th anniversary of Gershwin’s exuberant American anthem Rhapsody in Blue and honoring our country’s long history of hope, protest, and change. Lara Downes, classical pianist and host of NPR’s “Amplify”, will perform the NYC premiere of her take on Gershwin’s innovative 1924 work in a new arrangement by Puerto Rican composer Edmar Colón. FREE.

Saturday, July 27th — Sunday, July 28

• FAD Market @ The Invisible Dog Art Center, 11am-6pm: Celebrate the creative energy of NYC with FAD Market’s Summer Pop Up Series, which features a rotating lineup of over 50 local makers, designers, and small businesses. Shop everything from impeccably-crafted jewelry and apparel to bath and body care, tableware, home furnishings, and artisanal packaged food. All ages (and pets!) welcome. FREE.

Wednesday, July 31

• Paramount+ Movie Nights @ Prospect Park— Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark: This is the final movie in the Paramount + Movie Night Series Prospect Park series! Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark was previously scheduled on June 26th and was postponed to the 31st due to rain. Pre-movie activities start at 6pm and the movie will begin at sunset. Located at the north end of the Prospect Park Long Meadow, nearest to the Grand Army Plaza entrance and Third Street Entrance. FREE. RSVP encouraged.

Check out the comments for anything we’ve missed!

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Q&A: Chef Akhtar Nawab

This week’s Q&A is with chef/owner Akhtar Nawab, owner of Alta Calidad, a modern Mexican restaurant in Prospect Heights that is loved by locals. Chef Akhtar also talks about the new location opening up next to Alta Calidad in the Fall!

Chef Akhtar Nawab - photo from Alta Calidad

What inspired you to open Alta Calidad in Prospect Heights?

At first we had planned to make this a seafood focused restaurant.  Like a raw bar with some shareable plates as well.  After we spent more time in the area and saw how many families were living here I chose to make it a Mexican focused restaurant.  Seeking a change, I thought it would be interesting if I added an Indian touch to the restaurant.  I had long felt a connection between the two cuisines so I dove deeper into the thinking and found a lot of common spices and similar traditions centered around a familiar type of table. 

Talk about your dishes, and their inspiration or origins

A lot of my dishes have a slight Indian touch to them.  Like the guajillo salsa is treated a little more like a chutney with some common Mexican and Indian spices.  Also the brine for the beef brisket steak tacos.  I use sweet spices commonly found in Indian cooking - cardamom, clove, cinnamon, cumin but then I add smokey morita and pasilla chiles also.  It all adds just a touch of complexity and depth of flavor in a different way than someone may expect. 

I always get excited when the corn is at its peak so I can make the Alta Calidad version of esquites.  A really simple shaved corn dish often eaten as street food.  

First I make a homemade butter with chipotle and lime zest and cook the blistered and shaved corn and a few radishes altogether until tender.  With cobs I make corn stock and reduce it as far as possible then blend it with some juiced corn.  We cook that mixture over the stove on low heat to make a custard with no sugar other than the natural amount in the corn kernels.  That becomes a very rich sauce with no cream or butter. 

Can you share a bit more about the new location opening up next to Alta Calidad? What can locals expect?

It's going to be a Mediterranean inspired restaurant with mostly flavors from Southern France, Italy, Sicily and a lot of those interesting Middle Eastern spices. We have a wood burning oven here that is unique to the space and NYC.  A Lot of the cooking will come out of the oven but no Pizzas! Instead I am excited to cook meats, fish and vegetables in the wood burning oven.  As of right now we are planning for dinner only.  Current opening timeline is September or October opening. 

What are you working on next? What is your vision for your businesses looking ahead?

I put out a cookbook a few years back called, Good For You.  A book that features a clean eating lifestyle without sacrificing on flavor.  A lot of techniques and unique ingredients are the focus of the book. 

I started a consulting company in 2018, separate from the restaurants.  We manage food halls, bars and micro food stalls around the country. I have a CPG that I have been working on for a couple of years now that is getting closer to reality, a cafe in Costa Mesa, CA. opening in a couple of weeks and another food hall opening in Minnesota in September. 

Thanks for reading!

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