We took a long walk this past weekend with the doggo. Up Bond all the way to Butler, past Public Records and Movement, over to 4th Avenue, back west past Threes and Insa, then over to Sackett to check out what was going on at Liar Liar at that time of day, and we passed Still Life. What a lovely little cafe tucked in the middle of a block! Seems like the perfect place to spend a Sunday afternoon. We will surely be back. We highly recommend you find some time this weekend for a long walk in the neighborhood, making discoveries. If you find something, please let us know about it.

Now Open / Coming Soon — Coastal Indian cuisine from a Michelin-starred chef, and a coffee shop and art studio on Sackett Street

The Big Story — Powerhouse Arts is quietly becoming one of Brooklyn's most important cultural venues

Things to Do — Jazz, drag, and a late-night star at Public Records

The Local — Four & Twenty Blackbirds: fifteen years at 3rd and 8th, serving up delicious pie

Development Watch — The firm that built DUMBO is now one of Gowanus's largest landowners

Quick Hits — Two buildings mid-transformation on Sackett and Butler

Malvan Is Bringing Coastal India to Court Street
550 Court Street, near West 9th
Open Now
Chef Eric McCarthy has been running Indian Table on Court Street since 2020, mostly on word of mouth after the pandemic swallowed his opening. Malvan is his second restaurant, further down Court Street. It specializes in the coastal cuisine of the Malvan district on India's western coast: heavily seafood-forward, built around coconut, tamarind, and long-simmered spice blends that McCarthy describes as a cousin to Goan cooking, related but distinct. The room aims for a rustic beach vibe. Start with the jumbo lump crab samosas.

Still Life Is the Sackett Street Studio Worth the Detour
573 Sackett Street, near Nevins
Open Now · Daily 8am–4:30pm
A coffee shop and art space that opened last fall on Sackett and belongs in your regular rotation. Partners Coffee and Counter Culture beans on the drinks side, pastries and light bites alongside them, and a ceramic studio in the back with drop-in art sessions and rotating workshops. Light, airy, big communal tables. One of the better new additions to the neighborhood if you need a place to actually sit for a few hours without feeling like you should leave.

Walk through Gowanus these days, and you'll spend most of your time looking up. Cranes. Glass towers. More cranes. But at 322 3rd Avenue, in a former Brooklyn Rapid Transit power station that was once known as The Batcave, something different is being built.

Powerhouse Arts opened in 2023, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, with the building's original graffiti deliberately preserved on the walls. It was billed as a fabrication hub: 170,000 square feet of studios for ceramics, printmaking, and public art production. That's the official version. What's actually developing is a cultural institution with ambitions this neighborhood hasn't seen before.

Last fall, Powerhouse: International, a new performing arts festival curated by Tony Award-winning producer David Binder, drew more than 21,000 visitors over twelve weeks. The centerpiece was the New York premiere of William Kentridge's "Sibyl," an Olivier Award-winning chamber opera weaving film, live piano, and an all-male chorus into a meditation on fate and memory. Not at BAM. Not at Park Avenue Armory. At 322 3rd Avenue, right along the canal.

The Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair returns to the Grand Hall for its second edition, April 9–12, with more than 50 exhibitors, daily talks, live demonstrations, and a juried national print exhibition from MGC Community Print Studio, celebrating its 40th anniversary with studios in this building. Arts Gowanus, whose member studios are also here, will be exhibiting at the fair. Last year's inaugural edition drew 7,500 visitors. One-day tickets are $15, with free admission for students, children, and EBT cardholders. Tickets and full schedule at brooklynprintfair.org.

The building has stated ambitions to become the kind of institution that sits alongside BAM and the Park Avenue Armory in how it's discussed. A year and a half in, it's not a stretch. Gowanus has always been worth something beyond its real estate. The Batcave is making the argument.

Switch n' Play: Ninth Annual VAMP at Littlefield
635 Sackett Street, near 4th Avenue
Sat Mar 28 · 8pm · $19–$30 · 21+
Drag, burlesque, and queer performance from Brooklyn's Switch n' Play collective.

Jon Lampley + James Hamilton at Public Records
233 Butler Street, near Bond
Sat Mar 28 · 7pm
Live jazz in the Sound Room. Trumpet and piano. The sound system alone is worth the trip.

Sundays in the Atrium: Ritual at Public Records
233 Butler Street, near Bond
Sun Mar 29 · 4pm
Stacey Hotwaxx Hale, Baronhawk Poitier, and Karim Olen Ash in the Atrium. An early Sunday option that won't wreck you.

A. Deeplove (Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT) + Bryce Hackford at Public Records
233 Butler Street, near Bond
Thu Apr 2 · 10:30pm
VanWyngarden plays a late set under his solo project name. Worth staying up for.

Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair at Powerhouse Arts
322 3rd Avenue, near Union
Apr 9–12 · $15 day pass · Free for students, children, and EBT cardholders
The full case is in the Big Story above. This is the one to actually put on the calendar.

Four & Twenty Blackbirds Has Been Right Here the Whole Time
439 3rd Avenue, at 8th Street
Mon–Fri 8am–6pm · Sat 9am–7pm · Sun 10am–6pm

There is a corner in Gowanus where 3rd Avenue meets 8th Street that, on the right morning, smells like brown butter and caramel and something you can't quite name but makes you slow down. That corner has belonged to Four & Twenty Blackbirds for fifteen years. In Gowanus terms, that's basically forever.

Emily and Melissa Elsen grew up in Hecla, South Dakota, population somewhere around 200. The kind of town where the generations stay close, and what your grandmother knows gets passed down because that's just how it works. Their grandmother Liz had pie recipes. The sisters had the sense to write them down. In 2010, they brought those recipes to a gritty corner across from the canal and opened a bakery.

The neighborhood was a different place then. The canal was still mostly a punchline. The block had the kind of character that means it hasn't been renovated yet. The Elsens opened anyway: communal tables, Variety Coffee on the counter, a rotating case of whatever was in season, and an all-butter crust that immediately started getting people talking.

The Salted Caramel Apple became something people sought out specifically. The New York Times paid attention. So did Oprah. In 2013, they published a cookbook. These days, Four & Twenty ships nationally via Goldbelly and draws lines on weekend mornings. The Salty Honey Custard is a cult classic. The Black Bottom Oat, dark chocolate ganache under a brown sugar and oat custard, rewards anyone who moves past the apple. The menu rotates with what's actually in season: rhubarb in spring, stone fruit in summer, citrus when the cold sets in.

Fifteen years later, the neighborhood barely resembles what it was when they opened. New towers on every block. A Whole Foods where they used to sell bricks and gravel (remember that?). Walk in on a quiet Tuesday afternoon, and Four & Twenty Blackbirds feels the same as it always did. Grandmother Liz's recipes, baked fresh. Some things just work.

Two Trees Becomes One of Gowanus's Largest Landowners
69 Ninth Street, near 2nd Avenue
Acquired March 2026 · Plans TBD
Two Trees Management, the firm that transformed DUMBO from a warehouse district into one of Brooklyn's most valuable neighborhoods, paid $37 million last week for a 3-acre stretch at 69 Ninth Street. The acquisition covers seven buildings totaling roughly 113,800 square feet, currently anchored by a Tesla dealership, along with grocery delivery service Save A Lot and shipper Fabric. The site is 87 percent occupied.

Here's the detail worth paying attention to: this parcel sits outside the 2021 rezoning boundary. Two Trees already owns five to ten acres within the rezoned area. The 69 Ninth Street purchase is a separate bet entirely, either on a future expansion of the rezoning or on commercial redevelopment under existing zoning. Newmark marketing materials for the site cited potential for up to 252,134 square feet of commercial floor area. Two Trees has not announced plans.

The firm that built DUMBO doesn't buy land without a thesis. Gowanus residents have spent four years watching the neighborhood transform under the rezoning. This acquisition suggests the transformation may not stop at the rezoning's edge.

The corner of 3rd Avenue and Sackett just got taller. 579 Sackett Street, an 11-story, 64-unit rental building developed by BlueSky, topped out this month. The building also goes by 224 3rd Avenue and includes ground-floor retail. Posted completion is April 2026, though expect it to run longer.

264 Butler Street is cleared and ready. The former warehouse that housed Wafels & Dinges and a candy wholesaler between 3rd Avenue and Nevins has been fully demolished. Developer Goose Property Management hasn't filed plans yet, but residential with ground-floor commercial is the likely next move given the zoning.

The cranes are still there. So is the pie. We'll take it.

See you on the block. — The Gowanaut

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