Update: Recent News

As we're catching up on our blogging, here's a selection of recent news:

Stalin on Cooper Square

The Cooper Union's main building on East Seventh Street is displaying a 1952 Picasso portrait of Stalin, part of an exhibit entitled Stalin by Picasso or Portrait of Woman With Mustache by Lene Berg. The exhibit runs through 6 December. The New York Times notes that Stalin joins the statue of Lenin atop the Red Square building on East Houston Street and links to a 1997 note explaining how that statue got there.

And while you're checking out the Cooper Union exhibit, check out the Slavs of New York East Village walking tour as well!

Hot Kielbasa!

Meanwhile, in Greenpoint… Sikorski Meat Market got busted last month for serving up cocaine when customers ordered “hot kielbasa.” The Brooklyn Eagle reports that 26 defendants now face between 10 years and life in prison. And, it turns out the FBI and NYPD have a Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force operating in the city – who knew?

The Mosque?

Another controversy last month concerned an “ironic” hipster bag produced by Brooklyn Novelty that features Greenpoint, and shows the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration labeled as “The Mosque.” New York Shitty broke the story, and the New York Post followed up with unhappy comments from clerics at the church. The bag remains on sale…

Future of Protection Cathedral

Finally, big changes are afoot at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection (59 East 2nd Street). Curbed reports that the church, currently being considered for landmark designation, is looking to put an eight-storey residential structure above the existing building.

(Cooper Union photo: Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times; Photo of Rev. Wiaczeslaw Krawczuk from the New York Post)

Walking Tour: Slavs of Greenpoint

Greenpoint is the preeminent Polish enclave in New York – and one of the largest outside of Poland itself. According to the 2000 Census, New York had the second-largest Polish community in the country after Chicago, and the majority seem to live in Greenpoint.

The Polish presence is so strong that even though you downloaded that Polish-language primer from GreenPunkt as a joke, it turned out to be pretty useful in the end. Kirk Semple wrote recently in The New York Times that the booming economy in Poland is luring more Poles home and may leave Polish Greenpoint a part of history. But for now, there’s still much to see – even if gentrification is an ever-increasing force in the neighborhood and the promise of a better life now has many local Poles rethinking life in their homeland.

Since they’re close, this walk actually starts in Williamsburg, at the Bedford Avenue L station. Walk Up Bedford Avenue and you’ll immediately pass both Raymond's Place (124 Bedford Avenue) and Kasia’s Restaurant (146 Bedford Avenue). Turn right along North 12th Street, walk to Driggs Avenue and you cannot miss the landmark Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Lord (228 N.12th Street at Driggs).

From here, go back out to Bedford Avenue, keep walking north and you’ll hit Father Jerzy Popieluszko Square. Popieluszko was a priest martyred by Poland's Communist government in 1984 for supporting the emergent Solidarity movement. The monument was erected here just six years later, in 1990.

At the fork, keep right and walk along Nassau Avenue (passing the Nassau Avenue G station), and you should see a number of Polish milkbars and restaurants, including Lomzynianka (646 Manhattan Avenue), Pod Wierchami (119 Nassau Avenue) and Pyza (118 Nassau Avenue).

At Eckford Stret, turn right and walk down to Driggs Avenue to the Polish National Home (a.k.a. the Warsaw) (261 Driggs Avenue). This former ethnic social club in recent years has recast itself as a major club venue.

From here, walk down Driggs to Humbolt, where you’ll see Walesa-Solidarity Square (a.k.a. Humbolt Street) and Pope John Paul II Plaza (Driggs Street) near the center of Greenpoint’s Polish community, St. Stanislaus Kostka Church (607 Humboldt Street at Driggs).

Turn right and walk up Humbolt St. back to Nassau Avenue, where you’ll find Old Poland Bakery and Restaurant (192 Nassau Avenue). Have a snack, or continue on to Manhattan Avenue and turn right. Near Norman Avenue is Krolewskie Jadlo (694 Manhattan Ave), guarded over by a Polish knight.

At the next intersection (Manhattan and Meserole), you’ll find Club Europa (98 Meserole Avenue) to the left, and the fantastic Wedel chocolate shop (772 Manhattan Avenue) on corner to the right. If you can, make SURE to check this place out around Christmas time!

Further along Manhattan on the next block is yet another Polish restaurant, Christina's (853 Manhattan Avenue), and Polonia Bookstore (882 Manhattan Ave) where you can get books in Polish as well as books to learn Polish. If you turn right onto Greenpoint Avenue, Club Exit (149 Greenpoint Avenue, check out Clubbing in Greenpoint) is just off Manhattan Avenue.

The next intersection is with Kent Street, and just past Manhattan Avenue to the left is the former Carpatho-Rusyn Greek Catholic Church of St. Elias (149 Kent Street (Manhattan Avenue & Franklin Street) and to the right, the Polish and Slavic Center (177 Kent Street and the Polish and Slavic Credit Union (175 Kent Street), two major local institutions.

And at the next intersection, turn right on Kent Street and you’ll find Ksiegarnia Literacka (161 Java Street). This one is the classiest of Greenpoint's Polish bookstores, and even if you don't read the language it's well worth dropping in just to take a look. It's also the end of the tour - unless you're feeling adventurous and want to check out the Pulaski Bridge (keep waking up Manhattan Avenue to the end and turn right on Ash Street and hike out to McGuiness Boulevard).

When you're done, you can walk back to the Bedford Avenue L train or the Nassau Avenue G, but the closest will be the Greenpoint Avenue G station at the intersection of Greenpoint and Manhattan Avenues.

On the prowl for Polish food

Last week, Polish meat markets in Williamsburg showed up on Gothamist, providing us with a number of interesting details.

The outer boroughs message board at Chowhound fielded a discussion thread on the topic, and contributors fielded three options: Steve's Meat Market (104 Nassau Street), W-Nassau Meat Market (915 Manhattan Avenue) and Polska Masarnia (172 Bedford Avenue).

They also brought forward Joshua Williams’s “More Than a Pierogi” from billburg.com, about Polish food in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. The article starts out with Bar Mleczny (Milk Bars) and discusses the glories of pierogi and golabki, as well as other Polish favorites.

The article also gives a number of Polonophile listings:

Greenpoint

• Wedel’s Chocolate Store (722 Manhattan Avenue)
• Lomzynianka (646 Manhattan Avenue between Naussau and Norman)
• Christina’s (853 Manhattan Avenue between Milton and Noble)
• Stylowa Restaurant(694 Manhattan Avenue between Naussau and Norman)

Williamsburg

• Kasia’s Restaurant (146 Bedford Avenue between North 6th and 7th)
• S&B Restaurant (194 Bedford Avenue at North 9th)

Downtown Brooklyn

• Teresa’s (80 Montague Street at Hicks Street)

Manhattan

• Teresa’s (103 First Avenue between 6th and 7th Street)
• Christine’s (208 First Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets)

Slavic WIlliamsburg & Greenpoint

The most densely Slavic part of New York City is easily Greenpoint, in Brooklyn. The bulk of the neighborhood is clearly Polish, with the first Polish immigrants arriving around 1890 and founding the monumental St. Stanislaus Kostka Church (607 Humboldt Street at Driggs) in 1896. The building dates from 1903.

The local Polish community – and the church – are so important to the area that Humboldt Street in front of the church is known as Lech Walesa Place, and Driggs Street is called Pope John Paul II Plaza. Another nearby Polish-named landmark is the Kosciuszko Bridge, joining Brooklyn and Queens. Formerly the Meeker Avenue Bridge, it was renamed in honor of Polish patriot Tadeusz Kosciuszko in 1940.

Other Slavic landmarks include the Greek Catholic Church of St. Elias (149 Kent Street between Manhattan Avenue and Franklin Street), and the Polish National Home, better known to local hipsters as the Warsaw (261 Driggs Avenue).

The nicest Polish bookstore in the area by far is Ksiegarnia Literacka (161 Java Street). Polish restaurants include Old Poland Bakery and Restaurant (192 Nassau Street), Pod Wierchami (119 Nassau Street), Lomzynianka (646 Manhattan Avenue), Stylowa (694 Manhattan Avenue), Christina's (853 Manhattan Avenue), Polish and Slavic Credit Union (175 Kent Street) and Little Poland (136 Greenpoint Avenue)

On the border of Greenpoint and Williamsburg is one of the most impressive buildings in either neighborhood: the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Lord (228 N.12th Street at Driggs). The church is easily recognizable thanks to its five large copper domes (currently being restored). The church was built between 1916 and 1921, and was modeled after the Moscow Kremlin’s Cathedral of the Dormition. The iconostas within features icons painted by monks from Kiev’s famous Monastery of the Caves. The congregation is largely Carpatho-Rusyn, and the parish priest, Very Rev. Wiaczeslaw Krawczuk, is Belarusian.

Williamsburg, just south of Greenpoint, is also not lacking in Slavic sites. The most important is easily the Holy Trinity Church of the Ukrainian Autocephalic Orthodox Church in Exile (117-185 S.5th Street at New Street), which occupies a landmark building built in 1906 as the main branch of the Williamsburg Trust Company. It served in that capacity just a few years, until 1911, and then was abandoned until 1928 when it became a courthouse. The Ukrainians took it over in the 1960s.

Sources of information about Poles in Greenpoint include Search for Polonia by Kari Levinson and Sally Valentin and If You're Thinking of Living In/Greenpoint; An Inviting Area, Once You Get There by Dulcie Leimbach in the New York Times. For information about the small Polish presence in Queens, try Polish In Queens:Never Afraid To Work Hard For Their Dreams by Tamara Hartman.

For info on Transfiguration Cathedral, check out At Russian Orthodox Church in Williamsburg; Restoring the Cupolas Of a Landmark Cathedral in the New York Times, From Russia With Love - The story of Brooklyn's most beautiful cathedral from billburg.com and the church’s listing in the OCA directory of parishes.

(Photo: (top) St. Stanislaus from Forgotten New York; (bottom) Transfiguration Cathedral by Jason Kempin, from billburg.com)