Friday Foodporn: Sweet Treasures Bakery, 588 Fifth Avenue

It's amazing to think that there's been a bakery in one form or another at 588 Fifth Avenue, between 16th and Prospect, for well over 100 years. For the past several years the tenant's been Three Star, an under the radar old-world bakery that churned out serviceable rolls, loaves, cakes, and other baked goods. When they decided it was time to close and put the shop on the market a couple months ago, the landlord insisted that another bakery move in (a great move), and in came Sweet Treasures, run by a family that's run several bakeries in South Brooklyn for many years.

They renovated the space (but not too much), brightened it up a bit, and gave it a decidedly Italian-American twist. Refreshingly, it's not particularly sleek or trendy, and the baked goods (all made from scratch in the large kitchen in the back) stand on their own: this place is a real gem, and I would seriously recommend stopping by.

The diminutive new owner, Rose, is about the friendliest person you'll ever meet, and takes great pride in her work. The selection is impressive, a wide variety of items both sweet and savory: Italian cookies, danishes, sfogliatele, turnovers, sweet breads dripping with icing, eclairs and cannolli, tarts, cakes, pies, cookies, and muffins. They're also baking a lot of bread, from sesame seed-flecked semolina loaves to sturdy sandwich rolls, and there are fresh cold cuts that they'll be more than happy to pile on for you. 

But their real (soon-to-be) claim to fame, however, is the prosciutto bread (top). These rustic loaves are dense and filled with chunks of prosciutto and provolone, and sell for $5 each, a steal. They're about the most savory thing imaginable, and I was about ready to walk out with the entire plate of free samples that's been generously laid out (I opted to just buy a loaf instead).

Next time you find yourself in that neck of the woods, stop in, say hi to Rose, and try some of that prosciutto bread. You'll thank me later.

Sweet Treasures Bakery, 588 Fifth Avenue Brooklyn NY 11215. 718-788-7898

Celebrate Anzac Day Tonight at Kiwiana!

You might not have heard, but today is a national holiday: Anzac Day. Sure, it's not a national holiday in this country, but that's just a minor detail. Tonight a full-scale Anzac Day celebration will be going down at Kiwiana, chef Mark Simmons' New Zealand-inspired restaurant on Union Street just west of Seventh Avenue.

What's Anzac Day, you might be wondering? Well, back in 1915 the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) were part of an Allied mission during WWI to capture Gallipoli (and thus opening up the Black Sea), and on April 25th they landed there amidst fierce resistance from the Ottomans, who were allied with the Germans. The campaign dragged on for eight months and resulted in heavy Anzac casualties, and while the Allieds didn't achieve their objectives, the battle still left an indelible mark on Australians and New Zealanders. So on April 25th we celebrate that Anzac Spirit with a day of remembrance, parades, and if you live around here, celebratory feast at Kiwiana.

Aussie and Kiwi classic rock will be the soundtrack to the celebration, with a special food and drink menu whipped up for the occasion. Here it is:

Appetizers:

Crispy whitebait with grilled lime- $10

Sauteed ramps with poached egg- $10

Jerusalem artichoke soup- $8

Entrees:

N.Z. king salmon with fava bean succotash- $19.15

Seared diver scallops with cauliflower and bacon ragout- $19.15

Aussie lamb chop and champ with curried peas and tamarind glaze- $19.15

There's also a nice selection of $8 desserts and $5 beer and cocktails, and every guest will receive a complimentary Anzac Biscuit (below) which looks pretty tasty.

A Peek Inside Skylark Bar, Opening Soon in Timboo's Space

Fans of Timboo's musty, old-school interior, shield your eyes: the bar's new owners have made some serious changes, the first since previous owners Timmy Hodgens and Bobby Booras (who still own the building) took it over in 1969.

That said, owner Leah Allen, of Court Street's Abilene Bar, has done some really impressive things with the space, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 11th Street. A peek through the open windows last weekend revealed a bar that's been scrubbed clean, with a fresh coat of paint, a new ceiling and lighting fixtures, and a space that's been really opened up.

The bar itself is the same as it's always been, along with the floors, but other than that everything is new. Long benches now line the walls, and the old pool table, the wood paneling, and all the ancient posters, TVs, and fixtures have been removed. Some new life has really been breathed into this corner, for better or worse, depending on your bar preference. For comparison's sake, here's how it used to look:

Then and Now Thursday: Sixth and Union, 1960

When this photo was taken 52 years ago, the northeast corner of Sixth Avenue and Union Street was home to a laundromat, with the no-frills name of Modern Automatic Laundry (automatic washers, originally called washer/extractors, both washed and wrung out the clothes). The second floor appears to have already been converted into an apartment by this time, and it looks like there's a back entrance/ second little storefront on the eastern end of that building.

All those buildings still stand, and only the ground floor of the corner building has been altered. It's now home to the 6th Avenue Animal Clinic. The mysterious little second storefront in the same building has long since been boarded up, but judging by the faded signage (and the fact that the animal clinic continues into the building to the east), these were all converted into a single storefront somewhere along the way.

"For Your Bathroom" Heading to 419 Seventh Avenue

That odd-looking building on the corner of Seventh Avenue and 14th Street whose ground floor has been vacant for many years is finally about to get a tenant. The "For Rent" signs have been taken down, the windows have been papered over, and signs have gone up in the windows that say "Coming Soon: for your bathroom".

If there are any other stores called "For Your Bathroom," I haven't been able to track them down because a Google search for that phrase is essentially useless. But I think we can assume that they will sell bathroom supplies, most likely fixtures instead of toothpaste.

As some of you may know, this building was the longtime home of a theater, first known as the Palace, then the Armory, and finally the Minerva (which writer Pete Hamill mentions in his classic memoir "The Drinking Life.") When we discussed the theater in more detail last year, he explained how it once served as home base for The Tigers, one of the street gangs that ruled the neighborhood in the postwar years:

"The Tigers one time in the place, they went in to watch some movie. They were all sitting together in the orchestra, and they brought screwdrivers with them and unscrewed the whole aisle. And at the break they went out onto Seventh Avenue with the whole aisle! And the owner was a guy named Seymour, he knew that if he called the cops they'd probably burn the joint down in retaliation. And they dropped it over by The Factory and had a big laugh, and they never replaced it! So there were four or five rows, then an empty space, and then another six rows to the back of the theater."

Times have certainly changed!