Brooklyn Services

Cooking nightly dinner at home is a fairly radical concept to many New Yorkers, but blessedly the Brooklyn Kitchen (with two locations, Williamsburg and Sunset Park) has made realistic home cooking its mission. The Williamsburg property is a renovated warehouse with a stunning loft kitchen and ample space for ambitious gourmands to command their own stations. Classes are themed and truly, there is something for everyone whether you want to master the art of French cooking (pick the Julia Child class), acquire the basics in knife skills 101, learn to butcher your own meat or just rustle up some quick pickles to perk up your work lunches al desko. Aside from being seriously practical, cooking classes are a fun change-up from the normal restaurant-dinner-and-a-drink date or post-work routine.

Brooklyn-based Sogoal Zolghadri turned her love of watercolor and baking into a full-time gig a couple of years ago quietly launching Sogi's Honey Bakeshop on social media and starting a Kickstarter to help her get the business off the ground. (Check out her hilarious Instagram here.) Her exacting hand takes food coloring and a paintbrush and applies it much like watercolor onto delicately glazed sugar cookies. The result? Cheeky phrases, like "Sorry for things I said when Mercury was in retrograde," edible emojis, and ones painted to look like avocado toast that are almost too pretty too eat.

Liza Lubell has more than a decade's experience working with botanicals–and her experience shows. Every bespoke piece she and her team creates has an ethereal, organic, whimsical quality, reminding us that to stop and literally smell the roses–and revel in their ephemeral beauty. Simply gorgeous arrangements for wedding, parties, or any occasion, for that matter.

This super-versatile design studio works with a team of skilled calligraphers, offering essentially any and every style of lettering conceivable. Far beyond your standard envelope, Paper Finger makes very cool maps for destination events, as well as sophisticated programs, menus, and table settings for special meals. They also sell non-custom stationery online and host calligraphy workshops.

This Brooklyn-based suiting shop is the subject of a Lena Dunham-produced HBO documentary coming out this fall (we’re eagerly counting down the days). The concept is to create bespoke suiting for all genders. Not only are their suits tailored with the finest craftsmanship, they’re also filling an enormous gap in the wedding market by creating a bespoke, fitted suiting option for women and non-gender-conforming people, who—for myriad reasons—are not interested in a traditional wedding dress.

Brooklyn-based Roberta’s has been warmly flourishing for years. They cater events and weddings throughout the five boroughs (and will travel beyond the city). Their catering menu is fairly similar to their Bushwick restaurant menu: wonderful pizzas, seasonal veggies, meat and cheese plate apps—with raw bar additions. You can also host an event in their attached garden space (holds up to 180 for standing events and 120 for seated weddings).

Founded in 2006, Saipua specializes in handmade olive oil soaps and dreamy floral arrangements. Their flower farm, Worlds End, is located on 100-plus acres of rocky clay soil Upstate, about thirty miles west of Albany. Depending on the season, the farm grows narcissus, tulips, fritillaria, muscari, quince, hyacinth, ranunculus, and so on. Three cool things about Worlds End: It's also home to a flock of Icelandic sheep; it runs primarily on solar energy; and it uses all of Saipua's flower waste as compost.

Named after founder Taylor Patterson's childhood farm in Delaware, Fox Fodder is a next-level floral design studio based in Greenpoint. The studio itself is by-appointment-only, but you can order an arrangement online to be delivered anywhere in the city. The seasonal arrangements are anything but ordinary; they feel found rather than fussed over—but they're made all the more special by the custom stoneware, smoked glass, and hand-thrown ceramic vases they arrive in.

The reason why Charlotte Neuville is dubbed the Fashion Chef is because she spent close to three decades in the biz (she was pretty high up at Gap Inc.) before leaving it all behind to bake couture cakes full-time. But it seems the industry refuses to let her go; she's been asked to design cakes for everyone from Alber Elbaz to Barneys.

Denise Fasanello is a fine artist by trade, so it makes sense that her arrangements have a museum-worthy quality. She's particularly skilled in trimming arrangements with wildflowers and rustic elements, which creates a texture and volume that's as unexpected as it is beautiful.