
Is that a girly drink in front of Don?
Y’all had brilliant suggestions for curly haircuts, so here’s another query, from cable-less reader Andrew, for the collective Brokelyn brain trust:
Do you know if there’s any place—a bar?—in Brooklyn that has Mad Men “viewing parties,” AKA, has a TV that shows Mad Men? I don’t have cable, but I want to get into this show, which at this point appears to be the only worthwhile show on TV. I know I can probably watch old episodes online . . . but that’s not as fun. HELP!
Any ideas for Andrew, folks? Bonus for bars with show-appropriate drink specials (an old-fashioned is very Don Draper and a vodka gimlet very Betty, according to The Times).

If you’re thinking of catering a Mad Men party this weekend with authentic 1960s cuisine, you may want to reconsider—a look at the terrifying stuff that passed for dinner back then offers a clue as to why Julia Child was regarded as such a revolutionary. The following photos are from Betty Crocker’s Dinner in a Dish cookbook, published in 1965, a mayonnaise-slicked, canned-fruit dotted roadmap to an American culinary era thankfully gone by. First among the supper-time atrocities: a “Summer Salad Pie” (above), whose ingredients include lemon-flavored gelatin, tomato sauce, and tuna fish tossed together in a cheddar-cheese pie shell. Read the rest of this entry »

Hippie wheels. Photo by Mathias Degen.
It’s 1960s week here at Brokelyn, what with the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, starting on Saturday, and the return of Mad Men on Sunday night. We’re going full bore on both fronts, first, with a search for some Woodstock-worthy wheels.
Nothing says “I embrace free love and flower power” like a ’69 Volkswagen, and so I spent the past week clicking my way through vintage car sites to find one. Turns out ’69 Volkswagens aren’t so easy to come by on the East Coast, and those that actually run aren’t so cheap either. Here, the results of my search: seven VW bugs and buses, almost all within 200 miles of Brooklyn and ranging in price from $400 to $6,000.
Read the rest of this entry »
Love watching Don Draper struggle with his gorgeous wife, prestigious clients, and of course… himself? Then you must be rich, or at least reasonably unaccustomed to the idea of finding your dinners like this. According to a recent Hollywood Reporter write-up, almost half of Mad Men’s 1.9 million viewers make at least $100,000 a year. Basically if you watch the show, you can’t possibly be reading this post (or… maybe you can). But really, what about Brokesters like us? Do people outside the show’s supposed lofty tax-bracket simply not watch? No, we can personally attest: We’re watching Don and Bets with the rest of them. We’re just watching differently. Read the rest of this entry »

Is that a girly drink in front of Don?
Y’all had brilliant suggestions for curly haircuts, so here’s another query, from cable-less reader Andrew, for the collective Brokelyn brain trust:
Do you know if there’s any place—a bar?—in Brooklyn that has Mad Men “viewing parties,” AKA, has a TV that shows Mad Men? I don’t have cable, but I want to get into this show, which at this point appears to be the only worthwhile show on TV. I know I can probably watch old episodes online . . . but that’s not as fun. HELP!
Any ideas for Andrew, folks? Bonus for bars with show-appropriate drink specials (an old-fashioned is very Don Draper and a vodka gimlet very Betty, according to The Times).

If you’re thinking of catering a Mad Men party this weekend with authentic 1960s cuisine, you may want to reconsider—a look at the terrifying stuff that passed for dinner back then offers a clue as to why Julia Child was regarded as such a revolutionary. The following photos are from Betty Crocker’s Dinner in a Dish cookbook, published in 1965, a mayonnaise-slicked, canned-fruit dotted roadmap to an American culinary era thankfully gone by. First among the supper-time atrocities: a “Summer Salad Pie” (above), whose ingredients include lemon-flavored gelatin, tomato sauce, and tuna fish tossed together in a cheddar-cheese pie shell. Read the rest of this entry »

Hippie wheels. Photo by Mathias Degen.
It’s 1960s week here at Brokelyn, what with the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, starting on Saturday, and the return of Mad Men on Sunday night. We’re going full bore on both fronts, first, with a search for some Woodstock-worthy wheels.
Nothing says “I embrace free love and flower power” like a ’69 Volkswagen, and so I spent the past week clicking my way through vintage car sites to find one. Turns out ’69 Volkswagens aren’t so easy to come by on the East Coast, and those that actually run aren’t so cheap either. Here, the results of my search: seven VW bugs and buses, almost all within 200 miles of Brooklyn and ranging in price from $400 to $6,000.
Read the rest of this entry »