“I graduated from Georgetown in 2000 and started off sleeping on my sister Gina’s couch in Carroll Gardens,” says comedian Mike Birbiglia. “And 18 years later, I live in Carroll Gardens again!” These days, the 40-year-old Massachusetts native lives with his wife, poet Jen Stein, and their 3 ¹/₂-year-old daughter, Oona, whose arrival inspired Birbiglia’s Broadway show, “The New One,” running through Jan. 20. “Brooklyn really is just a quiet little town adjoining this massive city,” Birbiglia tells BARBARA HOFFMAN. “It’s kind of like if Boise were attached to New York City.” Here’s where you might find him on the weekends.
My wife and I essentially never stop working. We’ll wake up and there are a handful of coffee shops we go to: Blue Bottle on Dean, Smith Canteen on Smith and Stumptown, and that’s where we write.
There’s a marvelous bookstore on our corner called Books Are Magic. Oona just loves it there. They have a lot of books for kids, and they have events there all the time. It’s sort of a paradise for our family.
I’m a Fitbit person. I walk 15,000 steps a day, which you’d think is a lot, but I had coffee with David Sedaris when he was in town, and he told me he did 90,000 steps. In a day! I’ll walk down to the Brooklyn Esplanade, which is gorgeous. They basically built up the entire waterfront, with parks, a soccer field and basketball courts overlooking the water. I walk down there a few times a week and get in my steps.
We try to go to movies in the daytime, because I work at night. We’ll go to the Cobble Hill Cinemas, which neither of my movies have played at, but I love them anyway. At one point they had “Don’t Think Twice” on the marquee as “Coming soon,” but it never came. It was like a mirage!
We like to go to Black Mountain Wine House, on Hoyt and Union. It looks like a little shack. They have a phenomenal mac and cheese with mushrooms in it. Oona loves it. We call it “spontaneous dinner.” We’re not big drinkers, but my wife and I may share a glass of red wine.
The whole neighborhood is infested with middle-aged parents and children. We take Oona to Carroll Park, which has rings and jungle gyms, and to ballet class, and do sidewalk chalk on the corner. We also like the Painted Pot, on Smith Street. We started taking Oona there when she was 2 or so. It kills two birds with one stone: She can do this fun artistic thing, and you give some family member a mug and they feel good about it: It’s a real win-win.