Gowanus Loft

There are all sorts of interesting things happening in Gowanus, and a lot of them are happening here.
The first time I was drawn over here was to go to Lowes, the Home Depot alternate. Then I checked out Build it Green across the street. They carry a lot of used appliances, doors, and building supplies that have been refurbished. If you’re interested in building & renovating with reclaimed pieces, this is a good place to start.
Next door is Gowanus Ballroom.
Around the back is the Arts complex, and housed within is Farmigo, a small food tech startup.
You don’t know what food tech is? Neither did I until Meetup recommended this event. It’s pretty cool, they host these monthly storytelling sessions. They’re all about the local food movement.
At the event I met some really interesting people, who were doing startups, non-​profits, and social-​good stuff, and lived in the neighborhood. They even had some really amazing snacks on hand, and some craft beer to top it off.
Farmigo is what would happen if you took the Avon-​lady party idea, and brought it to local farmer distribution. They have farmigo parties, people order from local farms in upstate new york, or the north east region. Then buyers pickup at these various drop points, some of them happen as a sort of community party that’s a lot like a tupperware party from the 70’s & 80’s. Farmigo makes it all happen, by providing the online platform to connect everybody together.
After the talk, I went to grab my bike. In another part of the arts complex, giant sculptures are being formed & burning man scale giant art is being forged. Wow, cool stuff.
Can’t wait to come back next week. Gowanus Ballroom is having an event. hint hint.

My company recently had our company holiday party here a month ago.
This event space/​place is best accessible by mass transit. If you drive, just a friendly advice — there’s not a lot of parking spaces available. You would have to take a chance and park at the Lowe’s parking lot or down a few blocks.
Gowanus Loft is located in a somewhat dead neighborhood. While walking up to our space, it was quite confusing to get around, but luckily there were signs pointing to where our party was. The Gowanus Loft doesn’t have much décor. It felt very much like a warehouse we were entering into or an old art gallery. The stairway was very narrow.
The space we had was spacious and just enough room to walk around, mingle, and hang out. The food I think was provided by an outside caterer. It was delicious and amazing! In addition, we had an open bar.
The restrooms are single stalls and reeked of cigarette scent. Yuck! To make matters worse, there was only ONE sink and that sink didn’t seem to work very well either or not work at all.
I wasn’t 100% impressed with this space because it didn’t seem holiday party-​worthy. I’m not sure what the other guests thought of it, but we’ve done better the last two years because we used an event space at the Fairfield Inn in Gownaus, Brooklyn.