Tom is most accommodating and the apartment is spare but clean, bed comfortable, and the kitchen pretty well equipped. (To that point, Fairway, an amazing market, is just a few blocks away.) As for gritty Red Hook, it's a special place; it may take you a day to get it, but when you do, you really do. Surrounded by salt water, it's cooler than surrounding neighborhoods in more ways than one; these days, it's the only place I stay when I go back to NYC.