WHAT TO EAT, DRINK & DO — ACCORDING TO ARTISTS WE LOVE
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Get the scoop at Ample Hills
“I just love their ice cream, and it’s very close to my house. When I was making my record, I would go get ice cream, just mulling things over. I would go and sit on the Gowanus Canal bridge, the Union Bridge there, and just think about life while I ate my ice cream — so, you know, we bonded.
And it started to be an easy place to go on dates. If it was my turn to pick the date spot, it was always Ample Hills. And I would go by myself if I wanted ice cream and I didn’t want it in my house. It became kind of a dangerous habit. And I started to get recognized. I was on a Tinder date or something, and the guy behind the counter was like, “Hey, I recognize you! You were in here last night!” I was like, oh, I’m coming to Ample Hills too much.
Now I’ve learned to just embrace my love for Ample Hills — be proud of it! I love the rooftop, the cute Adirondack chairs. It’s quiet and peaceful. And the other draw is they have the best location flavor there; It Came From Gowanus. It’s all chocolate.” – Caitlin Mahoney
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“The perfect place for a summer-night hang.
Obviously the ice cream is a bonus, but it’s just quiet. It’s just one of those settings where you can just chill, relax, eat your ice cream, enjoy life and forget about everything for a minute, you know? And when it’s packed up here, it feels like a party, so it’s nice either way.
Usually [I get] the Salted Crack’d Caramel, and I do like peanut butter and chocolate. Sometimes I get cookie dough, sometimes I try a new flavor. They had a hot and spicy flavor, and I love spicy food — for me, the spicier, the better. And it’s in ice cream? Awesome.” – Brandi Thompson
305 Nevins St, (347) 725-4061, amplehills.com
Make your music dream a reality at Degraw Sound
“That’s where I live, basically. I mean, I live in my apartment theoretically, but I spend 15 hours a day there.
Degraw is one of my favorite places in the world. It’s a community of people who are all doing the same thing. We learn from each other, and teach each other, and we’re all in music projects. We put on a music festival this summer at Littlefield. It’s just really fun.” – Harper James of Eighty Ninety
597 Degraw St, (913) 788-6506, degrawsound.com
Take your Maine squeeze to Halyards
“Apparently it’s run by someone who grew up in Maine — I don’t know the details — but it is sort of a Maine hangout. I’ll go there and see people I went to high school with who I haven’t seen in 10 years. It is sort of like this weird magnet, and it’s a cool bar. They’ve got darts and pool, so I like to go there and get drunk and throw darts around. It’s slightly less dangerous than an axe [find context below]… but more dangerous than sitting at a table.” – Harper James of Eighty Ninety
406 3rd Ave, (718) 532-8787, barhalyards.com
See old and new talent hit the stage at Littlefield
“This is the place where my professional music career began. It’s a longer story, but right after I quit my job and needed to start finding paying gigs, I got offered a background vocalist gig here…
It was this old-school soul revue they were putting on at Littlefield once a month or once every other month. You get up there with a bona fide soul artist from like the ’50s — so, they’re old, but they’re still doing their thing. They’re 70, 80 years old and performing. Like, some of them got moves… some of them would just sit in a chair. They all could still sing. It was just a really cool first foray into really getting paid for singing. It was nice to be able to be like, I’m getting paid to do something I really enjoy doing.
And Littlefield is a great place. They have comedy, music, dance, all that stuff.” – Brandi Thompson
635 Sackett St, littlefieldnyc.com
Find crazy-incredible cocktails at Lucey’s Lounge
“It has like the best cocktails in Brooklyn. They have career bartenders who just completely crush everything you order.
I think it’s been around for a long time, but it’s sort of still a secret. It’s not ever that crowded, but they make incredible drinks, and you can’t even remember the names because they’re crazy. They’ll do whatever you want, but it’s fun go order some shrubbery to drink… like, a cactus vodka martini with a twist of insect, or whatever — I don’t know.” – Harper of Eighty Ninety
475 3rd Ave, (718) 877-1075, luceysloungebklyn.com
Get brews at Ninth Street Espresso
HARPER: “We come here to get coffee, and then at night come here to hang out. My friends will occasionally call me and be like, “I’m playing a gig at the coffeeshop at 10 pm tonight,” and I’ll walk over. It’s a cool space, multi-use.”
ABNER: “A lot of these places [we picked] grow out of the music — the venues that we love [like Littlefield] and places outside the studio where we end up hanging out with all the same people anyway. Get up, meet at Three’s for coffee, go to the studio…”
HARPER: “My favorite places are growing out of this little area because everything is kind of connected. It’s very neighborhood-y. It’s almost like living in a small town.”
333 Douglass St, (646)-864-2929, ninthstreetespresso.com
And grab booze at Three’s Brewing
“I love beer and I love trying different beers — that’s always appealed to me. Before I lived over here, I played at Threes [at] one of their opening events. It was so fun to be part of it, and I was like, this is a cool vibe, area. It’s such a nice place to come and sit and have a beer. So that’s how it started for me.
I like to come when it’s on the chiller side, but I’m glad it’s popular, because it’s a cool place.” – Caitlin Mahoney
333 Douglass St, (718) 522-2110, threesbrewing.com