Category: Brooklyn

19 Old Fulton Street at Water, DUMBO, Brooklyn
718/858.4300
about $70 for two large pizzas for five, with drinks, with tip, cash only
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Still considered by a lot of people as one of the best places to eat pizza in New York, Grimaldi’s has been welcoming tourists and locals alike at its location by the Brooklyn Bridge even before real estate agents gave DUMBO its name. The line stretches outside the restaurant but moves quickly. The volume inside rises when everyone’s in a good mood, but you can still tell that Frank Sinatra’s playing in the background.

Grimaldi’s pizza crust is thin and crisp. There are a lot of toppings to choose from for $2 each like black olives, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red bell peppers and, of course, pepperoni and sausages. I especially like mine with basil leaves and garlic. My only complaint is that everything gets cold too quickly. By the time I eat my third slice, it’s almost time to order another pie. Call ahead to pick up a whole pie–they don’t sell by the slice and it’s cash only–and sit by the pier while taking in the view of downtown Manhattan.

246 DeKalb Avenue at Vanderbilt, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
718/789.2778
about $70 for two, with two drinks, without tip
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A lot of my friends live in Brooklyn and they’ve been encouraging me to check out the restaurants in their borough. I’m slowly making my way down the list but iCi has always been the one that comes up whenever I talk food to Brooklyn residents. I was already in the area for a birthday party so we decided to walk over and get dinner afterwards. It took a while for us tourists to find the streets because we’re not familiar with the Fort Greene landscape, but we were seated right away even though we didn’t have reservations–and it was 9pm on a Saturday night! I love Brooklyn already!

iCi has a short menu but it was still hard to make a decision between the wild dandelions or arugula. We ended up picking both and sharing a main course. We were already set with the scallops until our waitress told us that the special for the night was a rack of lamb with Provençal vegetables. Because a rack of lamb is something we never skip as long as it’s on the menu, we immediately changed our order.

We started with the duck confit salad with frisée and the dandelions with bacon. Maybe the confit should have been called shredded duck meat salad instead because I missed the texture and the jam-like consistency. The dandelions fared much better. The saltiness of the bacon held the bitterness of the greens at bay, creating a well-balanced taste.

As soon as our lamb was served, we looked at each other because we both knew it wasn’t a rack in front of us. We ate it anyway but we couldn’t help but let our waitress know that our lamb was clearly meat from either the shoulder or the leg. She went back to the kitchen, confirmed that the specials board indeed said “leg of” and not “rack of” and apologized for her mistake. She obviously didn’t like that we pointed out an error on her part because whenever she informed us about something on the menu again, whether it was wine or dessert, she said “this time it’s not a mistake”.

The possibility of eating a good rack of lamb can make some diners’ hearts palpitate and serving them a leg in its place is like taking away a Christmas present after it’s already been opened. It was cooked just right but if we knew we were going to eat the leg, we would really have chosen the scallops.

We ended with the arugula with the pear slices and parmesan cheese–a simple palate cleanser before moving on to the warm apple tart for dessert. A nice pot of citrus tea made of lemongrass, lemon and kaffir limes made us forget our disappointing lamb experience. iCi needs a little bit of sharpening but with our bill coming out at less than $85 with two glasses of wine, tax and tip, it’s another reason to love Brooklyn.

501 11th street off Seventh Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn
718/768.2044
$160 for two, with several drinks, with tip
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I believe it’s called skill when a chef can take a cheap cut of veal and mask it as if it’s not part of the animal’s chewy shoulder. And I believe that it’s only a sincere love for food that can make a lamb loin taste, not like lamb, but of the combination of the complementary ingredients with it.

An amuse of roasted red beets with bloodoranges was a good start to a nicely-paced dinner at Applewood. The beets were tender but gave softly in my mouth. A seared Maine scallop sat in soup; I was only disappointed that I didn’t have a spoon to slurp all of it. A braised Vermont pork belly was crunchy and yet so delicate with the tiny pieces of eggplant, my smile stretched past my ears. The lamb loin was soft and really tasted like a nice cut of beef especially with the slightly bitter daikon and the creamy (but a little too salty) polenta. And veal shoulder, an inexpensive cut meant to be braised for hours, was naturally chewy but it was presented with such skill that you accept it just the way nature intended it. We ended the night with a small muffin of almond cake and it came with Seckel pear, the miniature sweet-sour kind excellent for cooking. A much bigger dessert, nectarine cobbler, was eaten until the last crumb was unseen.

Treading to Brooklyn for dinner is an ordeal for us Harlem residents, but we are well aware of the restaurants cropping up in support of sustainable local products and we are slowly making our way to eating in the outer boroughs. Applewood, for the last two years, has been changing their menu daily to ensure the freshness and seasonality of the ingredients. (An onion martini is a must-have before dinner is served.) An otherwise quiet Tuesday night dinner became special.

280 5th Avenue between 1st Street and Garfield Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn
718/840.0404
about $300 for three, with several drinks, without tip
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It’s been years since I’ve been to Park Slope. The Dr. used to live there and it was back then when he took me to Blue Ribbon for dinner. My brother was in town and we happened to be driving around Brooklyn one rainy Saturday, so when dinner time came up, I suggested we go back to his old ‘hood.

Nothing’s changed about the restaurant. It’s still crowded and people still wait for their turn to be seated either at the bar or the dining room in the back. We were lucky that a table for three just opened up when we walked in. The menu hasn’t changed either. Seasonal seafoods still dominate the menu–a pound of crayfish were ordered to start with a dozen oysters. Their bone marrow and oxtail marmalade is still one of our favorites. When you poke out the fat and eat it with the sweetness of the jelly preserve, you’ll understand why. The steak tartare was just another plate of appreciated excess with the several glasses of sparkling and red wine we drank.

The service is pretty attentive even though the place is so busy. A Blue Ribbon experience usually ends up not needing the attention of the service staff: you just eat and eat.

Related post/s:
Roasted bone marrow recipe