Andrew Karpan

@donniedelillo

With temperatures slowly on the rise, the city and East Williamsburg’s first meadery is set to host a massive block party this weekend. 

In an Instagram post this week, Honey’s announced the party and food security fundraiser with Sky High Farm, a non-profit farm upstate that’s the project of painter and ex-’bad boy of New York art’ Dan Colen. A specialist in visual sculptures that copped graffiti’s cool and slapped it on an expansive canvas, Colen’s been getting more notice lately for his work in the field amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A GoFundMe tagged to Food Bank for NYC netted him a profile for his streetwear brand in W last year. 

“Honey’s chefs Leanne Tran and Raina Robinson will be lighting up the outdoor fires and grilling Sky High’s beautiful pork, with delicious sides,” Honey’s announced online.



The highbrow purveyor of bitter drinks in elegant bottles is only the first stop in an “event series” called Added Value. The series is being run by Colen’s nonprofit farm and a “grassroots collective” called Fig NYC, which initially stood for Food Issues Group when it started out as an industry group of ‘chefs and food business decision makers’ but claims to have “evolved into a collective that marries study with action, and welcomes anyone in our food system who is interested in transformation” as “we are all decision makers.” It’s a project of a Detroit group called Allied Media and a somewhat notable local chef there, Ora Wise. 

Following Friday night at Honey’s in East Williamsburg, the show will be heading to Winona’s on Tuesday. A natural wine bar that opened last year in Bushwick near the Broadway Triangle, its a spot for adventurous diners. According to Time Out, the bar also contains “a hidden dining room” that’s awaits discovery. According to Added Value, a real who’s who in trendy chefs will come later in the week: from Libby Willis to the New York-magazine approved team at Ha’s Dac Biet, who notably started out as a popup at Sundown in Ridgewood. 

For those who miss the hot sounds of the dancefloor, spinning will be provided by a pair of Brooklyn DJs with the sobriquets Mr. Unknown and Ross Common. They’ve been regulars on the virtual sets that Bushwick’s Rise Radio has been putting out lately. 


Top photo credit: Google Maps

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