Brooklyn Kitchen: DIY Heaven

© Chloe Brownstein
Inside The Brooklyn Kitchen's new digs.

If Philadelphia’s Green Aisle Grocery is for food-loving, eco-conscious yuppies, the new Brooklyn Kitchen is for food-loving pioneer wannabes. Sure, it sells groceries like locally sourced meat that's cut and sometimes cured by rock-star butcher Tom Mylan. But with two classrooms in this huge warehouse space, the philosophy clearly is, why buy what you can make? Last week I took a kombucha class (more details to follow tomorrow). There are beer-brewing classes too, as well as support groups for home brewers (that's how hot home-brewing is right now). Mylan and his meat-cutting cohorts teach classes in butchering as well as sausage-making. And with the shortage of Angostura bitters, you can take a class on how to make your own. The classes aren’t only a great source of revenue, they’re a brilliant way to get people to the new digs, on a rather desolate stretch under the BQE (Brooklyn-Queeens Expressway). And like a theme park ride that spins you out right into the gift shop, Brooklyn Kitchen conveniently sells all the supplies a just-trained DIY-er will need, like fresh hops for making beer.