(718) 260–2500 Brooklyn Paper’s essential guide to the Borough of Kings September 13–19, 2019
DINING
Life of slice
Norm!
Brookynites gave a big welcome to the new
slice shop Norm’s Pizza when it opened Downtown
last week, according to its owner.
“We had a line out the door for about two
hours,” said Noam Grossman, who titled the
spot after a frequent mishearing
of his first name.
Grossman and his partners,
Brooklyn brothers
Eli and Oren Halali and
pizza consultant Anthony
Falco, operate the
upscale Upside Pizza in
Manhattan, but immediately
saw the potential
in an empty spot across
from Borough Hall.
“We knew we had
to put something here,”
said Grossman. “It’s a
high-traffic area, but
you couldn’t find a decent slice of pizza.”
There are three $1 slice joints within a block
of Norm’s Pizza, but the new spot has higher
ambitions that just churning out pies. The pizzas
use a sourdough starter, leading to a dough
that requires special training to stretch properly,
along with speciality sauces that pack a
lot of flavor.
Norm’s triple pizza oven turns out just five
varieties: a simple cheese slice ($3), pepperoni,
white pizza ($4 each), vodka-sauced pizza ($4.25);
and a classic margherita ($4.50).
Grossman said that his pies were inspired by
classic Brooklyn spots: the margherita is based
on Juliana’s coal-fired pizza in Dumbo, while the
white pie, made with garlic, two kinds of mozzarella,
lemon zest; and an olive oil from Carroll
Gardens spot Frankie’s 457, nods to an offmenu
item at Totonno’s in Coney Island.
The next step for the tiny space — which can
fit a dozen patrons at most, with seats for nine
— will be expanding the hours to 11 p.m. every
night, followed by delivery service.
Its bright yellow counters offer shakers of red
pepper flakes and oregano, but not garlic powder,
said Grossman, because he worked hard
to get the right amount of garlic into the sauce.
When someone asks for garlic powder, he urges
them to try a bite first.
“People will try the slice, and say ‘I get it,’ ”
he said. “Or not — it’s not for everyone.”
Norm’s Pizza 345 Adams St. between Willoughby
and Johnson streets Downtown; (347)
916–1310, www.normspizza.com. Open daily;
11 a.m.–10 p.m. — Bill Roundy
Gone
Wild
New brewery to
open in Gowanus
By Aidan Graham
Brooklyn Paper
Welcome to the wild, wild East.
A new brewery is hopping into
Gowanus! Wild East Brewery plans
to open its tap lines in early October, when it
will welcome Brooklyn beer fans to its swanky
new spot, said the brewery’s co-founder.
“It’s going to be a really sleek, streamlined,
modern design,” said Tyler March.
“We’ll have a horseshoe shaped bar coming
off one of the side walls, and there’s a back
wall that’s mostly glass, so you can look
straight into the production space.”
The taproom will boast seating for up
to 90 beer aficionados, and will have tap
lines for 20 brews — all of which will soon
flow with one of Wild East’s hazy hop creations,
said March.
“Our niche is farmhouse style beers.
We want to do a lot mixed fermentation,
and a lot of barrel aging stuff,” said March.
“You can call it more rustic style beers —
cloudy, hazy, fresh.”
March said that he and his two brewing
partners, who have already had some success
as homebrewers, will scour the state
for as many ingredients for their brew as
possible. The New York hops and grains
will provide drinkers with an unexpectedly
rich taste, according to March.
“You can get equally high quality hops in
New York, but they’ll have a slightly different
profile,” he said. “So there’s an educational
component involved with consumers,
because people might expect ingredients
to taste a certain way. These ingredients
are just as good, but have slightly different
flavor profiles.”
March settled on Gowanus as the ideal location
for the new brewery — and not just because
he also lives in the neighborhood.
“There’s a lot of spaces that are zoned
properly for the type of business that we
are, and that also had enough room for a
tap room,” he said. “And, it’s at the nexus
of a lot of other neighborhoods that have a
great demographic for a business like this
— Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Boerum
Hill, Cobble Hill, etc.”
The brewhouse is still waiting on approvals
from city bureaucrats to officially
launch, but until then, the soon-to-be beer
barons are using the space for various promotional
events, said March.
“Leading up to our grand opening we’ll
have a series of events — media night,
friends and family night, industry night
for local industry professionals,” he said.
BEER
“And we’ll be doing a book event with Josh
Bernstein. He’s a pretty prolific beer writer
and author. So we’ll be doing various things
like that.”
OPERA
Sing, America
Let freedom sing!
A Cobble Hill opera company will hold a constitutional
concert next week, singing the text of
our country’s founding document. The Vertical
Player Repertory presented “The Constitution: A
Secular Oratorio,” earlier this summer, and the
strong response to the show caused the company
to bring it back for four more shows, starting on
Constitution Day, Sept. 17. The performance offers
a fresh, memorable way for people to experience
the words of the Founding Fathers, said
the company’s artistic director.
“I feel that people should know what is in
the Constitution. Singing is a wonderful way to
learn it and to experience it — if you are listening
to the words as music it is easier to assimilate
somehow,” said Judith Barnes.
The show features the Constitution’s Preamble,
Articles One through Seven, and severable
singable amendments, though it skips over some
of the legalistic language that could be confusing
or difficult for people to sing, she said.
“It is important that people really understand
the words because the composer has set the words
clearly. The experience helps people take ownership
of this document and be able to experience
it in a new and unexpected way, to learn
the words of the Constitution and to reflect on
it,” Barnes said.
The show’s composer, Benjamin Yarmolinsky,
set the words to an eclectic array of musical
styles, including popular, classical, and Baroque
tunes, according to soloist Blake Burroughs.
The music is performed by a chorus of 23 singers,
accompanied by a piano. Using a piano as
the sole instrument allows for an intimacy that
would not be possible with a full orchestra, said
Burroughs. It also allows for a personal moment
at the end of the first act, he said.
“At the end of the first act each of us calls
out the name of one of the people who signed
the Constitution. I think that is a powerful moment
— I doubt that most people have heard
the names of the delegates of the constitutional
convention, and it becomes a jumping off point
about history and who these people were,” said
Burroughs.
“The Constitution: A Secular Oratorio” at Behind
the Door (219 Court St. between Wyckoff
and Warren streets in Cobble Hill, www.vpropera.
org). Sept. 17 at 8 p.m., Sept. 24, 26, and 28
at 8 p.m. $35–$65. — Chandler Kidd
Feeling out of toon
Animator outlines his bipolar struggle in short
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
This flick illustrates a real problem.
A Bedford-Stuyvesant animator
has created a short film about
his struggles with bipolar disorder,
screening as part of the weekendlong
Animation Block Party at the
Brooklyn Academy of Music, running
Sept. 20–22. The 11-minute cartoon
“Eli” follows a teenager during
a manic episode, based on the director’s
own experience.
“Three years ago I had a manic episode
and was diagnosed with bipolar
disorder,” said Nate Milton. “The
manic episode itself was very sciencefiction,
it felt spiritual.”
The Brooklyn cartoonist re-imagined
his mental travails through the fictional
teenager Eli, who believes that
a supernatural raccoon has inserted a
meteor rock in his ear, which emits a
noise that keeps him from sleeping, and
he ends up institutionalized.
Milton spent time in a Rhode Island
psych ward, then wrote and rewrote
his story for the next two years,
finally drawing it in a five-month creative
burst in late 2018. The art project
helped him to deal with his feelings
about that troubled time, he said.
“I wanted to get a lot of that stuff
off of my chest,” he said.
The protagonist in the story finds
release by harmonizing with the space
rock’s hum, which parallels the way
that Milton found peace by pursuing
his own craft.
“Eli’s supposed to be this musical
savant kid, him landing on these
songs he’s playing is like me landing
on this film. The animation process
has always been very meditative for
me,” he said.
Milton showed some signs of mental
illness while growing up, and said
that it would have helped him to know
that, while his troubles were in his head,
they could still have a real impact on
his psyche.
“It would have been helpful for me
Photo by Trey Pentecost
to get a third person’s perspective,” he
said. “The mission statement of the film
is that this stuff did happen, but it’s not
factual — it’s what I perceived to be
happening.”
“Eli” is the longest segment in the
“Narrative Works, Independents, Local
Filmmakers” block of short films,
screening on Sept. 21.
Other highlights of the Animated
Block Party include the new Chinese
fantasy feature “White Snake,” a “Female
Animators” block of cartoons by
women, and a 35mm print of 1979’s “The
Bugs Bunny/Road-Runner Movie.”
“Eli” at BAM Rose Cinema 30
Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Place in
Fort Greene, (718) 636-4100, www.
bam.org. Sept. 21 at 4:30 p.m. $16
($11 seniors and children).
in “Eli” imagines a giant raccoon in his bedroom. Nate Milton
Ward of the state: The 11-minute animated film “Eli,” screening at
the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Sept. 21, follows a bipolar teenager
while he stays in a psychiatric facility. (Inset) The title character
Brewmasters: Wild East Brewery founders Lindsay Steen, Tyler March, and Brett
Taylor expect to formally open the taps at their new Gowanus brew space in October,
but you can get a sneak peek on Sept. 17. (Left) While preparing their own
space, the brewers of Wild East collaborated with Fifth Hammer Brewing to create
this fruity saison.
Wild East Brewing (623 Sackett St.
between Third and Fourth avenues in
Gownaus, www.wildeastbrewing.com).
Opening soon. Josh Bernstein’s book
release party for “Drink Better Beer”
at Wild East Brewing. Sept. 17 at 7 p.m.
$25–$35.
Nate Milton
Joseph Henry Ritter Photo by Bill Roundy Molly Tavoletti
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