Full Circle Bar, awaiting your skeelz

Our friends over at Brooklynauts are giving you a chance to redeem your skeeballin’ points for more than just mustache combs or ladybug erasers. This Sunday from 5-8, they’re hosting a Skee for MD fundraiser for muscular dystrophy at Williamsburg’s skee-tastic Full Circle Bar (a Brokelyn-certified Beer Book bar!). All proceeds from the $1-a-play skee-ball lanes, along with $1 from each drink and raffle ticket sales go to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the non-profit dedicated to curing muscular dystrophy, ALS and related diseases. The list of amazing prizes includes 10 drinks at Brooklyn Brewery and some NuNu Chocolates.

And since this is Brooklyn and no party is complete without cupcakes, Kumquat Cupcakery will be giving away their delicious baked goods for the duration of the fundraiser. The event is free, but make sure to bring your wrist guards to avoid skee-related injuries.

TONIGHT!!

You’ve watched the buildup, you’ve seen us gathering up the best spring offerings in Brooklyn, and now tonight is the night: The Brokelyn Country Club Spring Gala! Come dance on the grave of cruel cold winter at Public Assembly with us and you could walk away with some great prizes to help get your spring into high gear (tattoos anyone? Beer? Yoga? a new bike?!). The party starts at 8 and the open bar from Brooklyn Brewery and Brooklyn Gin lasts until 9pm. Much thanks to all our raffle sponsors and our partner, Scoutmob, for helping us put together our best spring party evah. Check out  details on  all the prizes you could win below. Don’t forget your springiest outfit, because, like a real country club, you can show your style by popping that collar as high as it will go. 

Party time: 8pm-2am(?)
Get there early! Open bar featuring Brooklyn Brewery and Brooklyn Gin: 8pm-9pm
Raffling starts at  9:30 and goes til midnight
Tacos for sale from Brooklyn Taco
Proceeds go to help support the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and future Brokelyn journalism
Cover: $3
Raffle tickets: $2 each, 3 for $5 (and maybe you’ll find bonus tickets hidden around Public Assembly too!)
DJs: Mike Gabry (8pm-9pm) and Adam Mandel (9pm-2am) spinning Britpop and classic soul all night long
Wear your best spring duds: Not only is there a best-dressed contest, we’ll have a Flickr photo booth!
Hosted by: Andrew Geske and Brokelyn’s own Sue Smith.
Official Twitter hashtag: #springgala

Here it is: the full list of prizes you can win tonight. Spread those tickets out to as many prize buckets as you like to increase your chances of being the big winner:

Colonie
Win $75 to spend on foie gras doughnuts, rabbit lasagna, keg wine and other tasty offerings at this Kickstarter-funded new Brooklyn Heights restaurant.

Brooklyn Brainery
Use this $50 toward any class at the Carroll Gardens emporium of wonderful learning: recent classes include mozzarella making, the physics of earthquakes, perfect pie crust and the sociology of food.

Computer checkup from Park Slope Computers
Park Slope Computers was one of the places that came out on top of our laptop repair price check; now you can come out on top by winning a $95 checkup that includes removing viruses, spyware and unnecessary programs and installing anti-virus software.

LaundryLocal.com
You’re busy, and LaundryLocal knows that, which is why they pick up your dirty clothes at your door and drop them back clean on your own schedule. Use this $50 gift to tackle that big pile of unwashed winter clothes in the corner.

Guactacular at The Bell House tickets
Presented by our friends at NachosNY, the second Guactacular on May 8 will give you a taste of 20 guacs, free beer and lots of other prizes. Plus, the four pack of T-shirts will let everyone know you’re serious about your love of nachos ($100 value).

Local shirts from BQT Shirts
If you think Prospect Park is greater than Central Park or want to “dislike” fare hikes, BQT is the shirt company for you. Show your love for some of the best parts of New York City (aka Brooklyn) this spring with this BK-centric three-pack of Ts ($70 value).

Sweet Melissa
Springtime reminds you that not all your dates have to take place in a dark, dank bar: try a classier idea: Tea for Two, with choice of finger sandwiches, scones and other little treats at this cute Cobble Hill patisserie ($50 value).

GoodYoga
This Greenpoint studio offers more than just yoga; there’s a whole social experience involved with a communal kitchen, rooftop spaces and speciality cuisine days and more. Win this pass for a week of unlimited yoga ($50 value).

Growlers from Fresh Fanatic
Fresh Fanatic brings local, organic and all-natural food to Clinton Hill, and these four free growlers let you bring some tasty craft beers home with you at the end of the night.

Home cleaning from MyClean.com
Springtime means spring cleaning, which means facing the huge mess you’ve accumulated over the winter. Let someone else do it this year with $50 worth of in-home cleaning from MyClean.com.

Crest Hardware
Crest is a hardware institution and garden center with 50 years serving the Williamsburg community. The $50 gift card (and tote bag) is the perfect start for your spring renovations and craft projects or for getting that backyard garden in the ground.

Day hiking passes from Brooklyn Outfitters
Your exposure to the outdoors doesn’t have to be limited to the dog run across the street this year. With two pairs of day hiking passes from this outdoor excursion company, you’ll get to see the gorgeous mountains, streams and forests that surround our bustling city.

Garden gift pack from Rose Red and Lavender
The Williamsburg garden shop wants to seriously start your home garden: the $85 prize pack is an all-in-one hydroponic gardening kit that automatically feeds and waters your plants using an aeration circulation system, and includes a 2-gallon reservoir, water indicator, pump and tubing, growing medium, nutrients, pH test kit, ANd a gift certificate for four free vegetable or herb plants to put inside.

Supplies from NYCPet
Even your pooch or kitty need to have the best spring evah this year: our NYCPet prize will give you $100 to spend on treats for your furry friends, plus a big bag of food for them too!

Cut and blow dry from High Horse Salon
The warming weather means it’s get fresh and clean clean and stop hiding your shining locks under that winter cap. This classy Williamsburg salon has an old-school charm that beats that cheap mall haircut you were going to get.

Hangover survival kit from Trader Joe’s
A big bag of all you need to short-circuit that hangover trying to chastise you for having too much fun at our party from everyone’s favorite Hawaiian-shirt wearing grocers. Includes: coconut water, ibuprofen, Emergen-C, trail mix, potato chips, vitamin B, plus brand new TJ’s margarita and bloody mary mixes.

Free days at Greenpoint Coworking
Greenpoint Coworking made our list of best affordable Brooklyn workspaces; now you can try it yourself with three free days of work space rental, where the professional but casual atmosphere beats your local Starbucks.

Pizza party at Verde Coal Oven pizzeria
Verde and its 100-year-old oven have already received some praise from the New York pizzerati; now you and four friends can have your own pizza party at the Bushwick restaurant after winning our raffle.

Ropes passes from Brooklyn Boulders
These two passes to the Learn the Ropes courses at the Gowanus rock-climbing center are your best way to jump into the world of rock climbing which includes equipment rental, belay class and instruction ($150 value).

Mixed case of wine
Just like a real country club, Brokelyn has an anonymous benefactor! Win this case of wine and give your dinner party guests a respite from your three-buck-chuck addiction for a few weeks.

Breuckelen Distilling Company tour and tasting
Brooklyn experienced a boom of distilleries last year and our raffle gives you the chance to get the inside look at the new wave of locally distilled spirits. Win this prize and you’ll get a private tour, tasting … and a free bottle of gin … at the Sunset Park distillery.

Calexico
Its food truck was named the best in the city a few years ago, and the Greenpoint full restaurant is just as loved by fans of Cal-Mex cuisine. Use this $100 gift to try it yourself.

Brooklyn Bowl tickets
The Williamsburg bowling alley/concert venue/eco-friendly beer parlor features is one of the best places to see a concert in the whole city. Win this prize and you could land yourself in the middle of the crowd at any show of your choosing (except sold-out shows).

8 of Swords tattoo
You’ll finally be able to put that bulky jacket away and show some skin, which means it’s time to get that tattoo you’ve been dreaming about. Win this $100 from Williamsburg’s 8 of Swords Tattoo and some of the city’s best artists will help you on your way.

VIP passes to Body by Brooklyn
This 10,00-square foot Clinton Hill spa has everything you need to wash away those memories of all those gross piles of brown snow that lingered on the streets for months: spa services includes massage, facial, hydrotherapy, Russian sauna and cold-plunge pool. Two VIP passes are up for grabs tonight.

Meat Hook’s night of debauchery
This is one of the most bizarre and enticing prizes we’ve ever offered. Win this one and you’ll get to hang out with the staff of Williamsburg’s hip butcher shop after closing, where they’ll stuff you with food, booze and then take you out bar hopping with your new butchering buds. (Value: can you put a price on abject debauchery?)

Ride Brooklyn BRAND NEW BIKE!
Our friends at the great Park Slope bike shop Ride Brooklyn have provided the perfect way to really get your spring moving: this sweet Linus Roadster Classic bicycle! With a black sheen with a medium frame, this vintage-inspired beauty is equipped with alloy bell and coaster brakes. It’s worth $429, but can be yours for just one raffle ticket tonight.

PLUS: The winners of our best-dressed contest will win gift cards from Urban Outfitters (and more!).

And more surprises awaiting — We’ll see you tonight!

Poster by Meghan Doherty

From the folks who brought you the Brokelyn Beer Book and the RAFFLE OF THE CENTURY, Brokelyn is proud to announce our next event: the Brokelyn Country Club Spring Gala! With help from our friends at Scoutmob, We’re taking over Public Assembly April 21 to celebrate the best spring ever in Brooklyn and raise some money for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden: raffle prizes from the borough’s best spring offerings, including Brooklyn Bowl, Meat Hook, Sweet Melissa, Greenpoint Coworking and more; an open bar featuring Brooklyn Brewery and Brooklyn Gin; yummy food by Brooklyn Taco and two DJs spinning tunes to get your blood flowing again all night long. Prizes for the best spring-y attire, so wear your Salvation Army Izods or secondhand American Apparel. And more surprises! Check out the full list of prizes and RSVP on Facebook, and get ready to dance away these lingering winter blues. April 21, Public Assembly, 70 North 6th St., Williamsburg, 8 pm (open bar ends at 9).

Hibiscus soda from P&H Soda and Syrup Inc.

The Brooklyn Flea at One Hanson is off on Sunday (just this once), but don’t worry—your artisanal food-vendor fix will be just fine. Sunday, Jun. 27, The Bell House is hosting the fourth annual UnFancy Food Show, where more than 45 of the city’s best food purveyors get together to show and sell their stuff. The enormous (and air-conditioned) event will have live music, $2 12-oz. Brooklyn Lagers and Bloody Marys made with McClure’s Pickles famous Bloody Mary mix. Plus dozens of other goodies too.

For sweet-tooths, Roni-Sue’s Chocolates will be around for you to dig into, and Roni-Sue’s daughter Allison will be selling her amazing First Prize Pies (including the delicious S’mores Pie). SCRATCHbread also will be in attendance with their scones, breads and amazing buttercream brownies.

For a hot-cold one-two punch, chase some Crop to Cup coffee with People’s Pops‘ shaved ice and popsicles.

Salvatore Brooklyn Ricotta will be there, we can only pray with their open-faced ricotta sandwiches, replete with shavings off their hunk o’ proscuitto.

And P&H Soda will quench your thirst with some of their natural housemade sodas.

But really, these are just a few. Be there from noon to 5 and gorge the day away. $5 at the door.

The Bell House, 149 7th St. between Second and Third Aves., Gowanus.

This is the latest in our series on the venues featured in the Brokelyn Beer Book. Brooklyn Brewery in Williamsburg needs little endorsement. When you’re out and about on a warm weekend, stop in for a drink or for a brewery tour to see what’s behind the beloved label.

BROOKLYN BREWERY
www.brooklynbrewery.com
79 N. 11th St. at Berry, Williamsburg, 718-486-7422

What it is: You need to ask?
Why we love it: Pizza at Grimaldi’s, fried calamari at Randazzo’s, pupusas at the Red Hook ball fields, beer at Brooklyn Brewery.
Who to bring: Brooklyn fetishists from out of town, aspiring brewmasters who would enjoy the free brewery tours.
What to order: They only serve one thing here, but you can bring in pizza.
Brooklyn Brewery fun fact: Brooklyn Brewery founder Steve Hindy learned to brew his own beer when he was an Associated Press reporter stationed in the Middle East, because the Muslim culture did not permit access to alcohol.

The Phenomenal Handclap Band, via myspace

One of our favorite things about Brooklyn is how much we, in Brooklyn, love bringing attention to our favorite things, in Brooklyn. Enter Brooklyn Bowl, which already gets props for its huge concert area, local beer dedication, and hyper-eco-friendly operations and food choices. Now it’s stepping up its support of all things locally grown with a FREE monthly concert series/arts and culture showcase.

The event, called Local X Local, kicks off this Sunday night, Feb. 21, with locals The Phenomenal Handclap Band, which, true to its name, is quite good and hand-clappy to boot (Check out their jam “You’ll Disappear”).

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE: RSVP via the Facebook and you get a $2 draft special on Brooklyn Brewery lager from 7 to 10 p.m. And then there’s all the other non-music stuff that night to love about Brooklyn too.

The Bushwick-based graphic design and live T-shirt printing team behind Peripheral Media Projects will be there for on-hand screening and selling custom shirts. And you can get a starter kit for your own home/roof/bathtub garden from the folks at Greenhorns, the non-profit that supports young farmers across the country. Greenhorns director, Severine V.T. Fleming, will join with farmer Annie Novak of the Greenpoint Rooftop Farm to offer advice and materials to help you plot your summer garden. They’ll have seed catalogs, minipaks, garden planning materials and other supplies, plus free consultation and pep talks.

The whole party kicks off at 7 p.m., with doors opening at the absurdly early hour of noon—plenty of time to get in some bowling, try some food from their menu and think about all the things you love to love about Brooklyn. More info here.

UPDATE: We a representative of the event what bands we can expect to see in future months. He said he couldn’t reveal the names because they’re not confirmed yet, but he could say “we’ll have a big, Pitchforky indie band for next month.” Oooo intriguing! Unless he’s talking about those farmers just waving around pitchforks, of course.

Waterfront Barge, photo by Timothy Vogel.

You’ve been to Prospect Park 271 times already, done the once-a-year loop of Coney Island and Brighton Beach and spent way too many Sundays at Fairway. Another summer weekend is just four days away (Monday’s kinda fun when you think of it like that). So where’s that dang list of all those wonderful Brooklyn places you said you were going to visit this year, for real? We found it for you.

Enjoy the views from Waterfront Museum Barge (pay what you wish) and enjoy a chat and possibly a juggling lesson with owner/captain David Sharps. Then picnic at Pier 44 next to the Barge or a few blocks away at romantic Valentino Pier. Don’t forget to bring $5 for a Swingle, a chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick from Steve’s Key Lime Pies. Barge is at 290 Conover St., at Pier 44, 718-624-4719.

Go to the Brooklyn Brewery happy hour. Fridays from 6 to 11, you can bring in your own chow and unwind in a working brewery with fresh draft beer, $4 per 14-ounce compostable cup. That’s five for $20; the sixth beer is free, God help you. The Brewery offers free half-hour brewery tours on Saturdays and Sundays, from noon to 6, on the hour. 1 Brewers Row, 70 N. 11th St., Williamsburg, 718-486-7422.

Go canoeing in Canarsie at the Sebago Canoe Club. On Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 9:30 a.m., they offer free tw0-and-a-half-hour guided rides on a first-come basis. Participants must pay a $10 insurance fee and be at least 16. Be on time. 1400 Paerdegat Ave. North, 718-241-3683.

NYC Water Taxi, photo by J. Nordberg.

Get a yogurt and go on a mini-cruise for $1. The water taxi to Manhattan is free for Ikea shoppers with receipts—even if all you buy is a $1 frozen yogurt. The taxi runs every 40 minutes between 1 Beard St. (Red Hook) and South Street Seaport, Pier 11.  Weekdays, it leaves Brooklyn between 2:20 p.m. and 7 p.m., and returns from Manhattan between 2 p.m.  and 7:20 p.m. On weekends, it leaves Brooklyn between 11:20 a.m. and 8 p.m. and from Manhattan, 11 a.m. to 8:20 p.m.

Visit the Wyckoff House Museum in Canarsie. It’s the oldest structure in NYC and it’s worth a visit. They even have the original corn cobs from the 1600s that were used to insulate the home. Tuesday-Sunday, 10-4. Tours are Tuesday to Friday at 1 and 3, Saturday and Sunday at 11, 1 and 3. 5816 Clarendon Rd., 718- 629-3125.

Visit the Narrows Garden, a 4-and-half acre escape—a “rambling parkland” staffed by volunteer gardeners. With a story circle for children, the mystical Moon Garden for romantics, two kinds of rose gardens, willow and linden groves, the garden’s sights and smells go on and on. And its annual pleasures are augmented by the Art in the Park promenade, every other Sunday this summer. Shore Rd. between Bay Ridge Ave. and 72nd St., 718-748-4083.

Marine Park, photo by Timothy Vogel

Pitch a tent in a Brooklyn park. On Friday and Saturday nights in July and August, the Urban Park Rangers (just like the Yellowstone kind but they work in NYC)  host free campouts at various parks within the five boroughs. Brooklyn’s featured spot this summer is Marine Park, which has 530 acres of mostly salt marsh that are home to more than 325 species of birds, 50 species of butterflies, and 100 species of finfish. Campouts are on July 31, August 14, and August 21. The evening starts with a cookout, followed by stargazing, night hikes and the like. Everything is included—all you have to bring is a sleeping bag. Check here for pre-registration info (usually at least 10 days before). Spots fill up fast, so if you’re even slightly interested, check the signup dates. And when they say register online at 9 a.m., they mean it.

Alison Lowenstein is the author of City Weekends: the Greatest Escapes and Weekend Getaways in and Around NYC.