Brooklyn Magazine

Doing a shot with the bartenders is a bit of a hallowed experience: You get a peek into what they’re into behind the stick, which is oftentimes playing with obscure stuff on the back bar. At Shania’s Max Bet, which recently opened in Gowanus, you can get into that sort of fun without having to put the hours in to be a regular.

Thursday, August 27, marks the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn, the Revolutionary War battle that the colonists lost, but which proved pivotal regardless due to a strategic retreat by that guy we named a bridge after. There are a ton of events to commemorate that battle happening this weekend, and we get into many of them below. But if 18th-century history is not your thing, you can celebrate another way: by dancing.

Mary Jones had a clear goal as she entered her mid-70s. For many who dream of entrepreneurship, the gap between the kernel of idea and the final product is too daunting, permanently stalling a project before it can get off the ground. But for Jones and her co-owners at The Little Bookshop, her daughter Ashley Jones and Ashley’s husband, Hans Palacios, the spark of inspiration was more than enough. “I think all of us had an idea inside of us of what we wanted to do,” Mary says.

Jules Pizza is located at 176 Avenue O, at the corner of West 4th Street, and is currently open on Monday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., and on Sunday from noon to 9:00 p.m. It’s unusual (and cool as hell) to have your lifelong dream come true at the age of 19, but that’s exactly what’s going on right now in Bensonhurst for Julian Hamdi, who about a month ago joined forces with his father, Moe, and opened a killer new neighborhood spot, Jules Pizza.

Adam Meeks’ first feature, the addiction drama Union County, is a kind of movie you’ve seen before. It’s “about” two foster brothers addicted to opiates, trapped in the American drug addiction rehabilitation industrial complex in Bellefontaine, Ohio, and their journey through the city’s Adult Recovery Court, a program notable for its uncommon success rate…of just over 50 percent.

It was billed as a total solar eclipse. In Europe, at least. Here, it would be a partial solar eclipse, something I expected would draw New Yorkers to parks and other eclipse-viewing vantage points in high numbers. I was wrong. But a few of us still went out for it, special glasses and all. Photo by Vincent Pflieger I picked two places where I was sure something would happen: Washington Square and Domino Park. I got to Washington Square a little after noon.

Sadly, the summer is slowly coming to an end. But the fun is nowhere near over. This week, we’ve got an absolutely wild variety of events for you. Whether you want to party at night with Bobby Shmurda or celebrate community during the day with Maino; hear literature and poetry outdoors in a garden or indoors in a museum; or dance to EDM or to reggae, we’ve got you covered. Check it all out at the Weekend Guide below.

Zig Zag Oyster Bar is located at 406 Prospect Place, at the corner of Grand Avenue, and is currently open on Tuesday through Saturday from 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., with Sunday and Monday hours coming soon Nialls Fallon, Nick Perkins, and Leah Campbell are kind of geniuses at opening beloved local spots that feel so warm and welcoming, and serve food that’s so much better than it probably needs to be, that their restaurants also become everyone else’s go-tos whenever they’re in the neighborhood.

Seafoam green is basically a personality trait in this city now, and honestly? Earned. The Liberty clinched a championship in 2024 and have remained one of the most exciting teams in New York to watch. So it tracks that bars around the city have their TVs tuned to every game. In fact, there is an official Liberty Bar Network, with spots in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens turning each tip-off into a neighborhood event.

Near the end of Basquiat, Julian Schnabel’s 1996 biopic dedicated to his peer and rival in the 1980s art world, the painter, played by Jeffrey Wright, is literally out to lunch for an awkward reunion with his longtime on-again/off-again girlfriend Gina, played by Claire Forlani. Jean-Michel Basquiat is not doing well. He is strung out, face covered in lesions he picks at compulsively, barely present in conversation with Gina.