Married musical duo Danny Ross and Jessica Leibowitz — who met on the subway and celebrated “four years with a ring on it” this month — reveal their favorite Greenpoint park, pizza joint and post-wedding brunch
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ACHILLES HEEL
JESSICA: We’ll come here if I feel like the night is a little bit boring and we know we can have a nice nightcap here — and it’s a nice atmosphere.
DANNY: I think we also like its remote location.
JESSICA: Yeah, a lot of times we’ll forget about it — that’s good.
DANNY: Jess tells me you can tell how cool a place is by the people inside, not just the decor. And there are always cool people here.
JESSICA: I mean, the neighborhood is changing, but this place is still pretty good.
DANNY: Just down the street, they’re finishing a building with 5,000 units, and you have to wonder what this neighborhood is gonna be like — what this bar is gonna be like — but hopefully it maintains its character.
JESSICA: But yeah, we like this place. The food is good, the drinks are good.
DANNY: I feel like we’ve come here and just had prosecco.
JESSICA: And it’s an Andrew Tarlow restaurant. His stuff is pretty reliable.
180 West St, (347) 987-3666, achillesheelnyc.com
PAULIE GEE’S
JESSICA: So Paulie and I go back to probably 2010. He used to be an accountant, and then he started a pizza place. I used to work at Serious Eats and we did a couple videos with him. In his own backyard, he started having people from Slice, [which] at the time was the pizza blog.
I moved to Greenpoint around the time that I met him. He always remembers you, but his thing is talking to everyone at every table, no matter if he knows you or not, so it’s just a welcoming space.
DANNY: It gives it a real neighborhood feel. He walks around with a baseball cap and a cup of coffee…
JESSICA: He always has a different hat.
DANNY: And he schmoozes with you. It’s very classic.
JESSICA: I do like the personal connection. He’ll be like, “Why haven’t you been in here recently?” And it also has a nice atmosphere.
DANNY: I pick places for the music.
JESSICA: They have good music there.
DANNY: He’s got a classic-rock thing.
JESSICA: And he opened a slice shop on Franklin.
60 Greenpoint Ave, (347) 987-3747, pauliegee.com
MILK AND ROSES
DANNY: Milk and Roses is another one that plays great music and also has vintage decor.
JESSICA: Dark and candles, I think, is our theme.
DANNY: Dark and candles.
JESSICA: And old looking.
DANNY: And it looks like an old library. They literally have a library full of books.
JESSICA: It’s beautiful. It’s really beautiful.
DANNY: That’s one of our favorite places for sure.
JESSICA: We go there for special occasions. We go there for Danny’s birthday. We went there the day after our wedding for brunch. They have really good pasta.
DANNY: It’s an Italian homemade pasta kinda thing.
JESSICA: They also have a nice backyard.
DANNY: It’s remote, it’s far away. We like it because it thins out and it’s a little quieter.
JESSICA: When we went there [once], it was all people on dates. It’s a very romantic spot. They have good coffee, too.
1110 Manhattan Ave, (718) 389-0160, milkandrosesbk.com
MCGOLRICK PARK
DANNY: I hadn’t heard of it, and when I first met Jess, she lived right near McGolrick Park. I would walk [her] home past the park, and it’s this beautiful neighborhood park — it’s a hidden gem of New York, and Brooklyn in particular.
JESSICA: That’s where the farmer’s market is on Sundays.
DANNY: It’s our neighborhood park. When we did a music video for “Met a Boy on the Subway,” that’s the park we featured pretty prominently.
JESSICA: A tangent is, I’ve lived in the same place for eight years. My next-door neighbor is this old man, and we just say hi sometimes. But one time, I got out of the subway, and he was also getting out of the subway, and he drove me home. He was telling me that he’s from the neighborhood and the locals call it Winthrop Park — he says that’s how you can tell the new people [from the locals]. I didn’t know that. That was a fun fact about the park that I learned.
DANNY: It has this beautiful structure in the middle that has these columns. It’s a special little place, and we like to walk around it.
JESSICA: There’s a dog park there, too. And they do movie screenings in the summer.
Russell Street & Nassau Ave, nycgovparks.org/parks/msgr-mcgolrick-park/
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Find all things Babetown at greetingsfrombabetown.com, plus follow the duo on Instagram and Spotify. And while you’re at it doing the internet thing, be sure to check out Danny’s other project, Cheap Synths, and the weird and wonderful music video for “Devastate.”.
Feature image: Ben Curry
[This interview has been edited and condensed.]