"Bizarre, peculiar and downright unique outer borough experiences"

The Brooklyn Downtown Star just put out the quirkiest and most enjoyable "Best of Brooklyn" list that we’ve seen in a long time. As the Brooklyn Record notes, they avoid treading the tried-and-true but boring path of "top ten" lists. Instead, these are the unique places that are categories unto themselves. Or, as the Downtown Star puts it, this is "a wild, wooly trip down the unexplored byways of the Big Apple's best borough."

Not to make my own ‘best of’ list of the Brooklyn Star’s ‘best of’ list, but here are some that made me laugh out loud or nod in acknowledgment:

Best Place to See a lot of Naked Flesh (for free): Mermaid Parade

Best Fake Ironic Bar Name, i.e. Best Place To Watch Hipsters Pretend to Slum it: Tie - Gowanus Yacht Club Smith Street, Cobble Hill & Bushwick Country Club Grand Street, Williamsburg

Best Place to Shop For Figs and Run Into a Hip Movie Director and/or Politically Active Action Movie Star: Sahadi, 187 Atlantic Avenue

Best Place to Get Run Over By an $800 Bugaboo Stroller: 7th Ave, Park Slope

Best View, Period: Williamsburgh Saving Bank, Observation Deck, Flatlantic

And my own addition to the list: Best New Neighborhood That’s Not an Acronym (BNNTNAA): Flatlantic. Term courtesy of the Queens Ledger and the Brooklyn Downtown Star.

Other coverage of the Downtown Star's list: Best Transformation of a Waterway into a Romantic Symbol? The Gowanus Canal Wins! [Gowanus Lounge]