Brooklyn’s Pizza – Analog Artist Digital World

After the Disney Feature Animation Reunion and the chaos of a film shoot at the Stella Arbelaéz studio, I settled back into a sketching routine in Lake County Florida.

My refrigerator was largely empty, so I treated myself to a night out at Brooklyn’s Pizza (27405 Us-27 Lake Harris Square, Leesburg, FL). I ordered a plate of Fettuccini Alfredo which is my favorite creamy pasta dish. The waitresses her were familiar with having an artist who would sit, eat and sketch for several hours.

I had gone out to eat early so the dining room only had a few people. A man and woman sat at the corner booth so at least there was some humans to be seen. The corner of the dining room is also where the waitress station was. The barricade made it so I wouldn’t see the waitress until she came to my table.

Meals and memories can be found at Brooklyn’s Pizza . I have strong memories of sketching with a friend in this dining room, and it makes me want to return often. My strongest memories are on paper put down with pencil, ink and watercolor. I have been unpacking my drawings from over the years, and I was truly on fire artistically right before I moved to Orlando. Drawings done with oil paint, and colored pencil were so expressive. I remember loving how luscious the pencil line felt as it melted into the oil paint.

Seeing that work makes me want to regain some of that angst filled energy. I suspect my work will begin to once again evolve after having looked back at my past. Right now, I am doing a series of drawings of the best Vegetarian Restaurants in Orlando. Drawings of restaurants tend to be more about depicting the perspective of a room and less about the figure. I am feeling the urge to do more figurative work and may begin to hire models to pose in my Eola Heights Studio.

I am also doing a series of 49 paintings of Lake Eola. This series gets me up early at sunrise each day to get some painting under my belt at the start of each day. In the evening I then go out to sketch at some Orlando Event. It is by doing a whole lot of work that I hope to get to the point where the paintings and drawings get more expressive.

I ate maybe half of the Fettuccini Alfredo and took the rest back to the Lake County Studio. Today I would not longer consider ordering such a rich and creamy dish. My new plant-based diet doesn’t allow for dairy product. Eating out has become more of a challenge with the plant-based restrictions but I keep finding some dishes which foot the bill.

Yesterday I ordered a Subway sandwich with a friend and we both wanted only vegetables. Every sandwich description started out with a list of processed meats. The only vegetarian option was to order a sandwich and get the meat on the side. Filling up the sandwich with extra vegetables was then a fun process. I ordered a lemonade instead of a soda and I was instructed that I should water the lemonade down since it had too much sugar. I tasted the lemonade and it tasted delicious in a saccharine sweet way. I did water the drink down but not in a 50 to 50 proportion. I wanted and needed the sugar flavor blast.

I am learning what is good to put in my body a bit at a time. When I slip off the wagon my goal is to get right back on and train myself to eat a more healthy diet.

When I lived up in Lake County Florida I used to frequent Brooklyn’s Pizza (27405 US-27 Leesburg, Florida). When I went on a sketch outing with Stella Arbeláez Tascón to Brooklyn’s, we got to meet our server who was also an artist. She had just finished painting the restaurant front window with holiday themed art and it was darn good.

I went to Brooklyn’s Pizza sometimes for their delicious pizza but also for the occasional Alfredo and spaghetti meal. Besides the large plate of rich pasta there were also garlic knots which I could never finish. Brooklyn’s got my business on days where I didn’t have much available in the pantry and I didn’t feel like cooking. I felt comfortable eating on my own because the staff remembered me as that quirky artist who is always sketching. They were always curious to see what I would sketch next.

I can’t offer a biased review of the food at Brooklyn’s because I have just recently switched my diet to only plant-based foods. On my refrigerator is a note that says, “No Dairy, No Eggs, No Meat, No Oils, No Processed Foods”. I have started to read food labels to be sure I am not buying tons of hidden chemicals, salt and sugar. I now spent plenty of time searching for healthy foods which are a challenge to find in a Publix, with rows and rows of brightly colored junk food.

I am following an online course where I get to try out different recipes that are for delicious plant-based meals. Since I just moved onto my new Eola Heights Studio in a gorgeous old historic home, the timing is good, since I can stock my kitchen pantry with only whole plant-based food supplies.

The Alfredo spaghetti at Brooklyn’s Pizza was delicious but it has so much heavy cream which is no longer in my diet. The pizza which was also delicious is no longer something I would seek out when going out to eat. The cheese and white flour are both items that I am avoiding moving forward.

If you want a great pizza, Brooklyn’s is a great place to go. I think I will need to experiment to find a recipe for a great plant-based pizza. The cheese is the thing that will be most challenging to mimic. A healthy and savory tomato paste should be easy to make. I made my own spaghetti sauce for the first time last week. I know Cashew nuts and nutritional yeast have good cheese flavor. Most commercial baked goods have too much sugar and processed flour. As I learn more, I will find out which flours are nutritional and worth using. I have only dipped my toes in the water and taken my first baby steps towards a healthy plant-based diet. I will likely make mistakes along the way. But if I fall off the bike, I just need to get back on.

I didn’t purge my refrigerator and I had a large frozen pork loin left over. I made the pork loin several weeks ago and discovered that it is absolutely exhausting to digest meat once you have started a plant based diet. I actually had to stay in the studio that night and rest although I had plans to do a sketch at an event. I have shopped several times since that experience and no meat has made it back into the freezer.