A pony walks into a bar … no, wait, a pony owns the bar. Pony’s, a new cocktail bar and café from couple and co-owners Elana Shvalbe and Michael Furac, opened on Aug. 22 at 424 Van Brunt St. Visiting Pony’s, one might expect a bar with obvious swings at horse-isms. Maybe some sort of polo mallet leaning lazily in […]

What happens when three good friends open a bar together for the first time? During my first visit to 317 3rd Ave., the up-and-coming Atlantic City-themed bar, Shania’s Max Bet, is still largely under construction. A massive disco ball sits in a gargantuan cardboard box. The bar seats are wrapped in tidy plastic wrap and sidled next to a tower […]

I have a confession: I cannot wake up before sunrise. So when I ask Bob Blankemeier (known online as Bob Aquatic) what time I should meet him at Valentino Pier for a morning of fishing the East River’s brackish water, and I’m not met with a concrete time, but rather the cool idea of early hour (“sunrise”), my stomach sinks […]