Some friends from out of town came to visit last Saturday, and it had been a long time since they had been here. They were stunned walking over the Carroll Street Bridge by the buildings rising on both sides. The neighborhood put on a great show for them with a fabulous dinner at Insa followed by dancing in the Sound Room at Public Records. Thank you, Gowanus!
This weekend we’ll be out at Open Studios and hope to see some of you there too!

Now Open / Coming Soon — A Cobble Hill sandwich shop opens, and a Pilates studio and a nail salon are on the way to Nevins Street.

The Big Story — A three-stop walking route through Gowanus Open Studios, with coffee, lunch and drinks along the way.

Things to Do — Michelle Buteau, Brett Goldstein, Stephane Wrembel, a puppet workshop, and more through October 25.

The Local — Hollow Nickel, the Atlantic Avenue bar and burger spot open since 2012.

Development Watch — The Cornice opens its affordable lottery.

Quick Hits — A vacant Degraw Street firehouse becomes a music school and the library is almost back!

Compton's Sandwich Shop Is Now Open in Cobble Hill
Compton's Sandwich Shop
240 Court Street
Now Open
Compton's is officially open on Court Street, in the former Moo Burger space. Alex Compton opened the first Compton's in Queens in 2018, and the menu runs from breakfast sandwiches to wraps and burgers, with vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options. The shop lives by the motto "Everybody Eats".

Honey Nail Salon Opening on Nevins Street
Honey Nail Salon
340 Nevins Street
Coming Soon
Our eagle-eyed reporter spotted a Honey Nail Salon sign at Nevins Landing last week. Our guess is it’s still a long way from opening but it’s a sign for what’s to come in the retail spaces. Honey Nail has salons elsewhere in Brooklyn, LIC, and Manhattan.

IM=X Pilates Is Bringing a Quiet Room to Nevins Street
IM=X Pilates Gowanus
340 Nevins Street
Coming Soon
IM=X Pilates Gowanus is targeting an open date of January 2027, with Founding Membership opening in November. The studio is offering reformer, mat, barre, and stretch classes in what it calls a quiet room for serious practice. It will land in the new Nevins Landing South building and sit alongside the brand's current studio in Clinton Hill.

Gowanus Open Studios turns 30 this weekend, and there is no wrong way to do it except not doing it. Hundreds of artists open their doors to the public from noon to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday. An artist is on nearly every block, so if you leave your apartment this weekend, it's impossible to miss one. Wander around Gowanus for an hour or all afternoon. Talk to every artist or quietly view their art. Most importantly, get to know your neighborhood and support your artist neighbors. For more tips, check out the Arts Gowanus tips for visitors page.

If you would like a plan, here is our suggestion: three stops where you can see many artists. The Arts Gowanus site directory and map cover everything else. One practical note: many artists take Venmo or cards, but not all, so carry a little cash in case something catches your eye.

Start at 543 Union Street, where it all began. More than a dozen working artists keep studios in the building, some of whom have been there since the 1990s, and this weekend their doors are open. It is the closest thing Gowanus has to an Open Studios headquarters.

Before your next stop, here are a few options for coffee, a snack, or lunch.

Next, head to Union Channel at 240 3rd Avenue for "30 for 30," an anniversary exhibition of 30 Gowanus artists marking the milestone year, longtime regulars alongside artists showing for the first time.

After that, you have another chance to for a break. A few suggestions.

Finish at The Shop at 420 Carroll Street, where artists in the building's subsidized studios, part of the rezoning deal that guaranteed permanent space for local artists, open their doors and also will be showing a documentary screening on Saturday.

Then make a night of it. For dinner, Cotra, a Japanese izakaya, is a short walk away. For a drink, Finback's Brooklyn taproom pours its own beer and cocktails.

Arts Gowanus organizes Gowanus Open Studios to highlight our local artists. Thirty years in, we are lucky to have it in our neighborhood. Not every community gets a weekend where the people making the work invite everyone in to see it. So go say hello, ask a question, sign a guest book on your way out, and follow the artists whose work stays with you.

Crafternoons: Designing Puppets of Earthly Delights at Powerhouse Arts
322 3rd Avenue
Sat Oct 17 · 1pm to 4pm
A drop-in puppet workshop for all ages, with the designs borrowed from Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights. It lands on the first day of Open House New York and Gowanus Open Studios, and the building is open noon to 5pm both days if you want to wander. Adults can make a small monster of their own, no child required.

Asif Ali & Friends at The Bell House
149 7th Street
Sat Oct 17 · 7:30pm · 21+
Ali created and stars in Deli Boys on Hulu, and he turned up in WandaVision and Don't Worry Darling. Variety put him on its 2024 list of ten comics to watch, which makes a room this size a good place to catch him. The billing doesn't name the friends, so the rest of the lineup is a surprise. Seating is first come, so arrive early if you want a chair.

Kendall Farrell: Standup Comedy Special Taping at Littlefield
635 Sackett Street
Sun Oct 18 · 7pm and 9:30pm · 21+
Farrell, a southern Vermont native who headlined the Breakout Artist Series at Carolines on Broadway, tapes his debut hour here. Ashley Gavin and Rachel Feinstein, who are also executive producers, handle the intros. The hour covers being the liberal black sheep of a conservative family and the "curious" straight guys on Grindr. There are two shows, so you can take the early one and still make dinner.

Johnny Pemberton at The Bell House
149 7th Street
Sun Oct 18 · 7:30pm
Pemberton played Bo on Superstore and has done voice work on Bob's Burgers and Adventure Time, but his stand-up is the part billed as unpredictable. Sunday night is the right amount of time to be surprised before the week starts.

Stephane Wrembel at Barbès
376 9th Street
Sun Oct 18 · 8pm
The Gypsy jazz guitarist behind "Bistro Fada," the theme from Midnight in Paris, is a Barbès regular, and he mixes Django Reinhardt with compositions that owe as much to Pink Floyd and Ravel. If you have never seen him, this is a must.

Frankenstein's Baby at Union Hall
702 Union Street
Mon Oct 19 · 7:30pm
A stand-up show from the people behind Butterboy, pairing familiar faces with newer ones. Monday is a fine night to be somewhere that is clearly trying.

Michelle Buteau at The Bell House
149 7th Street
Mon Oct 19 · 7:30pm
Buteau taped her second Netflix special at Radio City Music Hall, and this is the third of four Bell House dates she has booked this fall. The room holds a fraction of that crowd, so you get the big act at close range.

A Benefit for Little Essentials with David Cross & Friends at The Bell House
149 7th Street
Tue Oct 20 · 7:30pm · 21+
David Cross and friends are putting on a stand-up night for Little Essentials, which helps NYC kids and families. The lineup includes Sean Patton, Karli Murulli, Jon Benjamin, Ike Ufomadu, Reggie Conquest and Gary Simons, and it is subject to change. The night goes to a cause, and the lineup is deep enough that you would go anyway.

Louis Prince, Maximilian Gordon and Justin Strauss at Public Records
233 Butler Street
Wed Oct 21 · 7pm
Strauss is a New York DJ who signed to Island Records at 17 and has remixed for Blood Orange. A 7pm start for a DJ night is early, which suits a Wednesday.

Brett Goldstein Runs His Hour Before His Tour at The Bell House
149 7th Street
Wed Oct 21 · 7:30pm · 21+
Goldstein plays Roy Kent on Ted Lasso and co-created Shrinking, and he is trying out his tour hour here two days before the tour opens in Madison, Wisconsin. The show was rescheduled from August, so a lot of people have been waiting. You get to see the hour before most of the country does.

TJ: The Alien Everywhere II Special Taping at Littlefield
635 Sackett Street
Thu Oct 22 · 7pm
The Haitian-born comic has opened for Colin Quinn and Maria Bamford, and his new hour covers love, death, grief and immigration in a laid-back, conversational style. It is a taping, so a good laugh makes it into the record. There are two shows that night.

UpDating at The Bell House
149 7th Street
Thu Oct 22 · 7:30pm
Two singles go on blindfolded first dates in front of a live audience, with the feedback delivered in real time and no editing. You will leave with opinions about strangers' love lives, and a few about your own.

Echo Chamber S1.E04, Sinai Sound System feat. Lasai at Public Records
233 Butler Street
Thu Oct 22 · 10:30pm
Sinai Sound System is a Sheffield crew working in the UK dub and steppers tradition, and they bring their own rig. Spanish vocalist Lasai adds reggae and dancehall on the mic. The rig is the headliner, so decide ahead of time whether you want to stand near it.

Adam Lane Band and The One with Tim Berne at iBeam
168 7th Street
Fri Oct 23 · 8pm
A double bill pairing bassist Adam Lane's band with The One, featuring saxophonist Tim Berne. Lane is a Brooklyn-born composer who cites everyone from Duke Ellington to Melt Banana, and iBeam is a small room built for serious listening. Come ready to listen.

The Bell House Stand Up Showcase at The Bell House
149 7th Street
Fri Oct 23 · 9:45pm · 21+
Six comics share the late show, Isa Medina, Joyelle Nicole Johnson, Liam Dalton, Onika McLean, Rob Cantrell and Zahid Dewji, and the lineup is subject to change. The lobby bar is open before doors, so plan to get there early enough for a drink first.

The Longest Table, Hosted by @aligned.nyc
1st Street and Bond Street
Sun Oct 25 · 12pm to 2pm
Neighbors are setting up the longest table they can at 1st Street and Bond Street, and the only thing you need to bring is your own lunch. It is a two-hour excuse to meet the people on your block. Sounds like a great idea and well worth attending.

Masterpieces: A Virtual Experience of the Museo del Prado at Powerhouse Arts
322 3rd Avenue
Oct 1 to Dec 20 · 11am to 6:30pm
Visit the Prado without the flight. This virtual reality exhibition steps inside five of the museum's paintings, including Las Meninas and The Garden of Earthly Delights, some of which rarely travel and some of which never leave Madrid. It runs through December 20, which is plenty of time to stop telling yourself you'll go.

Hollow Nickel
494 Atlantic Avenue

Start with the smash burger. It is the one to get, griddled thin and served with fries, with a plant-based version for anyone at the table who needs one. The spicy burger plays a longer game, with heat that builds after the first few bites instead of announcing itself. Wings are on the menu too, and the kitchen is better than a bar this relaxed has any reason to be.

The drinks lean easy. The beer list is short on gimmicks, and the Penicillin, a whiskey cocktail built on honey and ginger, is the one people steer newcomers toward.

The room is dim and unhurried, and the TV is usually playing a movie rather than a game. It reads as a neighborhood bar because it is one. You can walk in alone and settle in, the staff is friendly without making a thing of it, and there is a backyard for warm nights. It opens at 4pm Monday through Thursday and 2pm the rest of the week, and it keeps pouring until 2am.

Then there is the name. In June 1953, a 14-year-old Brooklyn Eagle paperboy named Jimmy Bozart was collecting subscription money in an apartment building on Foster Avenue when he was paid with a nickel that felt too light. He dropped it, it split open, and inside was a strip of microfilm covered in numbers. The FBI spent four years unable to read it. The break came in 1957, when a Soviet agent defected, and the trail ended with the arrest of Rudolf Abel. Three friends opened Hollow Nickel in August 2012 and borrowed the case for the name, which is a better origin story than most bars get.

The Cornice Opens Its Affordable Lottery
The 11-story Cornice at 224 3rd Avenue has opened its affordable housing lottery for 20 of its 63 apartments, for households between 40 and 120 percent of area median income. Kao Hwa Lee Architects designed it for BlueSky Developers.

The Old Cobble Hill Firehouse Is Becoming a Music School. The vacant Engine Company 204 firehouse at 299 Degraw Street is undergoing a $17.8 million renovation to become the Noel Pointer Foundation's first permanent home, a youth strings program. It will have soundproofed lesson rooms and a recording studio, and the city expects to finish it in fall 2028.

Carroll Gardens Library will open December 1. The finishing touches on the renovation are happening now.

Have a great weekend at Open Studios. We’ll be out there with you.

If something's happening out there, we want to know. Email, photo, neighborhood gossip — we'll take it.
[email protected].

Exploring Gowanus · Every Saturday