The book takes you neighborhood-by-neighborhood on a journey through Brooklyn to the best restaurants (both the local favorites and the landmarks), as well as the best food shops and producers. Here are a few sample reviews, below. Photos by: Michael Harlan Turkell.
Dumbo-
Superfine, 126 Front Street between Jay Street and Pearl Street; (718) 243-9005; Subway: A, C to High Street or F to York Street. One of the first restaurants to arrive and serve the early artist community, Superfine also serves as a gallery, pool hall, and sometime performance space for local bands. But the food is no afterthought: From brunch to dinner, it continues to draws locals and foodies willing to travel. At brunch, the Southwestern-style treats—huevos Rancheros, steak and eggs, and the breakfast burrito full of scrambled eggs, sausage, and pinto beans—aim to soothe the hangovers.
Cobble Hill-
Henry Public, 329 Henry Street between Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Street; 718-852-8630; Subway: F, G to Bergen Street or 2, 3, 4, 5, M, R to Borough Hall. This Prohibition-style speakeasy serves wonderful cocktails, which is the main reason to go, but the food is worth a look, too, though choices are limited. Choose the “hamburger sandwich,” made with grass-fed beef and served with juniper-scented pickles—topped with bacon and cheese, if you choose to add them—or a sandwich filled with milk-braised turkey leg meat. The dessert menu is simple, too: They offer ebelskivers, which are Danish filled pancakes, and they serve them with a rum-spiked caramel sauce that packs a punch—they’re the perfect pairing for an after-dinner cocktail.
Prospect Heights-
Franny’s, 295 Flatbush Avenue between Prospect Place and St. Marks Place; (718) 230-0221; Subway: 2, 3 to Bergen Street or B, Q to Seventh Avenue; frannysbrooklyn.com. Opening this simple, little Prospect Heights pizza place was a bold move in a pizza-loving town. But the risk has paid off in spades, and Franny’s has become a local favorite, both for its tasty pizzas as for its commitment to eco-friendly practices. The husband-and-wife duo who opened Franny’s goes way beyond local, organic ingredients, fair-trade coffee, and hormone- and antibiotic-free meats though of course they follow those tenets as well. They also do a lot of things the customer doesn’t see: They use renewable energy (made up of 35 percent wind power and 65 percent small hydroelectric power), convert kitchen grease into biodiesel fuel, and use mostly paper products made from recycled, biodegradable materials. Oh, and the pizza is really tasty, too. The crust is charred nicely, and then topped with a simple, sweet tomato sauce and buffalo mozzarella as well as anchovies, sausage, or clams. They also serve salumi plates and seasonal crostini topped with buffalo ricotta and spinach or pancetta and garlic butter. Of course, the pizza should be enough, but the waits can be killer so by the time you’re seated you may want to order the whole menu.
Park Slope-
Palo Santo, 652 Union Street between 4th Avenue and 5th Avenue; (718) 636-6311; Subway: R to Union Street or Q, B to Seventh Avenue or 2, 3 to Bergen Street; palosanto.us. Tucked away in a brownstone on an otherwise residential block, Palo Santo feels very much like home. The cooking is Latin comfort food done in the snout-to-tail style of the moment, and dishes are made with herbs and greens from the rooftop garden. Start with anticuchos, pork livers and hearts that have been marinated in a spicy marinade and grilled on skewers, followed by a big, warm bowl of hen stewed in a green mole broth with large chunks of corn on the cob, meat you’ll want to eat right off the bone, and small soft orbs of yolk that are (surprise!) the hen’s unborn eggs. Even when the restaurant falters, such as with a tough rib eye in chimichurri sauce, the flavors are still bright and memorable. Dessert is equally homey and bright, like tart-yet-creamy lime pie in a gingersnap crust with hand-whipped cream, or house-made vanilla ice cream sprinkled liberally with fresh, sweet summer blueberries.
Williamsburg-
Dressler, 149 Broadway between Driggs Avenue and Bedford Avenue; (718) 384-6343; Subway: J, M, Z to Marcy Avenue; dresslernyc.com. This gorgeous little special occasion spot is a showstopper. The high ceilings are lined with mahogany panels and mirrors rimmed with metal carved into vine patterns. And the food often lives up to the promise of the decor. Appetizers of duck confit over greens come with navel orange segments and sweet honey-poached black mission figs; rich braised oxtail ragu is served with fresh ricotta over handmade pasta. For entrees, sophisticated takes on the warm and comforting continue to reign, with a grilled Long Island duck breast that’s perfectly cooked and served with gnocchi, pea puree, and chanterelle mushrooms, as well as a succulent braised short rib with creamed spinach and whipped potatoes. (Okay, so the short rib comes with a tough, unimpressive piece of hanger steak—but there’s enough good here to ignore the occasional misstep.) Dessert, too, is comforting. Go for the blueberry crumble, molded into an unusually pretty ring and served with a buttery crumb topping and an intensely vanilla ice cream. It’s a plate-cleaner, and sure to send you into the cold night air with a smile.
Egg, 135 North 5th Street between Berry Street and Bedford Avenue; (718) 302-5151; Subway: L to Bedford Avenue; pigandegg.com. No matter when you come, you can expect to wait for a table at this popular comfort food spot that’s packed from morning through night. Expect to add your name to the list on the marker board, and cool your heels on the sidewalk for a while. But most think it’s worth the wait. Brunch dishes include biscuits and gravy or country ham, stone-ground grits, and great French toast; dinner brings fried chicken and kale. The dishes are hit and miss (a side of scrapple is teeny-tiny, and one morning the grits were way underdone), but it’s hard not to get behind this restaurant nonetheless. They’re dedicated to using local, organic ingredients—they even bought their own farm upstate, complete with a smokehouse. For updates on how their crops are doing, check the note cards on your table and the chalkboard on the back wall, which often details specials made with ingredients from the latest haul.
Fette Sau, 354 Metropolitan Avenue between Havemeyer Street and Roebling Street; (718) 963-3404; Subway: L to Lorimer Avenue; fettesaubbq.com. For barbecue lovers, this is Brooklyn’s best bet. Get in line for your food, which is served cafeteria style, by the pound. The actual meat offerings change every day but include both classics (beef brisket, pulled pork, pork ribs, hot links) and more interesting options, including lamb shank and pork belly—and, yes, the belly is both fantastic and a coronary waiting to happen. (The name of the restaurant does translate to “Fat Pig” after all.) The meat is uniformly very smoky, tender, and flavorful. Unfortunately, the seating is family style at long picnic tables, and the sides (cold broccoli salad, uninspired potato salad) are as bad as the meat is spectacular. The flavor of oak, hickory, and cedar runs through just about everything you want to eat, including the one passable side, the baked beans filled with burnt ends. Fortunately, the bar serves lots of bourbon and whisky, as well as several local beers on tap, including Brooklyn-based Sixpoint Vienna Pale Ale, so you can wash your ’cue down with a proper drink.
Bushwick-
Roberta’s, 261 Moore Street between Bogart Street and Wythe White Street; (718) 417-1118; Subway: L to Morgan or J, M to Flushing Avenue; robertaspizza.com. These are fighting words, but I mean them with all my heart: This is the best pizza I have had in Brooklyn. In fact, it’s such a pleasant surprise to find that there’s a little Bushwick pizzeria, hidden among the projects and abandoned warehouses, baking up such amazing wood-oven pies, that you may actually forget that you are, as I like to say, on the corner of sketchy and dicey. Enter, and the scent of cheese, dough, and burning firewood will fill your nostrils, as you take in the sight of a charming little restaurant located in an old garage space and filled with long family-style tables. (And that’s before you even get to the oasis-like garden out back.) Try the Specken Wolf, which is topped with crispy speck (an Italian ham), mushrooms, and sweet red onions, or order a Margherita pizza graced with fragrant Berkshire pork sausage. The calzones are popular, too, but it’s the pizza I fell in love with at first sight. Tip: They also serve fried chicken, made with the stellar recipe of Carolyn Bane (of Pies ‘n Thies fame).
Bay Ridge-
Tanoreen, 7523 3rd Avenue between 75th and 76th Street; 718-748-5600; Subway: R to 77th Street; tanoreen.com. After years of packing the devotees into a tiny area, Tanoreen has finally moved into its long-awaited larger space up the street. No longer BYOB, the restaurant is also taking reservations, a blessing for those who remember waiting longingly on the curb. The menu remains the same—a festival of highly seasoned lamb dished, many made with their house-made spice mix, which includes plenty of cinnamon.
