Last weekend we took the long way around, ending up at 420 Carroll with a coffee and the crossword by the water. Friday night we caught the opening of Rooftop Films' 30th season at Green-Wood Cemetery. Outdoor cinema in a 175-year-old Brooklyn landmark as the sun went down. A lot to look forward to out there this summer.

Now Open / Coming Soon — GoodVets is open at Society Brooklyn, Autumn’s Attic grand opening June 6, Sola Salon Studios signs at The Westmark

The Big Story — Two new public spaces open along the Gowanus Canal

Things to Do — Powerhouse Arts community day, Rory Scovel at Bell House, NYC Parks input session Tuesday

The Local — The 95-year-old red-sauce institution on Court Street just found its heir

Development Watch — Nevins Landing targets fall 2026

Quick Hits — Bathhouse opens on Atlantic, screen printing at Bakline, the Jumble is back

A Vet Clinic for the New Gowanus
GoodVets Gowanus
503 Union Street
Now Open
Gowanus has added thousands of new residents in the last two years, including a lot of four-legged ones. GoodVets, a national chain built around veterinarian-owned practices, has opened its Gowanus location inside Society Brooklyn on Bond Street. The model is modern and appointment-forward, with an emphasis on preventive care.

An Antiques Shop Opens on 9th Street
Autumn’s Attic
152 9th Street
Coming Soon · Grand Opening June 6
Antiques, vintage, and retro goods are coming to 9th Street, and the owner is throwing a proper party to mark the occasion. The grand opening runs noon to 5pm on June 6 with music, drinks, and snacks, all free. Good way to see the space and see what they’re working on.

An Independent Beauty Hub Is Coming to The Westmark
Sola Salon Studios
395 Carroll Street
Coming Soon · No Date Announced
Sola Salon Studios has signed an 8,251 square foot lease at The Westmark, the nearly complete two-tower development at Carroll and Bond. The concept gives independent beauty professionals their own private studio space without the overhead of running a full salon. It’s the kind of tenant that tends to generate foot traffic and a loyal local following fast. No opening date yet.

For most of the time most of us have lived here, the Gowanus Canal has been something you pass. You walked over it heading to the R train or home or maybe you photographed it from the Union Street Bridge. It wasn’t a destination.

Two new public spaces just changed that.

The first is the Carroll Street Eco Basin at 420 Carroll Street. Designed by the landscape firm Scape for The Domain Companies, it’s built around a central “Street Creek,” a stormwater channel that captures runoff before it reaches the canal and funnels pedestrians down toward the water. It opens onto a plaza called The Basin, which steps all the way to the canal edge. An elevated boardwalk wraps the western building and ties back to the Carroll Street Bridge. Below it, native flood-adapted plants are rebuilding what was once a wetland.

The second is the Sackett Community Hub, tucked between the two 21-story towers at Society Brooklyn, designed by Scape for Property Markets Group. A picnic grove, a sculptural playscape built around the history of oysters in the Gowanus, a central plaza facing the water. Reclaimed wood benches line the esplanade. The guardrail uses a zig-zag pattern that nods to the neighborhood’s industrial past. Salt-tolerant native plants throughout, built to handle flooding.

On a recent weekday afternoon at the Sackett Community Hub, a group of kids from a local nursery school took over the playscape while construction workers ate lunch nearby. A woman walked her dog along the esplanade. People sat and read. This is what happens now on the edge of the Gowanus Canal, on land that was inaccessible for most of living memory.

Both spaces are part of the Gowanus Lowlands Master Plan, a long-range framework developed by Scape and the Gowanus Canal Conservancy for reconnecting the canal’s edges to the neighborhood. They represent real, visible progress on a waterfront that has been mostly fence and promises for a long time. The canal is still a federal Superfund site. The cleanup is ongoing. The full vision is years away. But you can walk to the water now, and that is not nothing.

If you want to help shape what the next stretch looks like, NYC Parks is hosting a public input session on Tuesday, May 19 at 6pm at Lowlands Nursery, 25 9th Street. Registration required.

Powerhouse Arts Community Day
322 3rd Avenue
Sat May 16 · 11am–5pm · Free
All three floors open to the public today. Workshops with the print, ceramics, and public arts shops. Partner orgs including Arts Gowanus, Textile Arts Center, and Van Alen Institute are in the building. The café is open. Free admission, please RSVP at powerhousearts.org.

Justin Strauss | Luca Lozano & Mr. Ho | Carozilla at Public Records
233 Butler Street
Sat May 16
Justin Strauss has been DJing in New York since the late 1970s, long enough to have influenced most of the people who came after him. Luca Lozano and Mr. Ho handle the middle of the night. Carozilla closes.

Rory Scovel: Know Your Enemy Tour at Bell House
149 7th Street
Sun May 17 · 7:30pm · from $70
Scovel is a road-tested standup with a reputation for going off-script and keeping it interesting. He’s been working this material across the country. Tickets still available.

NYC Parks: Re-Imagine Gowanus Public Spaces Input Session
25 9th Street (Lowlands Nursery)
Tue May 19 · 6pm · Free · Registration required
NYC Parks wants resident input on the design of new public open spaces connecting the Smith–9th Street station to Bond Street. This is the part where you actually get a say. In person only, registration required at the link.

Why Are You Single? A Singles Game Show-Taping at Bell House
149 7th Street
Thu May 21 · 7:30pm · Tickets at bellhouseny.com
Marie Faustin’s dating show is taping a special at Bell House. The format is a game show with real contestants. You are the audience. It tends to go exactly where you think it’s going.

The Patterns Gala: Welcome to Venice at Union Channel
240 3rd Avenue
Thu May 21 · 6–9:30pm · Ticketed
Arts Gowanus’ annual fundraiser goes Venetian this year. Patterned outfits encouraged, costumes welcome, art auction, food from neighborhood restaurants. The money raised pays for a full year of programming. Tickets at artsgowanus.org.

The Nursery Season 4 at Public Records
233 Butler Street
Sundays through Oct 11
The all-day Sunday party returns for a fourth season. Different DJs, different vibes, the back patio open when the weather cooperates.

Sam’s Restaurant
238 Court Street, Cobble Hill
Renovation in progress

Sam’s Restaurant has been at 238 Court Street since 1930. Mario Migliaccio and his wife Rose opened the place and ran it until their son Louis took over. Lou ran it until last year, when his aching bones finally made the call. The place closed. For a while, it seemed like that would be it.

Then Georgia Fulton got involved.

Fulton is Australian, which is not the background most people would associate with saving a 95-year-old Brooklyn red-sauce institution. She spent 12 years working at Long Island Bar on Atlantic, starting in 2013 and staying until this year. She didn’t eat at Sam’s until 2021. Once she did, she says, she was immediately obsessed and started working on Lou. Slowly. “He always put me in a booth,” she told New York Magazine. “That’s how I knew Lou liked me.”

For the six months before Sam’s closed in 2025, Fulton worked alongside Migliaccio, learning the operation from the inside. She brought in investors, including Joel Tompkins, co-owner of Long Island Bar, and Sam Premutico, a longtime Sam’s regular. They are now in the final stages of renovation.

The renovation is essentially making Sam’s a brighter version of itself. The brick pizza oven is staying. The cast-iron flour mill, a Peerless Bread Machine Co. relic, is staying. The wooden telephone booths are staying (one was moved upstairs to make room for barstools, which are appearing in Sam’s for the first time in its history). The vintage murals from the 1940s are being restored. The back room, which was only ever opened for large parties, will now be open for regular service.

The menu is being pared down from its 90-item sprawl, but the spirit stays the same: brick oven pizza, parms, pastas, cheap cocktails. Chef Andrew Halitski, formerly a sous-chef at Flora Bar, is running the kitchen.

Sam’s will still be getting its meat from Staubitz Market and its cookies from Court Pastry Shop. The supply chain that connected this restaurant to the neighborhood for nearly a century is intact.

St. John Frizell, co-owner of Gage & Tollner, put it well in New York Magazine: “Sam’s is an archetype. You couldn’t be anywhere else in the world but Italian American Brooklyn.”

Reopening in the next few months. When it comes, we’ll let you know.

Nevins Landing, the 654-unit Charney and Tavros complex at 310–340 Nevins Street, is targeting a fall 2026 opening. Earlier reports had the project finishing this summer, but more recent sourcing from the development team puts the debut in the fall. When it opens, affordable units will be listed on NYC Housing Connect. The public esplanade along the canal edge comes with it.

Bathhouse is open on Atlantic Avenue. The newest location of the NYC spa chain opened this weekend at 540 Atlantic Avenue, bringing thermal pools, saunas, steam, and cold plunge to the northern edge of the neighborhood. Day passes from $29.

Bakline is hosting a Screen Printing 101 workshop this Wednesday. The Gowanus-based running apparel brand is opening its print studio for a hands-on intro to screen printing. Wed May 20 · 7–9:15pm · 424a 3rd Avenue. Details and registration at @baklinerunning.

The Brooklyn Bike Jumble is back at the Old Stone House this Saturday. New and used bikes, parts, accessories, clothing, and collectibles spread across JJ Byrne Park. 14th year running, 10am to 4pm. Free to browse. 336 3rd Street, Park Slope.

The esplanade (is that what we are going to call it?) is shaping up giving us a great place to rest between all the events popping up on the calendar. Gowanus is having a very good May.

As always, if you hear of something, let us know.
The Gowanaut
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