Eating his way through Brooklyn taco experiment: Serious Eats

Best $3.50 breakfast in Brooklyn: Serious Eats

Fort Defiance in Red Hook: Serious Eats

Two upcoming Park Slope restaurant events: All About Fifth

Growlers are mainstream in NYC: Brew Hops

How clean is bagged salad: Consumer Reports

Brooklyn Calexico Rocks: A Brooklyn Life

Easy brunch baked eggs: Undomesticated Me

A shop that sells artisan bread and slow roasting organic chicken is going in where La Bagel Delight used to be on 5th Street and Seventh Avenue in Park Slope.

The sign says: Coming Soon Artisan Bread Slow Roasting Organic Chicken.

That branch of La Bagel Delight moved to a larger location on Seventh Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets right next door to FIve Guys.

by Paula Bernstein

On Saturday night, I lived out my fantasy of setting foot in The Food Network Kitchen. No, I am not starring in a spin-off of “America’s Worst Cooks.”

To gain entry to the hallowed ground, all I had to do was fork over $50 for a good cause — my kids’ school, PS 107. The school’s Wellness Committee, which is working to improve the school lunch program, held their first-ever cocktail party at The Food Network Kitchen in Chelsea Market.

Lucky guests got the chance to sample an assortment of appetizers created by local chefs from The Farm on Adderley, Egg, Palo Santo and Porchetta.

PS 107 parent Jill Novatt, who has the super-cool title of executive culinary producer at The Food Network, pitched the idea of the party to her boss, who gave her the thumb’s up.

“It’s an immediate way to give back,” said Novatt, who has worked at the cable network since 1998.

Meanwhile, P.S. 107 parents (and friends of mine) Melissa Vaughn, a recipe developer, and Carol Diuguid, an editor at Zagat, helped land the distinguished roster of chefs.

Along with her husband, GQ editor Brendan Vaughan, Melissa is writing “The New Brooklyn Cookbook,” a collection of stories, recipes, and resources from Brooklyn’s dining revolution (to be published by William Morrow). The book was agented by fellow P.S. 107 parent (and friend) Larry Weissman at Larry Weissman Literary.

“There was no cost associated with the party, so every single dollar goes back to the school,” said Novatt, who added that several of her co-workers donated their time and Six Point Brewery contributed the beer.

Me? I drank champagne. And I think I tried every dish. When I took a bite of the delectable, but super-spicy ceviche from Palo Santo, I started tearing up.

“I should put up a warning sign on the green mango with pickled habenero,” said Chef Jacques Gautier.

“No problem. I’m crying because it’s so good,” I said.

In fact, Gautier’s pinto beans sopa with mole de Hongos was perhaps my favorite dish of the night.

Egg’s pimento cheese toast was also a big hit with the crowd.

“It’s a no-lose proposition,” said Egg’s Chef George Weld.

“It’s just cheese toast,” scoffed one dad.

“Stop that, it’s much more than a cheese toast,” chided his wife. “I’ve made cheese toast and that’s not cheese toast.”

Ditmas Park’s famed Farm on Adderly served pear chips with butternut squash puree and apple tempura with roasted pork shoulder and pickled fennel.

Porchetta, the only Manhattan eatery represented served – what else? – porchetta, plus pizza from sister restaurant Veloce Pizzeria. I asked Porchetta chef Sara Jenkins what I should cook for my first-ever dinner party and she said “Keep it simple. Roast chicken, potatoes, and salad.”

Sounds good to me. Now if only she can come and help me out in the kitchen.

You haven’t heard about it? Sorry, it’s sold out. But it’s still worth mentioning here. The Bell House sure has interesting programming, eh?

Cookoff enthusiasts Theo Peck and Nick Suarez present New York’s premier culinary competition, the Brooklyn Taco Experiment. Inventive amateur chefs will create various tacos ranging from savory to sweet. Best of all, free tortillas will be supplied for chefs and a free after party will ensue for all attendees. The audience, along with an esteemed, culinary judging panel will select their favorites and huge prizes and cash will be awarded to those who strive to be the next cookoff king or queen. Do you have what it takes? All taco fanatics welcomed. A portion of ticket sales will help support Ovarian Cancer Research and tunes will be provided by DJ Kilahertz.

Roll out the welcome wagon. Stop on by and say hello to  A Cake Bakes in Brooklyn, which was started by an OTBKB reader and friend. I’m so glad she’s decided to start a blog! And it’s a tasty one. Already she’s posted many recipes for cakes that look delicious! Welcome to the block ACBB and good blogging to you.

Here’s an excerpt froma post called Beginning:

For years, I’ve been fascinated with home cooking, especially baking, in the first half of the 20th century, the time right before “convenience” foods became commonplace.

Continue reading New Blog on the Block: A Cake Bakes in Brooklyn →

Wednesday is food day on BB:

In Boerum Hill, A restaurant that pays homage to Montreal Delis: NY Times

New Candy store in DUMBO: Brownstoner

Sales, restaurant specials and strolling violinists on V-Day on Fifth Avenue: All About Fifth

The Vietnamese sandwich wars: Brooklyn Paper

What the heck is poutine?: Brooklyn Paper

A neighborhood happy hour at Sycamore: Ditmas Park Blog

Birthday cake: A Cake Bakes in Brooklyn

The coffee, on the other hand, is a bit perplexing: Eat it the Brooklyn Food Blog

Fifth Avenue food in the news: All About Fifth

More complaints about children in bars: Grub Street

Top Ten Cozy Restaurants: Time Out New York

Brooklyn Whiskey. It just sounds right, doesn’t it?: Brokelyn

How’s the food at Vinegar Hill House: Serious Eats

Obsessed with Cypress Grove cheese called Lamb Chopper: Mangia Vita

It’s Wednesday and here are the food stories on local blogs:

Dim Sum at East Harbor Seafood Palace on on the border of Sunset Park & Bay Ridge:  Eat It: The Brooklyn Food Blog

Who doesn’t love a nice pot of braised meat in the wintertime?: Brooklynguy’s Wine & Food Blog

Brooklyn hot spots for my favorite foods: Tomjin’s Adventures Blog

I recently became a fan of oysters: Fun with Food in NYC & Beyond

Ultimate burgers and dogs in Cobble Hill: Brownstoner

Photo by Joseph Holmes/Joe’s NYC

I found out about Brooklyn Oenology yesterday at Makers Market at The Old American Can Factory (3rd Street and Third Avenue in Park Slope/Gowanus), an indoor market for art & designed and crafted by a broad community of locally-based individuals & organizations and a farmer’s market (that’s a new—and welcome—addition to this market).

Brooklyn Oenology is a wine company headquartered in a factory on the edge of the Greenpoint and Williamsburg neighborhoods. Currently they are producing at a host winery on the North Fork of Long Island, an area known for its vineyards and wineries.

As the company grows, they hope to build their own urban winery in Brooklyn.

As everyone probably knows by now a branch of Johnny Macks, the 8th Avenue bar/restaurant,  is set to open on Seventh Avenue between Garfield and Carroll Streets (right across from the Community Bookstore and Shawn’s Wine Shop).

Yesterday the front doors were open and I peeked in as workers moved kitchen equipment in. The transformation of Elementi into the more casual but attractive Johnny Macks is in full swing. Too early to report on decor but I’m hoping they’ll do another great brownstone block mural like they’ve got in the bar area of the 8th Avenue restaurant but I have the feeling that they’re going for a different look.

I agree with this writer on Yelp who said:

Johnny Mack’s has a really nice neighborhood feel. The menu is wide-ranging and seems to have something for everyone. I ordered a roasted chicken special and was very pleased. The chicken with gorgonzola seemed a little too creamy, but the burger looked great and my friend enjoyed it. A good place if you’re going with a good-sized group and looking for a casual place to relax.

I for one think that the new Johnny Macks should be a nice addition to Seventh Avenue. We love going to the 8th Avenue one after movies at the Pavilion.

Okeanos Restaurant, a Greek restaurant with a menu that features a lot of fish, has opened on Seventh Avenue and 8th Street in a space that used to be a laundromat.

First impressions: it looks like a glorified Greek diner but that could be  good thing.

The menu, which is posted in the window, is promising with its emphasis on fish and Greek and middle eastern specialties.

I will give it a try and let you know. Any other first impressions out there?

We met  friends for brunch on Saturday at Watty & Meg in Cobble Hill. We were supposed to go to Quercy next door but at 11:30 they weren’t ready for customers so we tried what our friends called “the new place on the corner.”

Watty & Meg is an old style bar/restaurant that has a very warm vibe thanks to nice lighting, oak church pews (repurposed from a Harlem church), black boards and bookstore shelving.

We sat in the back and enjoyed better than average brnch fare. I had the Scrambled eggs with Spanish chorizo and Romesco for $9, which was delicious.  Others at the table tried the somewhat exotic BBQ duck hash with Long Island duck, fingerling potatoes, Sunnyside duck egg and sliced cured duck for $15 and Huevos Rancheros for $10, which the waiter said was the dish that men always order.

It’s a super comfortable place to sit and talk. You can hear yourself think and with coffee refills, you could sit there for hours except…

…after we finished our entrees and refused dessert, the waiter asked us to leave because he said there was a reservation for 8 people. We’d only been there for about an hour and the restaurant wasn’t really that crowded. He was pretty nice about it and suggested that we sit at the bar. We paid up and left.

That was the only sour note of an otherwise excellent brunch.

Watty & Meg 248 Court Street between Kane and Baltic

I think this story is from my sometime employer The Associated Press. It was sent to me by Leon Freilich, OTBKB's Verse Responder:

In the bagel battle between boroughs, Brooklyn reigned supreme.

That's according to Serious Eats, which conducted a blind bagel taste test and found that Bagel Hole on 7th Avenue in Park Slope schmeared the competition.

The contest was narrowed to the three most bagel happy boroughs — deduced by Serious Eats as Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn. 

Bagel
tasters picked a schlew of shops, from the obvious — H&H,
Ess-A-Bagel, Murray's and Brooklyn Bagel — to smaller locales like Hot
Bialys in Queens and Terrace Bagels in Brooklyn that were close
contenders for the top bagel spot.

All
the doughy gems were subject to the same criterion — which in an
nutshel, was consumption quickly out of the oven.  As a sidenote of the
study, Serious Eats found that bagels lose their texture and taste a
mere 30 minutes after their baked.

Playa, the restaurant owned by the folks that brought you Barrio on Seventh Avenue, located in the doomed restaurant spot that is the corner of President and Fifth Avenue, is now CLOSED.

Another one bites the dust on that corner.

Definition: A doomed restaurant spot is a location that has seen repeated restaurant failures. But the curse can be reversed when a successful restaurant goes in. For instance, Yamato Sushi broke the curse on  their location on Seventh Avenue near 1st Street. For years, a restaurant couldn't last in there for more than a year.

Sometimes the curse is broken when a completely different kind of business goes in. The storefront that houses Dashing Diva on Seventh Avenue was a doomed restaurant spot for years. Its final food-related incarnation was as Maggie Moo's.

Who can forget Maggie Moo's?

I thought Playa was a attractive place with its paper lanterns and bright yellow color scheme. I think it served pan-South American food and maybe the identity wasn't that clear. But I enjoyed my two visits there and thought the food was tasty. There were usually a decent number of people in there.

I walked by on Saturday night and it was closed. The tables and chairs were stacked. It said closed to me big time.

I wondered if they were just making changes to the place or if it was closed for good. Maybe a Barrio, Playa's Seventh Avenue sister, will open in that space, I wondered. 

Previous restaurants in that spot were: Night and Day, Bisquit and Lookout Hill. According to one OTBKB reader: "Brownstoner didn’t mention Bebe–my favorite of the restaurants in the doomed restaurant spot. Bebe appeared in the brief time slot between Ralph’s Cleaners and Night and Day. The bar was great, the staff was great, the food was great—4 duck dishes! The story is that they were closed because they were operating without the appropriate licenses. Playa did have a bit of an identity problem. That certainly wasn’t their fault; the beach theme was pretty clear. But more than once, I overheard passers-by saying, “Look! PLAY-uh!” and chuckling about what they thought was a shady name." 

A source close to the
restaurant gives the following account of Playa's shuttering: The guy
who ran the three businesses before Playa was brought in as a partner
on the new venture because he owned the space's liquor license.
However, he's now in a legal dispute with the landlord and pulled out
of his partnership in Playa, taking the liquor license with him. Playa
couldn't turn a profit without the booze license, hence the closing.

I think the building is owned by Robin Hirsch, who owns the Cornelia Street Cafe,  a very successful restaurant and cultural space in the West Village in Manhattan. He opened Night and Day and was a partner in Bisquit BBQ.

All About Fifth , the Fifth Avenue BID blog, has an interview with Stone Park Cafe chef and co-owner Josh Grinker about seasonal cuisines, challenging wines and more. Interviewer Rebeccah Welch asked Grinker: What are the greatest challenges and rewards of being a small business owner?

The one that came first is called Hanco's and it's located in the old Tea Lounge spot on Seventh Avenue and 10th Street. The other is called Henry's and it's located in the old Slope Suds spot on Seventh Avenue between 14th and 15th Streets.

Both, apparently, serve delicious Vietnamese sandwiches. The Brooklyn Paper does a compare and contrast. There's also a bit of controversy because the owner of Henry's used to work at Hanco's. He's being accused (by the owner of Hanco's) of stealing the secret recipe.

I tried a sandwich and a bubble tea at Hanco's a few months ago and thought it was delicious!

 Hepcat decided that he wanted to BBQ spare ribs for Friday night's
dinner with his sister, bro-in-law, his mom, OSFO and me. It was a
lark, really. He'd never done it before and thought it might be fun.

Quick to the rescue, I emailed Mrs. Cleavage, my friend the southern gal blogger of Eat Drink Memory, who is currently residing in North Carolina and asked if she had a recipe.

Of course she had a recipe; she wrote this in her email.

It's a dry rub recipe, which combines: 2
1/2 tablespoons sugar, 3 tablespoons paprika, 2 tablespoons ground
cumin, 1 1/2 tablespoons black pepper, 1 tablespoon chili powder, 1
tablespoon salt.

Hepcat is usually violently opposed to
following recipes because he likes to improvise but he followed this
one to the letter because he doesn't know squat about southern BBQ.

He
did, however, substitute chipolte chili powder for regular chili powder
and that was a tasty idea. Mid-preparation, he had drive to the store
to get hickory chips and extra black pepper because he thought the rub
and the basting sauce called for a whole lot of pepper. I see now he
misread the word teaspoons in the basting sauce recipe for tablespoons.
Maybe that's why it was so spicy.

Here's the recipe for the basting sauce: 1 3/4 cups distilled white vinegar, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon Tabasco, 1 tablespoon salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper.

Correction from Hepcat:
he says he did misread it initially but when he read it again he saw
that it said teaspoon not tablespoon. "Still, I think it was too
peppery and next time I'd do less pepper and more sugar."

Hepcat
started preparing the ribs around 5 pm which put the EST for eating
around 9 pm. While the ribs cooked we had a great time sitting around
and swimming in the pool, listening to music, talking and drinking
beer.

The ribs were spicy, savory and delicious and there were
absolutely no leftovers. We served them with BBQed homegrown zucchini
and eggplant and a salad. Even the veggies had a nice hickory smoked
taste.

Good job Hepcat and thanks to Mrs. Cleavage for the recipe. I see that today on Eat Drink Memory she's got a recipe for Eastern North Carolina Pit Cooked BBQ. She writes:

Sounds great.  But tonight, we're cooking leg of lamb here in California.

Brooklyn Beat of DITHOB had this to say about the Wall Street Journal article about the backlash against "laptop malingering" at Brookllyn cafes. Read more at DITHOB.

In these tough times, people are still opening up new restaurants. Yay. A cause for optimism and tasty food. One hopes.

–Park Slope Grill 14th Street and 6th Avenue will be opening soon. 

–Gialeti’s Café is a new place on Prospect Avenue and 8th Avenue.

–A new restaurant on 13th Street and 8th Avenue  (owned by the team that brought you Bar Toto and Bar Tano).

–A new coffee place where Lola's Dress shop on Seventh Avenue near 12th Street used to be.

Unfortunate news: According to Crain's New York Business, Elementi, a Park Slope Italian restaurant on Seventh Avenue between Garfield and Carroll, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday. In just three weeks they will be celebrating their two-year anniversary.

According to the magazine, the restaurant cited assets below $50,000,
along with liabilities between $100,000 and $500,000.

Elementi, an Italian eatery, opened two years ago in the space that housed longtime sports bar and restaurant, Snooky's. Like Snooky's, the restaurant rented out their upstairs party space, a popular feature of both restaurants.

Here are the details listed in Crains: Elementi owes money to 49 creditors, including the  landlord
140 7th Avenue Corp., which is owed more than $63,000 in rent, and the
Internal Revenue Service, to which Elementi owes more than $92,000 in
payroll taxes

Elementi is still open for business. They can stay in business after filing Chapter 11 (just like GM). 

Earlier in the week I heard that Tempo is going out of business. Tempo Presto is already closed.

I am sad to report that Tempo, an extremely attractive Fifth Avenue Zagat-rated restaurant with excellent food, is closing.

The menu at Tempo was inspired by the cuisines of Spain, Southern France, Sicily, Sardinia, coastal Italy and North Africa.

A large upscale restaurant in the space previously occupied and originally designed by Cucina, it is a popular destination for special occasion dinners and events like bar mitzvah parties and weddings.

I am guessing that they fell victim to the economic downturn with its upscale menu and vibe. Their lower priced offspring Tempo Presto is right next door. I am also wondering if Tempo Presto is closing, too.

All
About Fifth interviews Bruno Berrebi, co-owner of Moutarde, as part of their ongoing series that highlights local leaders in the business and
nonprofit sector along the Avenue. Here's an excerpt from the AAF interview:

What’s red
and wiggly and green all over? Find out at the Brooklyn Food Conference
Kids’ Food Fair where red wiggler compost worms will be on display in
all of their slimy eco-beauteousness. These compost-creating maniacs
may not be the snuggliest pets you’ll ever own, but they’re probably
the hardest working and best for the environment. See them in action,
chewing up kitchen scraps to produce gorgeous, nutritious soil. Learn
all about vermiculture — the care and feeding of compost worms.
Discover how easy and fulfilling it is to raise compost worms, even if
you live in an apartment!

For
a look at the truly mouth-watering and thought-provoking menu of talks,
workshops, and activities for adults and children at the Brooklyn Food
Conference, visit www.brooklynfoodconference.com. 

Brooklyn Food Conference
Saturday, May 2, 2009

Kids’ Food Fair at PS 321 (7^th Ave @1^st St)
Adult and Teen Programs at John Jay High School (7^th Ave@4^th St)

Children accompanied by caregivers only, please

A project of the Brooklyn Food Coalition, the Brooklyn Food Conference is on May 2nd at John Jay High School and PS 321. It's an all day, free event that will feature a multitude of cool activities and speakers.

• See a roundtable of NYC chefs, moderated by WNYC’s Leonard Lopate, with Dan Barber, Peter Hoffman, Bill Telepan, and Brooklyn’s own David Shea of Applewood and John Tucker of Rosewater.
• Hear LaDonna Redmond on what people in Chicago have done to change their food system, learn about worldwide food rebellions from author Raj Patel, and find out how climate change can affect the world’s food supply from activist Anna Lappé, and discuss milk health risks and benefits with author Nina Planck–plus workshops with many other dedicated activists and professionals.
• Meet your local farmers!
• Learn how to start your own victory garden in Brooklyn, compost, and start a food coop.
• Join your children at a kids’ food fair with cooking demonstrations and other fun activities.
• Workshops by and for teens plus Teen Iron Chef!

Here are the stated goals of the conference, which hopes to: 

• Bring Brooklyn together to demand and participate in creating a vital, healthy and just food system available to everyone.
• Create a Brooklyn legislative food democracy agenda and constituent base.
• Organize neighborhood meetings of elected officials—congressional
  reps, state legislators, city council members—to press for a food
  democracy agenda.
• Influence public policy by educating elected officials and showing them the depth and diversity of public interest.
• Create a broad-based Brooklyn Food Coalition.
• Create a useful, cross-referenced directory of attendees.
• Help partner organizations grow their constituency by offering attendees avenues for action.

Read about their conference mission here.

I got am email from food the blogger at the food review site NYCFoodGuy.com. He writes about NYC's most delicious and affordable food. " My mission is
simple, use vivid photos and straightforward reviews to spread the word
on delicious food."

He currently has a post, which chronicles a comprehensive Mexican food tour through Sunset Park, Brooklyn. 
On his tour, he discovered s  "pambazo," which he says is as good as anything he's eaten at the Red Hook Ball Field.

Here's the story from his blog:
http://nycfoodguy.com/2009/04/06/nyc-food-guys-200th-post-revolutionary-sandwich-authentic-tacos-on-sunset-park-brooklyn-mexican-food-tour/

Victims of what they're calling "greedy landlord syndrome," tini wine bar, ostensibly a tiny wine bar (and restaurant) in Red Hook is moving from its old location to a new location with the help of neighbors and friends. And they want to invite the general public to come along, too. 

(Owners) Byrne and Swenson welcome everyone to their old fashioned community processional. Neighbors, patrons and close friends will be gathering and packing up at tini wine bar 414 Van Brunt Street at 11am. Those who help carry a stool or a box down the street will be handsomely rewarded with delicious  complimentary coffee, pastries and home/made eats at the end of the parade. Costumes and funny hats are encouraged but not required. The move will begin at Noon and end when everything arrives at home/made.

tini wine bar has a new name, too: home/made. A new name, a new location, lots of help from kind friends. Sounds like quite an afternoon and it's all happening on Sunday March 29th at 11 am.  The move will begin at noon. Everyone is to meet up at at 414 Van Brunt Street at 11am. Participants will be justly rewarded with coffe, pastries, and home/made eats.  

Yesterday I got this email from an organizer of a new CSA in Sunset Park:

Some of us over here in Sunset Park have gotten our butts in gear and are preparing for the first season of our very own CSA. I was wondering if you’d mind posting about us? Here’s a blurb I’ve prepared:
 
Are you interested in fresh, local veggies for a reasonable price and meeting your neighbors in Sunset Park and surrounding neighborhoods? Join the Sunset Park CSA and you'll get to do both! 

What's a CSA you ask? Here's the blurb we've got in our info. FAQ:

Community Supported Agriculture is a partnership between CSA members and a farmer. The farmer is supplied with a predictable income, and members are supplied with freshly harvested vegetables on a Weekly or Every Other Week (EOW) basis beginning in June and going until the end of October. Typically, members or "share-holders" of the farm pledge to pay in advance for the cost of growing the vegetables provided during the summer harvest. In return, they receive shares in the farm's bounty throughout the growing season. Members pick up their shares at a distribution site run and organized by neighborhood CSA members.

If you'd like more information or are ready to join us, please email us at SunsetParkCSA@yahoo.com and we'll send you a PDF of our FAQ sheet and member form. 

Yesterday I got an email from Debi Ryan, a member of the Vox Pop Collective, that there's going to be a Save Vox Pop Town Hall Meeting on Sunday, March 22nd at 4:00 pm at the Vox Pop Café, 1022 Cortelyou Road, Brooklyn.

For those who don't know the phenomenon that is Vox Pop: it is a cafe, performance space, and community  hang-out with a decidedly progressive political vibe in the Ditmas Park/Flatbush neighborhood. I've been there numerous times and it's a great place for a cup of coffee and a chance to read some of the self-published books they carry over there.

Save Vox Pop? I didn't know they were in trouble. I guess I'm just not up to speed about what's been going on over there. I think I heard out of the corner of my ear that there was trouble but I'm not really sure if it's economic or otherwise. Here's the email from Debi: