A résumé that includes the founding of snark godfather Spy magazine, time spent as editor-in-chief of New York magazine and the creation and hosting of a Peabody Award-winning public radio program (“Studio 360”) probably brings to mind a very Manhattan sort of sophistication. But Kurt Andersen, claimer of all these credits and more, including a new novel called “True Believers,” has lived in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn for the past 22 years with his wife, writer Anne Kreamer. “We were about to have a second kid, and we were in this small two-bedroom apartment in the East Village, at the height of the crack epidemic,” says Andersen, 57. “I’d almost never been to Brooklyn. In a desperate effort to stay in the city, we said, let’s check it out. And we fell in love.” This is his New York. —
1. E. Buk Antiques, 151 Spring St., No. 2
A very peculiar place. If you’re into it, you’ll be really into it, as I am. This guy named Eli Buk sells antiques on an upper floor. I’ve been there probably a dozen times buying presents, and I’ve never seen anyone else there. You have to make an appointment to get in.I’ve never been in a shop so packed with stuff — like, weird medical devices, scientific instruments, photographs, posters. It’s fantastic, in every sense. One thing I bought there was this thing you would carry around as a cane or a walking stick if you were a hunter. It unfolded into a little seat, and had a dagger in it.
2. Governors Island
We went there for some special event about two years ago, and just fell in love with it. It gives you different views of this city that is so familiar. [When I’m there, I think], “Wow — here I am in New York City, in a park among these old buildings, and I’m seeing Manhattan and Brooklyn from different views than I’ve ever had.” I’ve been here forever, and suddenly, whoa, no I haven’t. I’ve become an evangelist for Governors Island the last couple of years.
3. The Waverly Inn, 16 Bank St.
When my wife and I first met in the late ’70s, if we wanted to go out to dinner and really have a nice time, we would go to this old, crummy, charming, funky place, the Waverly Inn, and have pot roast and other stuff. So it was one of the places we went as kids, and then my friend Graydon Carter took it over a few years ago and turned it into the restaurant it is now. Because he’s my friend, I can get reservations easily. He turned it into this sort of dream version of an old restaurant that’s been there forever, so I like going there and getting the salmon, the chicken pot pie or the short ribs. And a big martini as well.
4. The Good Fork, 391 Van Brunt St., Red Hook
It’s everything a neighborhood restaurant should be — it’s small and cozy and ship-like. The Good Fork has hamburgers and things, but it’s ambitious. The chef is Korean-American, so there’s kimchi. It’s sort of an odd fusion of Red Hooky things like fried oysters, with kimchi on the side. Sometimes they have fried sweetbreads. On almost any menu, that’s one of those things that I can’t not order.
5. Green-Wood Cemetery, 500 25th St., Greenwood Heights
When my wife and I were children, we both would drive around cemeteries with our parents at night. We started doing that with our kids, just going over to Green-Wood. It’s beautifully kept up, and it’s New York, so there are famous people, too. You could go see Horace Greeley, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Leonard Bernstein’s graves. Although neither of us had ever thought about having our remains in a cemetery, we are now thinking that maybe that’s a good idea. I guess we’re gonna live in Brooklyn forever.
6. Montero’s Bar and Grill, 73 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn Heights
I realized, once I made this list, that they’re all kind of time-travel places. Montero’s is like you’re walking into 1940. It’s an old longshoreman’s or dockworker’s bar that hasn’t changed a bit since I’ve lived here, but I don’t think it had changed between 1945 and 1990 either. If you were designing a set for an Arthur Miller play, you could just pull this place and put it onstage. People call it a dive bar, and I suppose it is, but I just love going there and having a beer with friends. It’s fantastic — as rich with character as you could want a New York bar to be.
7. Pratt Institute Steam Turbine Power Plant, 200 Willoughby Ave., Clinton Hill
They have this steam-engine room that, when it was built at the turn of the 20th century, it made electricity for Pratt. And it still operates. It’s just as it must have been in 1900, with all these steam engines and big levers and meters still operating. They say it’s the oldest continually operating thing like this in America. I just love it. It’s mind-blowing.
Bottom Three
Who are the most absurd people in NYC right now, and why?
* The person who opened the shop in Brooklyn devoted to artisanal mayonnaise, which reminds me of the brilliant 1978 “SNL” sketch about the shop that sells nothing but Scotch tape.
* The artist Richard Prince (even though he’s technically moved upstate) because he hasn’t pushed the ball a foot further than Andy Warhol had it 40 years ago but gets millions of dollars for each piece he makes.
And Donald Trump, who requires no explanation.