“I have to say, I didn’t love Brooklyn at first,” says Amber Tamblyn, who moved to DUMBO five years ago with her comedian husband, David Cross.
Now, the California native is smitten with NYC’s most populous borough: “I love the parks, the food, the people,” says the 34-year-old actress, poet and director, who plays a money-grubbing millennial in “Can You Forgive Her?,” now playing at the Vineyard Theatre.
Tamblyn tells Barbara Hoffman how she, Cross and their baby girl, Marlow, spend their weekends.
In the afternoon, David will put the baby in her Baby Björn and go to our favorite bar, Hartley’s. We’ll each have one beer and walk over to Prospect Park. I used to be in love with Manhattan parks until I saw Prospect: It’s vast, with these rolling hills of grass, and reminds me of Hyde Park in London. It’s gorgeous!
Then we’ll get food. There’s this really great place, Emily, that has one of the best burgers I’ve ever had in my whole life. The meat is just insanely fresh — they get it from a local butcher who gets it from a sustainable farm upstate. The burgers usually sell out by 6:30 at night.
I don’t mean to sound like a drunk, but [the East Village bar] 2A is where David and I hung out when we started dating nine years ago. Kitty-corner across the street from it is this little taco cart. New York isn’t known for its Mexican food, but this cart is real Cali-Mex.
We’d have a drink in the bar, invite all our friends, and when we were all really buzzed, we’d get steamed goat or brisket tacos and bring them into the bar. The cart’s still there, but now there’s a pretty big line because the word has spread.
I think the Strand is one of the most important bookstores in the country. When [her poetry book] “Dark Sparkler” came out two years ago, I did a wonderful “In Conversation” [event] with Ira Glass there. Their rare book collection is phenomenal! You can find books from the 1800s and from Allen Ginsberg’s Black Sparrow Press, which is now nonexistent.
Here in Brooklyn, on Fulton Street, there’s Greenlight Bookstore. I just love it because there are so many types of people represented there, and they’re so supportive of local writers.
One of the first dates David ever took me on, we rode our bikes up on the Brooklyn Bridge. When we got to the top of the arch, he pulled out a bottle of red wine, cheese and crackers from his backpack and we put a blanket down. We ate and drank and hung out at sunset, facing the Statue of Liberty. There’s nothing more romantic in the entire city than that. That’s how he got me!