Where to:
Use a Darkroom
Get back to pre-Instagram basics at the Bushwick Community Darkroom (1087 Flushing Ave., nr. Porter Ave, Unit 106, Bushwick; 718-218-4023). Show up during open hours (Tuesdays through Sundays noon to 9 p.m.; $12 an hour) to make use of the black-and-white or color darkrooms equipped with Omega and Beseler enlargers. Bring negatives, or have them developed in-house for $6 to $8 a roll. Lapsed Arbuses can take refresher classes in processing and chemistry (from $40), or keep their hands out of the stop bath altogether at the recently launched tintype-portrait studio at the Penumbra Foundation Center for Alternative Photography (36 E. 30th St., nr. Park Ave. S.; 917-288-0343). Sit for a nineteenth-century-style selfie, snapped using a period-authentic large-format camera and “printed” on a sheet of blackened aluminum dipped in silver nitrate. The process takes up to 45 minutes and costs $75 to $95, depending on the size of the keepsake. Book ahead online at capworkshops.org.
Where to:
Pump Vintage Iron
Before PX90, it was just you, a tape deck, and your grandfather’s free weights. Awaken that old Balboa gumption at 36-year-old Frenchie’s Gym (303 Broadway, nr. Marcy Ave., Williamsburg; 718-384-9461). The eponymous septuagenarian owner (né Santos Ramos) worked as a WWF ref in the seventies, but these days he holds court at the bare-bones facility, seeing to its bench presses, lat pull-downs, and timeworn dumbbells. For $30 a month, anyone can work out here and trade barbs with Frenchie, but amenities-seekers take note: There are no TVs or air conditioning.
Where to:
Throw Darts and Dominate Foosball
Some might say that dart tossing, like competitive eating, doesn’t deserve to be called a sport. But one look at Percy’s Tavern (210 Ave. A, nr. 13th St.; 212-473-7770) on a typical Monday or Tuesday—when it’s league night at the Irish pub—will silence all debate. With six wall-mounted boards, ten house teams, and a small supply shop selling flights and stems, the East Village bar is base camp for serious chuckers. (Less-studious throwers can practice their toss in peace Wednesday through Sunday.) Foosball nostalgics, meanwhile, have been gravitating to the newest location of espresso and coffee bar Sweetleaf (135 Kent Ave., at N. 6th St., Williamsburg; 347-725-4862), where owner Richard Nieto has installed a Dynamo Tornado table, presumably to give coffee-wired laptop warriors a creative diversion.
Where to:
Rule at Board Games
Strategists regularly square off at the Sackett (661 Sackett St., at Fourth Ave., Park Slope; 718-622-0437), where the game collection includes Scrabble, Bananagrams, Jenga, Connect 4, checkers, and dominoes. For more physical challenges, track down performance-artist duo HiChristina (hichristina.com). Their periodic Make New Friends party at Culturefix ($10 suggested donation; 9 Clinton St., nr. E. Houston St.; 646-863-7171) culminates in a game of nouveau Twister that subs out color commands for personal details about each of the players (“Right hand on guy who rode a fixed gear to get here”).
Pro Tip:
“Consider what we call ‘leaves’—what you leave on your rack after you’ve made your play but before you draw new tiles. If you’re not leaving behind letters that will promote a better next rack, look for an alternative play. It’s sometimes worth sacrificing points to save a better leave.” —Joe Edley, three-time national scrabble champion
Where to:
Play Ping-Pong
The 2009 opening of table-tennis megaclub SPiN reintroduced terms like penhold, shakehand, and speed drive to the urban gamer’s glossary—but its sexed-up trappings repelled more serious Ping-Pongers. Enter the nine-month-old King Pong Soho (30 Vandam St., nr. Varick St.; 212-255-0205), an ascetic’s table-tennis club with low-glitz and pro-level appointments: eight Joola tables, wood floors with a shoe-gripping finish, and bright lights to help keep one’s eye on the ball. Swing by on Wednesdays (7 to 8:30 p.m.) or Saturdays (12:30 to 2 p.m.) for $25 workshops led by an Olympic Ping-Pong hopeful or a Chinese table-tennis prodigy. Private coaching is $70 an hour.
Pro Tip:
“Hit to the right hip of a righty and the left hip of a lefty, and mix up your serves between fast and slow, long and short. Your opponent can’t prepare for a serve if he doesn’t know where it’s going.” —Marty Reisman, president of Table Tennis Nation
Where to:
Jam With Your Band
Waterfront recording-and-rehearsal studio the End (13 Greenpoint Ave., nr. West St., Greenpoint; 718-383-0181) makes a distant memory of your teenhood basement’s unforgiving concrete walls. Though many musicians bring their own gear, the just-completed facility can hook up journeymen with drums, guitars, a piano, a cello, and anything else they might care to wail on. Other amenities include two rooftop lounges, two indoor lounges, a private stage with psychedelic lights, and a fully equipped kitchen. Rentals start at $20 an hour for smaller rooms or $250 a day; longer-term rentals come with private bathroom and shower.
Where to:
Attend a Slumber Party
Of all the things lost when you stopped going to slumber parties—abundant junk food, whimsical pajama sets—the high-octane bonding may be the most grievous. Mark Winkel and Kevin Balktick, of event-production company Winkel & Balktick, revive the art of after-midnight chitchat at their bimonthly Pillow Talk bashes. The all-night slumber-party series is staged in a cavernous Dumbo loft kitted out with cozy rugs, hundreds of plush pillows, and a nap-friendly “panda pit” filled with 4,000 stuffed bears. The duo keep the entertainment to a purposeful minimum to encourage prolonged conversation: Violinists, unobtrusive D.J. sets, short-story-tellers, and puppeteers have all attended sleepovers past. Overnight guests are asked to wear pj’s and bring sleeping bags along with food and drink to share; contact Winkel via his website (winkelstudio.com) to score an invite to an upcoming party.
Where to:
Master Video Games
Court carpal tunnel at Next Level (4013 Eighth Ave., nr. 41st St., Sunset Park; 347-618-8813), the city’s premiere social club for serious gamers. The Brooklyn spot rose up when venerable arcade Chinatown Fair shut its doors and reopened as a family-fun center, sending its hard-core community of joystick jockeys in search of a new clubhouse. For a few bucks ($3 for the first hour; $2.50 after that; add a quarter for music games), get your thumbs back into battle shape at one of eight arcade stations, including Darkstalkers, X-Men, and DJMax Technika. Wednesday-night tournaments draw Street Fighter acolytes, while other nights are devoted to card games like Magic the Gathering.
Where to:
Rent Movies
The hem-and-haw pleasures of browsing a mazelike video store—its wares organized by genre (Foreign, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Action, Cult, Drama, Animation)—have largely gone the way of the nickelodeon, but newly reopened movie-rental shop and screening room Videology (308 Bedford Ave., at S. 1st St., Williamsburg; 718-782-3468) is keeping the Blockbuster flame alive with a 16,000-strong catalogue of new releases and small, independent titles. Browse the DVD and Blu-ray collection on a house iPad and have a seat at the bar while a staffer fetches your pick from the basement storeroom. Movie-inspired drinks (Bond vespers, Lebowski White Russians) and ubiquitous Brooklyn snacks (Liddabit Sweets caramels, s’mores from a Smorgasburg vendor) encourage customers to stay awhile. Rates start at $2.50 for one-day rentals, and members can reserve in-demand releases, like the Searching for Sugar Man documentary due out January 22, by calling ahead.
Where to:
Build Manly Things
Brooklyn studio Makeville (119 8th St., nr. Second Ave., Unit 208, Gowanus; 917-873-5542) courts metrosexual Ron Swansons with its five-week Intro to Woodworking classes ($535; next sessions begin January 6 and 9). Instructor Annie Raso takes students through table and band saws, routers, and drill presses in the run-up to building a small piece of furniture. More advanced tinkerers apply for membership (from $125 per month) at the nearby Gowanus Studio Space (166 7th St., nr. Second Ave.; 347-948-5753), where dues cover 24-hour access to a woodworking studio and fabrication shop. Day rates are also available ($45).
Pro Tip:
“Use soft woods for decoration and hard woods for structure. Basswood is great for chip carving, but you wouldn’t build a cabinet out of it.” —Nick Zdon, specialist at Best Made Company
Where to:
Play Beer Pong
Like conversation, beer-pong agility is a thing vastly improved after a drink or two—and which quickly devolves after one too many. Find the sweet spot at Greenwich Village Country Club (110 University Pl., nr. 13th St.; 212-255-8188), where four metal tables designed expressly for the collegiate drinking game roll out on Friday and Saturday nights. Pitchers of PBR and Sam Adams are $22 to $32; the bar supplies red Solo cups and balls for free. Sink a few bounce-shots, then meander around the 16,000-square-foot space, also equipped with a nine-hole miniature-golf course, air-hockey table, shuffleboard court, and pool table.
Pro Tip:
“Keep your arm straight and throw from the top of your forehead down, as if you’re shaking somebody’s hand.” —Pete Rawson, player and broadcaster for the World Series of Beer Pong
Where to:
Make Out
Kissing strangers may sound awfully chaste in a post–Fifty Shades world, but not to Larisa Fuchs; her monthly House of Scorpio Lip Service parties are a hub for no-strings-attached makeout sessions. Visit houseofscorpio.com to RSVP and read the rules (the gist: Don’t be creepy), then show up in costume—hats, feathers, and corsetry are popular with this pansexual crowd, while business attire is strictly forbidden. Fuchs will help coordinate icebreaker games like Twister, Spin the Bottle, and Seven Minutes in Heaven—the latter staged in a curtained, pillow-filled cubbyhole—or simply leave people to their own mouthy devices. Guests may bring blindfolds and dirty dice, but nothing pornographic. The next party, hosted at Madame X (94 W. Houston St., nr. La Guardia Pl.; 212-539-0808), is January 11 and costs $8 with an RSVP or $12 at the door.