Grilled Cheese Nirvana: Meltkraft

A grilled cheese seems like a simple matter, but it is possible, even easy, to screw up. My mother managed to ruin many a grilled cheese, either through neglect (too burned, er, toasted, for my tender palate) or too fancified, with plastic sliced tomatoes.

Meltkraft masters the genre. This artisanal grilled cheese restaurant, which opened right around the corner from me in Park Slope, Brooklyn, is a sibling of the Valley Shepherd Creamery, a gourmet food shop a few blocks away.

There is also an outlet in Philadelphia.

Valley Shepherd Creamery, a sheep farm in New Jersey, makes outstanding cheese, which is one key to amazing grilled cheese. Another is the bread. The outstanding bread is good enough on its own, and simply ethereal when smothered in melted cheese.

For the purist, the Shepherd classic is the way to go. There is just the right amount of crust and crunch, and oozing full fat cheese.  You can customize your sammy with truffle oil, bacon, duck fat or bacon fat for the non-vegetarians, or, if you must, tomato.

There is also a ‘melter skelter’ with pickled green tomatoes, jalapenos, BBQ potato chips and watercress, a messy nirvana that will leave you craving more.

For those who like their cheese cold, the Goat & Beets is a fantastic combo of goat cheese, fennel beets, arugula, honey and walnuts.

The café has a great selection of craft beers on tap, and you can take home a growler. For more kid-friendly fare, organic chocolate milk in a mason jar is the way to go.

But ymmy as the food is (there are also cookies, pastries and soups) the service is sorely lacking. We went on a Saturday just after the place opened, and our sandwiches took 45 minutes to get melted under the industrial toaster. But we gave the place another shot.

This time, one register wasn’t working and no one who placed orders there got their food started. Guess which line we were on? Then we were told that the salad or chip option that comes with the sandwich had turned into a $1 surcharge for the salad. We ordered salads, paid for the upcharge, got chips.

Fitness Challenge: Cycle Bar

Although real estate prices in Park Slope, Brooklyn, have almost reached Manhattan levels, many Slope residents are still reluctant to pay Manhattan prices at restaurants, bars and boutiques.

I had avoided Cycle Bar, a Soul Cycle type boutique spin studio basically because I'm cheap, but I jumped all over a Living Social deal that offered 5 spin classes for $25.

Cycle Bar has one spin studio, with Schwinn AC Sport bikes. You have to add resistance by feel, not a number, which can be frustrating or liberating, depending on how OCD you are.

Shoe rental is included in the class price, and an instructor helps you set up your bike the first time. Like Soul Cycle, rides are full body work outs, with small hand weights used for about 10 minutes of a 45 minute class.

The studio is fairly bare bones; there is a water cooler, a bathroom and lavender face wipes for freshening up for the walk home, but that's pretty much it. Forget a hair tie at your own peril.

The 25 bikes have a good amount of space between them, so there is little danger of your neighbor's flying sweat hitting you, and you can move your arms without smacking another bike.

Now if only they charged lower prices..

Growlers in Park Slope

It is no secret that I love a bitter IPA. Bitter NYers like bitter craft beers. And in NYC, there is no shortage of artisan food shops, brewers and gourmet markets where you can fill a reusable 60 oz growler with some fresh suds.

Even Duane Reade on the Upper West Side has growler refills!

But what no one talks about is the dark underbelly of fresh beer – cabinet storage. In New York, even the largest kitchen has storage issues and one giant growler means eliminating a kitchen appliance. Rice cooker?

I have 4 growlers.

It wasn’t always thus.

First to come was a growler from my neighborhood gourmet market, Grab. The place has since been renamed The Ploughman, and they have a rotating selection of about 10 taps.

Best of all, you get a 10% discount when you bring the growler back in for a refill.

Then someone brought me a growler from Beer Table, also in Park Slope (with a larger offshoot in Grand Central).

We also picked up a plastic half growler from Zito’s, a local restaurant with Brooklyn’s own Sixpoint beer on tap. This half growler is great for picnics.

Our mistake was the glass half growler from Whole Foods. Brooklyn does not yet have a Whole Foods, but I was at one of the Manhattan stores and fell for an organic IPA. I paid my $5 deposit (plus beer) and when I tried to return the growler, I was told that they are not returnable.

On the plus side, my recycling bin stays empty.

Fitness Challenge: Day 87

In the 10 years I was a member of Body Reserve, I never once visited the locker room. the gym, in a bank at the corner of 5th Avenue and Union Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn, was on my block, so I exercised, then went home.

I recently tried the gym out again. Body Reserve is now 16 blocks from my house, so I finally saw the locker room, along with an exercise studio for spin classes, boot camp, Zumba and other fitness classes.

The locker room has extremely narrow, old metal lockers and showers with empty soap and shampoo dispensers. Postage stamp size towels are only available at the front desk. So I was not missing much.

But the gym has a great stretch room, with stability and bosu balls, a variety of hand weights, mats and plenty of room to do your own exercise routine. The room is also quiet; the music that plays on the main floor does not penetrate here.

Body Reserve has 2 loft areas, one with treadmills looking out over the street and one with recumbent bikes, elliptical trainers and step machines, overlooking the main gym area. Cardio machines are on the older side, with tiny screens, but a selection of magazines nearby.

The gym, an independent facility, has a friendly neighborhood feel. And while there are few amenities (the mints at check-in desk are a nice touch) it is a warm, welcoming gym. Just bring your own shampoo and towel.

Fitness Challenge: Day 77

Over my years in Park Slope, the basement gym at the corner of Union Street and 7th Avenue has gone through many iterations. The latest is Slope Fitness, which has a guaranteed lifetime membership rate for the first new members.

While the gym is essentially the same as the previous one, it has a few nice touches. One is free coffee, an incentive for those who drag themselves to early morning workouts.

Another is an extensive class list, including a spin class that adds an abs workout, and Fight Club, combining aerobics, boxing and martial arts.

There is a free supervised play area for children while parents work out, and in the fall, there will be dance classes for children.

Fitness Challenge: Day 74

You trade the camaraderie of a gym when you embark on a solo fitness quest, even if you take a lot of classes. But at Lori's All Star Fitness (lorijeanjorg@yahoo.com) I was welcomed into the fold. Classes are held at Old First Reformed Church in Park Slope, Brooklyn, in a large open room.

Though the classes are mainly populated by older women, they are anything but a cake walk. Lori, a dancer, infuses her classes with easy to follow dance steps. It is not Zumba, but it is equally fun. Yet, the cardio and strength training give you a complete work out.

Stretching is an important part of the class, and for someone as inflexible as I am, that was a true challenge.

Classes are $15, and if you buy a 10 pack, you get one class free. Mats and hand weights are provided; bring your own water and towel.

Fitness Challenge: Day 66

Just getting into spin class in New York City can be a workout in itself. At my old Park Slope gym, you had to sign up a day in advance, but sometimes extra people would just show up. Then the spin instructor would have to delay class while she called attendance.

At another NYC gym I tried, spin enthusiasts huddled at the door, bolting inside when the studio was unlocked and they could choose their favorite bike.

I would usually wind up on some rickety bike where the height couldn't be adjusted.

But this blood sport doesn't appeal to everyone. For those people, Pedal NYC beckons. This boutique gym on the far far west side - any further, it would be in New Jersey - had a virtually empty spin class run by the enthusiastic, muscular and tough Mr. Ray.

Even better, the brand new bikes could easily be adjusted, gearing up or down was effortless, and monitors gave us exact readings of our RPMs.

The gym has state-of-the-art air conditioning, which was at a perfect temperature, and a gigantic ceiling fan circulated the air so you didn't have to toil in the stink of your own sweat.

Fitness Challenge: Day 65

When New York City has a 'top 10' day, it can be hard to head inside to a sweaty gym. Luckily, Captain Quinn's Fitness Boot Camp offers outdoor boot camps at J.J. Byrne Playground in Park Slope.

When my oldest daughter started 6th grade at the adjacent William Alexander Middle School, the park was a neglected, dispiriting place that we avoided at all costs. But a dynamic new Executive Director at the Old Stone House transformed the park into a glittering neighborhood jewel.

The field behind the Old Stone House was a dusty, ill-used patch of depression that was carpeted with turf and enjoys near round the clock use. A couple of boot camps start there at 6am, the middle school uses the space for outdoor gym and soccer and baseball leagues take over in the afternoon and evening.

The playground in front of The Old Stone House reopened last week, with innovative climbing equipment, swings for big and little kids, and gardens of flowering plants and shrubs.

All in all, the park is an extremely pleasant place to get your butt kicked into shape.

For the outdoor boot camp, we used resistance bands to work our arms, shoulders and backs, sprinting to cones to get our heart rates up.

The middle schoolers at gym giggled as we did frog jumps or held planks with one foot raised, but they might have been envious of our fitness levels.

My youngest daughter graduated from the school last year. She would have been mortified to see me with a bunch of sweaty adults, counting off jumping jacks.

But I was as happy as a kid at a brand new playground.

De Luxe Coffee ups the ante in Brooklyn

Being rude has a certain cachet in New York. We are brusque because we can be.

Yet, places like De Luxe, a new coffee bar in Park Slope, Brooklyn, belie that rudeness. See, under this facade, we really are nice. Ok, maybe not you, gross seat hogger on the F train, but certainly the owners of De Luxe.

Everyone is greeted warmly at this small coffee shop, and if you stay, you can sip coffee from an aqua cup - and get a free refill. The coffee is rich and delicious. No chemist perfectly calibrating the bean to water ratio, just an honest cup of joe.

There is a small selection of pastries and donuts. And if you come at lunch, you can have a delicious, reasonably priced sandwich. To go, the sandwiches are wrapped in brown butcher paper and you feel like you're in a small shop in France. In 1948.

Although I'm not a hard-bolied egg fan, the sandwich with cheddar and arugula sounded interesting, and for only $5, it was a true bargain to boot. There is also a hummus sandwich, sparked with pickle and arugula ($7) and tuna, also with pickles and roasted red peppers ($9).

But the hands-down winner is a ricotta, fig and truffled honey sandwich, for $6. A perfect vegetarian lunch

Roman Pizza in Park Slope: kid and diet friendly

Can you eat pizza and still stay in shape? Probably not if you scarf down a couple of slices at a most Brooklyn pizza joints, but if you go to a restaurant like Campo de’ Fiori, it's easy. First, start with one of the great salads. Even the simple mixed greens had a delicious vinaigrette, and a sprinkling of raw onions. There is also a beet salad, and a radicchio salad with gorgonzola and apples.

We naturally skipped over the cured meats selection and headed straight to the pizzas. The Roman style pizzas use organic wheat in dough that sits overnight, developing the flavor. The eco conscious restaurant also uses organic tomatoes and local vegetables. Plus the chefs profess not to cut down trees or produce on CO2 to cook the pizza. The simple Margherita pizza lets the purity of the ingredients shine. Just the right amount of extremely fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil come together in a deeply satisfying square pie. You can also get pizza with buffalo mozzarella or creamy burrata. We liked the Vignarola, with artichoke hears and topped with salad. Salad on pizza is a sneaky way to get extra veggies into your kids, and it is both tasty and low in calories. There are a number of vegetarian pastas, including one with cauliflower and gorgonzola. We will be back.

Fitness Challenge: Day 61

The appeal of a gorgeous pool is often lost on me, since I can't swim. But I like the idea of taking an aqua fitness class since it forces me into a pool.

So a filthy pool is not for me.

Luckily, a private school The Berkeley Carroll school, in my Park Slope neighborhood, opens its doors to its Brooklyn neighbors. And the pool is a beauty.

The four-lane 25-yard pool is mainly for students, of course, but during off-hours there are classes for adults and neighborhood kids.

The enthusiastic aquatics fitness instructor led is through a series of difficult exercises, though it is hard to judge how much you are sweating when you are already wet.

The facilities include very clean, modern locker rooms. Could be an incentive to learn to swim

Fitness Challenge: Day 58

Basement gyms are often cramped, depressing places, but Harbor Fitness in Park Slope, Brooklyn, has high ceilings and enough shiny surfaces that you forget you are below grade.

The huge gym, at the edge of Park Slope, has 2 other Brooklyn locations and all 3 are open 24 hours a day during the week. I don't know how crowded the gym gets at 3am on a Tuesday, but even on a Sunday morning, usual prime time, the gym felt empty.

The Ultimate Conditioning class was another story. Women were lined up before the class, making sure to get a prime spot in the studio.

I lurked in the back, since I didn't know what to expect. What I got was a tough workout, with weights, that touched on every body part.

The gym has an interesting mix of unusual classes, form a jump rope class to Grid Iron Spin and Grid Iron workout, both taught by a NY Sharks Women’s Professional Football Player.

Didn't even know NY had professional women's football

Fitness Challenge: Day 57

For years, my 3 daughters took dance classes all over Park Slope. We lived on Union Street for 10 years, and there were 2 dance studios, one on our block, one another block away (which has since moved). We spent a lot of money on classes.

My girls have outgrown the dance studios, but I have not given them up. Both offer adult classes that draw many neighborhood residents. A lot I know from the years of schlepping children.

As far as gyms go, these are pretty bare bones. A hardwood floor, mats, a few hand weights and steps. If you need a towel, you bring your own.

Spoke the Hub has a few adult classes that offer great ways to stay fit: dance, yoga, Macho Girls Super (Fun) Workout and Step ‘n Scupt. The last 2 are intense a 90 minute workouts.

You have to commit to a series of classes, but it is pretty reasonable, as long as you go to the class you paid for.

Talde: Criminally Good

When Talde first opened in Park Slope, the menu did not have that much for vegetarians. There was a whole fish, and vegetable buns, and a kale salad, but too many things had pork.

Then my Kosher friends went there and said that even with the limited choices, the place was amazing. And it was.

Now, it is even more so. The new menu has a number of vegetarian dishes, and as long as you can snag a table (2 hour waits are not uncommon; reservations are not accepted) you will be extremely happy.

From the new menu, we ha the golden beet and tofu salad, with kale. Fantastic. The Saigon crepes, with smoked shrimp (hold the bacon) didn't need the pork to wow us.

The Hawaiian bread buns were a nod to Passover; we had to eat bread the night before we were giving it up for a week. You get three in an order, and you can have all vegetable (changes nightly; last night was shiitake mushrooms) or fluke. Or pork, of course. Both the shiitake and fluke were spicy and delicious.

New to the menu, a soft shell crab bahn mi was messy and fabulous. The crispy soft shell crab was nestled on pickled vegetables. The spicy red sauce should be bottled; I was tempted to scoop up the extra and bring it home. And again, there was bread.

We also had the Pad Thai, with fried oysters (hold the bacon). This was the weakest dish, but it was the best Pad Thai of my life.

We didn't have room for the whole fish, the fluke with black bean butter, the shrimp fried rice or stir fried vegetables.

Or the roasted corn ramen with smoked tofu or lobster soup.

Luckily for Park Slope and the rest of NYC, Talde will be around for a long time.

Fitness Challenge: Day 55

Longtime Park Slope residents remember years-long discussions about the Park Slope Armory, which finally opened with a variety of fitness activities 2 years ago.

The Armory, run by the nearby Prospect Park Y, offers a variety of exercise classes in barebones classrooms. The shining feature of the Armory is the indoor track, a 6 lane, state-of-the-art 200 meter track.

The track surrounds a full-size basketball court that is also used for soccer.

The Armory doesn't have showers, but it does have communal dressing rooms. It also doesn't provide towels, so if you are the type who drips sweat during a step class, bring your own.

Fitness Challenge: Day 53

The Prospect Park YMCA attracts a wide range of Park Slope residents. With programs for preschoolers to seniors, it seems the whole neighborhood, including local writer Jane Brody, belongs.

Except us.

The Y is across the street from the gym I went to daily for 10 years, and it's cheaper. And it has a pool.

But it is also where I took an adult 'learn to swim' class before I had kids, and I never learned to swim. A group of us adults clutched the side of the pool and resolutely refused to put our faces in the water.

With signs warning against swimming with open sores, it was not the most inviting place.

But I recent visit surprised me. It has new aerobic equipment, with more channels than the other gym. It has a wider variety of classes, throughout the day.

It has fairly clean locker rooms.

It still has a pool. And a new one is being built, with a retractable roof. Maybe it's time to overcome my fear and aversion.

Fitness Challenge: Day 52

The gym pass failed today. Tried to go to Tribeca Health & Fitness but was told I needed an appointment to use the gym. According to the pass, appointments are not required, but the woman at the juice bar/check in desk refused me access.

I asked if I could make an appointment, for right then, but she told me "no one was in the gym." The gym that bills itself as the largest in Tribeca apparently had only one person working there, and she could not leave her post.

This woman told me no one could use the gym without first getting a tour.

She did offer to sell me a day pass, for $20, granting me access. Apparently, when you pay $20, you no longer require said tour.

Fail.

So I ran home. Tribeca to Park Slope, via the Brooklyn Bridge - about 6 miles. A perfect destination run.

Just not the workout I expected.

Park Slope Throw Back

Before Park Slope was the home of the multi-million dollar brownstone, it had a reputation as a Brooklyn hippie haven. And Naidre's cafe fit right in. It offered vegan and gluten-free food before they were in vogue, and extras like agave to sweeten your coffee.

This low-key place, which serves breakfast and lunch, has just a few tables; you can also eat on the bench out front, or take your food to go.

Naidre's is one of the few places where you can have a vegan breakfast; steel-cut oats, coffee with soy milk, and tofu or tempeh scramble.

Unfortunately, our tofu and tempeh were cool; they would have been much better hot. And they needed a jolt of spice.

Much better choices, though not vegan, are the breakfast burrito, with eggs, or the egg sandwich. You can have this with veggie sausage for a filling breakfast.

And you can still get in touch with your inner hippie, scanning the cafe copy of Mother Jones.

Fitness Challenge: Day 47

Yoga doesn't always seem like the greatest exercise to me. Maybe because I have take a lot of yoga classes in gym that don't specialize in it, it never seems like that great a work out.

But then you see a fit yogi and take a class in a real yoga studio and it hits you. This stuff is for real. Lululemon, which sells great yoga clothes, offers free classes at most of its stores.

In Park Slope, Brooklyn, the local Lululemon store has free yoga Saturday mornings. Shelves are pushed to the side, yoga mats are available free and an instructor from Dou Yoga offers an invigorating hour-long workout.

I learned the difference between warrior 1 and 2, and how to do warrior 3.

This class was not billed as hot yoga, but the heat was working overtime in the store and by the end everyone was dripping with sweat.

Fonda: Vegetarian Mexican (plus meat)

The food at Fonda is so good, I feel bad about nit-picking. The vegetarian-friendly Mexican restaurant in Park Slope has been open long enough that they should have worked out the kink.s But the service is so scatter-shot that a meal here requires patience and a good sense of humor.

Fonda is packed every time we go, and we planned ahead with a reservation the other night. Our party of 4 was crammed into a tiny table. With one chair brought in from the garden. It was freezing.

We each got a different specialty margarita – mine with blood orange, one friend with grapefruit soda, (quite delish) one a classic and my husband one with hibiscus. His took an extra 15 minutes to arrive, with no explanation.

We shared the guacamole, which comes with warm soft tortillas and chips, and extra sauce to spike it. Lovely. And they bring a bowl of spicy black beans and a bowl of rice to the table with every meal, a nice touch.

My carnivore friend got the short ribs special, which she loved. I had a mushroom and hominy soup special, along with fish tacos. Perfect. Our other friend got the shrimp and scallop enchiladas, in a hazelnut mole sauce. I’ve had this before and it’s hearty and delicious.

My husband got the shrimp with spicy green rice. Very nice, but again, it came 15 minutes after the rest of the food. With no explanation.

And in our second round of drinks, one drink was again forgotten.

Maybe because our table was so small they thought we were a party of 3?