Citibank Construction Underway at Hollywood Video Space

Back in July, news broke that a Citibank branch, the South Slope's first, would be opening up in the large space last occupied by the defunct Hollywood Video. Last month sidewalk sheds went up, and now a peek inside reveals that the entire space, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Eighth Street, has been gutted.

Work Underway at 202 Fifth Avenue

If there's one block in this neighborhood that has no right having any empty storefronts on it, it's Fifth Avenue between Union and Berkeley. It's heavily trafficked, has some of the most interesting shops, bars, and restaurants in the neighborhood, and it currently has two empty storefronts.

Well thankfully it looks like we're one step closer to reducing that number. The long-vacant 202 Fifth, which I believe was last home to a dry cleaners, has been sealed tight for years, but when I walked past the other day there was full-on construction taking place inside.

This is no guarantee that the space has been rented (odds are the landlord is just fixing it up in order to get a good price), but it's a good first step.

Friday Foodporn: Polpette!

There's a tiny little shop right next to Fornino, on Fifth Avenue between Garfield and Carroll, and while the two restaurants share owners, the concept is completely different. It's called Polpette (Italian for "meatball"), it opened last week, and as the name implies, it's all about the meatballs. And they're good.

They come in five flavors, and can be enjoyed over a salad, crushed into a potato roll, on a seeded hero from Brooklyn Bakery, or simply with sauce. I tried them all, and came away very impressed.

"Josephine's Famous" is their classic offering, and it's the same exact recipe used by manager Frank Ferraro's grandmother back in Sicily. It's 100% beef, and is served with a hearty tomato sauce. It's garlicky, not too dense, and is a very solid flagship meatball.

The "Porco Due" is made from 100% pork, and is topped with a rich fennel sausage tomato cream sauce. This was my personal favorite of the bunch, and, in my opinion, the more pork you can squeeze into one dish the better.

Now things start to get interesting, but in a good way. This one's called the Chicken Piccata, and is exactly what it sounds like. A chicken meatball, covered with a sauce of lemon, butter, and parsley. Delicious, although it would be great if eating it over mashed potatoes were an option!

Above, the soon-to-be-famous "Day After Thanksgiving" meatball. Yep, it's just what it sounds like. The ball itself is a combination of turkey and cornbread stuffing, and it's topped with a savory homestyle turkey giblet gravy. It's ingenius, tastes exactly like Thanksgiving dinner, and I'm honestly a little jealous that I didn't think of it myself. One of the most unique offerings in the neighborhood.

The vegeterian meatball, called simply the "Veg," may seem like an afterthought but it's anything but. Eggplant is mixed with black beans, cannellini beans, and whole chick peas, and it's fried and served atop creamy basil pesto. It's like an Italian falafel, and is far more delicious than it has any right to be.

"We've been wanting to open a shop like this for over five years, since I ran Scopa to Go in Midtown," said owner Chris Walsh. And while obvious comparisons can be drawn to the trendy Meatball Shop, there's one thing that sets them worlds apart. "It's a very different approach," added Ferraro. "We're trying to guide you towards correct pairings of meatballs with sauce, as opposed to mixing and matching." It's a good call; these sauces pair perfectly with their meatballs.

There are no seats in the small space as of right now, but a few stools and a couple small tables will be added next week. Whereas Fornino opens at 5, Polpette opens (and starts delivery) at noon every day. Beer and wine are also in the works.

Polpette, Home of the Meatball. 254 Fifth Avenue Brooklyn NY 11215. 718-399-8800.

Loki Lounge Gets a Facelift, High Dive's Explained

The formerly jet-black facade of Loki Lounge, on Fifth Avenue and Second Street, has gotten a cream-colored paint job.

Another neighborhood bar, High Dive, has been getting some work done on its exterior as well, and I mistakenly assumed yesterday that the bright red paint had been stripped away in order to give the bar a natural wood look. I ran into owner Rory Dwyer earlier today, who told me that while the paint had been removed, there's no intention on keeping that as the final look.

"The top of the facade completely rotted off, and the paint was peeling, so we stripped it away, replaced the top, and are going to re-paint it in red, exactly as it was," he said. So that answers that!

Then and Now Thursday: Fifth and President, 1960

While the Brooklyn Public Library's photo collection generally includes photos from around 100 years ago, I just discovered that the Brooklyn Historical Society also has a fascinating collection of old photos, except these are from the late 50s into the 1960s. These street views provide a snapshot of a neighborhood that in many ways was still old-school, Italian, and very much "Brooklyn."

Case in point: this photo, taken of the southeast corner of Fifth and President, looking north, in February of 1960. On the corner, a drugstore. Tough to tell what's in the little two-story building next door, but next to that is a fabric store, with a butcher shop next to that.

Today, the corner building is home to a "cat clinic" (and its window display of boarded cats). The building next door has been completely renovated, with a new exterior and a couple floors added, along with a giant skylight roof. Next door to it is a Vietnamese sandwich shop, and next to that is Diana Kane, a jewelry and accessories boutique.

Top photo via BHS.