For the past 35 years, a row of four vacant 19th-century townhouses on Duffield Street in Downtown Brooklyn has drawn curious looks from passerby. It's rare to see empty houses, and a row of them at that, sitting vacant in a part of town defined by construction cranes and tall towers. They seem like the kind of thing that must have always been there,
If you're looking for a very solid, under-$20 lunch in Downtown Brooklyn, stop by Xifu. They make Shaanxi dishes like flaky rougamo stuffed with chopped pork, turqouise-tinged dumplings, and a great spread of noodle dishes. They also serve something we've never seen before: a burrito, using a griddled flour tortilla, that's loaded with stir-fried pork and julienned cucumbers. It won't be going on our best burrito guide anytime soon, but it's a fun and fusiony thing that kind of works.
City crews flooded the scene early in the morning, drilling into the street and working urgently to restore power. According to the FDNY, the incident began when the contractor hit a high-voltage feeder line, sparking a transformer fire at 365 Bridge St. The fire prompted a major emergency response, with 12 FDNY units and 60 firefighters rushing in to contain the situation.
