Brokelyn

Photo by Stefan Tonio.

“We act as though comfort and luxury
were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need
to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.”

May 18, 2009—Who said that? Albert Einstein. Well that guy sure knew a thing or two about a thing or two, and never was his sentiment more relevant than now. And so we present Brokelyn.com, a web mag founded in celebration of a place we’re endlessly enthusiastic about, no matter how [synonym for crummy] the [synonym for economy] gets.

We’re not going to dwell on that part around here—we’ll be too busy finding new ideas for bargain obsessives, stoop-sale sartorialists and wallet-aware foodies. Or we’ll be calling 100 Brooklyn dentists for the cheapest teeth whitening (even though we’re not positive that the cheapest dentist is always the best one.) If you have ideas, tips, lavish praise, or fully conceived and photographed articles about budget-friendly Brooklyn, by all means, please send them our way.

The site is edited by Faye Penn, the Style & Error columnist for InStyle and a contributing editor at WSJ. Magazine. A former  features editor for New York Magazine and The New York Post, she lives in Ditmas Park. You can reach her at faye@brokelyn.com.

Eliza Gran, our style-scout-in-residence, launched her children’s clothing design company in 2003. Her line has been carried by stores all over the world and featured in magazines such as Elle, WWD, Cookie, and The New York Times. She also does interior design and magazine styling and lives with her husband and three children in Brooklyn, and her work can be seen at www.elizagran.com.

News editor Jonathan Berk received his master’s in print and online journalism from Boston University. He is also an amateur violist and chronicler of urban coyotes. His favorite cheap Brooklyn activity is running down the hill in Prospect Park (running up the hill is a distant second).

Contributing editor Tim Donnelly graduated the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland five years after Jayson Blair left the school. He recently deserted a career as a newspaper reporter for life as a freelance writer in Brooklyn, where he largely subsists on hummus, Three Buck Chuck and one very large bag of rice. If you run into him at the bar, he will probably try to talk you into buying him a drink. His work can be seen at www.timdonnelly.com.

Staff writer Anna Jacobson is the hitch-hiking, odd-job type. A recent Hampshire College graduate, she is also a videomaker, fire spinner, belly dancer, and overall spotlight junkie (have you noticed how many pictures of her are on the site?). Her highly caffeinated time is spent between an East Midtown editing suite and her East Williamsburg commune.

Another regular presence on these pages is The Brokavore, our painstakingly cheap foodist whose identity must remain cloistered for reasons of day-job security. When not filling up on dumplings in Sunset Park or hunting for great produce in Brooklyn’s yonder lands, he resides with his family in the South Slope. You can reach him at Brokavore@Brokelyn.com.

A big shout out to Jason Kernevich and Dustin Summers of The Heads of State, who created our logo in between gigs for the New York Times Magazine, along with Renda Morton, Holly Gressley and Andy Pressman of Rumors, who designed the web site.

Thanks also to all of our writers, photographers, bargain scouts and interns for their generosity and intelligence, and most of all, thanks to our “angel investor,” a New York City cab driver named Susan who passed away last year. She was a scrapper and a news junkie whose cantankerous wit enlivened the letters page of every paper in town. As it turned out, she was also a generous person with unique ideas about friendship. Thanks, Susan. We hope they have Wifi wherever you are.