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April 5, 2006

Rave Review for W'burg Dining Hegemonists

restaurant
We may be biased because we used to rent an apartment from Andrew Tarlow and Mark Firth (and because an ad of theirs appears at right) but we thought today's review in The Times of their Williamsburg eatery Marlow & Sons was right on. The two entrepreneurs have exhibited a remarkable ability to create restaurants (first at Diner, then Bonita, then Marlow) that offer pitch-perfect ambience and delicious food at reasonable price points. Nine times out of ten, that's what we're looking for when we want to step out for a bite. With the population on the South side of Williamsburg set to balloon in upcoming years, the trick is going to be getting a table at any of these places. Our solution? Showing up at six with the kids in tow. All we can ask for now is for the duo to expand their empire to Clinton Hill. Please!
Stop for Drinks, Stay for Dinner [NY Times] GMAP




Posted by Brownstoner at 10:23 AM | Comments (25)
Categories: Restaurants

Comments

Forget the restaurant...that lovely server (if it's who I think it is) has some work in a group show, opening tonight!

Posted by: artpimp at April 5, 2006 11:24 AM

How about expanding their chic lil' empire to Fort Greene.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 5, 2006 11:57 AM

Couldn't you have just said "reasonable prices" instead of "reasonable price points"? Couldn't've you ? Oh, the pain ... the pain ...

Posted by: will at April 5, 2006 12:00 PM

I've never had the pleasure of eating at any of their restaurants. I've shunned visiting the 'burg for food after a trip to Sea. maybe they'll expand to the stuy (more than likely not) and I'll check it out. however, is it just the picture or is that place really small? people look to be on top of eachother in there. the food must be really good if they'll pack in so tight. what kind of food do they sell?

Posted by: stuy blkbuttrflie. at April 5, 2006 12:08 PM

I have and will always have a special place in my heart for Marlow & Sons - my husband and I were headed there for oysters and wine when we decided to get married, and we had an amazing meal there with a small group of our closest friends after our City Hall ceremony in January. The service is always wonderful, and the food is always spot-on. It's nice to see it getting such good reviews, but I do admit that I worry it will get *too* popular, and we won't be able to get a table!

Posted by: jenblossom at April 5, 2006 1:08 PM

Stuy blkbuttrflie: The Sea is not really in Williamsburg. Just walking past it will transport you, by some loophole in the space-time continuum, to South Beach.

Most other restaurants in Williamsburg are actually in Williamsburg.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 5, 2006 1:24 PM

"Just walking past it will transport you, by some loophole in the space-time continuum, to South Beach"

hahahahahahaha -- that was hilarious!!
Sea isn't in the 'burg? what is that? bushwick?

Posted by: stuy blkbuttrflie. at April 5, 2006 2:24 PM

No. It's in South Beach. Like I said, it's a bizarre phenomenon.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 5, 2006 2:33 PM

lol well since you put it that way maybe I'll check this place out.

Posted by: stuy blkbuttrflie. at April 5, 2006 2:34 PM

How about Brooklyn Heights damn it! People there are bewildered and desperate for a good restaurant other than noodle pudding. Anyone have any suggestions by the way?

Posted by: Anonymous at April 5, 2006 3:39 PM

Sorry 3.39. You'll have to go to Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill, Park Slope or Ft. Greene/Clinton Hill for a decent restaurant. I don't get it either. Maybe Montague Street commercial rents are too high for independent decent restaurants.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 5, 2006 4:21 PM

maybe we should start a campaign to get them over to ch/ft - they really are my all time favorite in any borough...the music is also always spot-on. how do we start this campaign? let's do it?

Posted by: Anonymous at April 5, 2006 5:06 PM

Sounds great. Get them into the old Bodegas space or into a vacant space in the Putnam/Grand/Cambridge Place/Fulton intersection.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 5, 2006 5:30 PM

yes! and they could offer parking for their patrons if they took over the laundromat!!!

Posted by: Anonymous at April 5, 2006 8:08 PM

I second/third/fourth the motion! I haven't been to Marlow & Sons but love love love Bonita & Diner-- even though I'm a ft-greener from way back & prefer to eat here whenever I can.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 5, 2006 8:40 PM

I have no experience whatsoever in the restaurant business, but since moving to Clinton Hill I've been pondering the possibility of opening one with increasing frequency. Threads like these make me think that it's a sure-fire idea, failures and closings of nearly half of the existing restaurants in the neighborhood temper my enthusiasm somewhat. I'm thinking something simple - I hate the term "comfort food", but I guess that's the closest description. And no gimmicks- is it just me or is Brooklyn particularly impressionable that way. No 'organically grown in a bushwick parking lot by a lesbian poetess'; just good, easy,inexpensive and tasty. Why is there virtually no place in the Clinton Hill/Fort Greene area to get a good sandwich for lunch or a decent blue plate special dinner? Anyone?

Posted by: Anonymous at April 6, 2006 9:30 AM

actually anon 9:30 AM, hate to blow your good ole boy bubble, but part of what makes diner and marlow so great is that their menu always rotates to reflect what's in season and they serve mostly organic fare, albeit in a very simple and ungimmicky way. also, as one poster mentioned above, they play really great music and something about your post makes me wonder whether you would play anything other than freebird...
why don't you check out diner and get back to me?
ps in the ch/ft area the best places in my opinion are ici and locanda vini i oli, but they're a little more expensive than diner and marlow and don't play the great music...
pps nothing wrong w/ lesbian poetess' growing veggies in bushwick. better than 0 yr olds dealing crack...

Posted by: miss yum at April 6, 2006 9:46 AM

also, if you want comfort food - boca soul has amazing fried chicken and mashed potatos and jive turkey is supposed to be good...

Posted by: Anonymous at April 6, 2006 9:50 AM

I'm not sure what Anon at 9.30 deems to be good an inexpensive, but FG and Clinton Hill (moreso FG, but they are so close together) has several very good restaurants (Ici, Locanda Vini e Olii, Olea, Chez Oskar, Lou Lou, June, Rice, Kush, Bamboo (too come in the old Buttacup Lounge space, Sushi D, One Greene Sushi, Thomas Beisel, various diners, the numerous restaurants on Fulton in FG, the numerous restaurants on Myrtle in Clinton Hill. That said, I think there is definitely a market for more. I think Fulton St. in Clinton Hill is ripe for more cafes, restaurants, grocery etc.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 6, 2006 10:21 AM

yes that strip of fulton needs love...

Posted by: Anonymous at April 6, 2006 5:37 PM

Godd Ole Anon 9:30 here- I think those who resonded to my post might have missed my point. I'm not proposing in any way a place to compete with Locanda or Beisel. If you were in the mood for a good quick lunch in Clinton Hill, where would you go?
There's 3 diners in the immediate area, all of whic are greasy spoons and close ridiculously early. How about a quick easy dinner to pick up or to eat with the kids? Would you stop in for a Schnitzel, or a long dissertation on the available wines at Locanda?
Haven't been to Boca Soul yet- heard the Fried Chix is good and looking forward to giving it a try. Jive Turkey is forgettable in almost every possible way IMHO.
Miss Yum- despite your inscrutable comments (Freebird? WTF?) I'll get back to you thusly: I've been to Diner- again, a tad more 'upscale' than I had in mind, but good. I wasn't really thinking about line caught Trout- more like Mac and Cheese and Spiral Cut Ham.If I had to provide a model for you, I'd cite "Mamas" in the E Village. Do you know that place? I guess it'd best be classified as home cooking. Lastly: Freebird?

Posted by: Anonymous at April 6, 2006 6:04 PM

Oh- and PS: "Miss Yum" - Since this message board almost always descends into snarky know-it-allism: I beleieve you'd "hate to BURST my good ole boy bubble"

Posted by: Anonymous at April 6, 2006 6:07 PM

Fort Greene has a few good spots. My opinion is that Scapellos is one of the best restaurants around. Reasonable, quick and great food. Nice little bar area. I like Night of the Cookers too for what they do they do it well.
Vin y Oli is close to me so we go there and it is a cute place but it is just not a regular joint.
I was excited when Bodegas opened. But so many of the places that open are just so mismanaged, as someone who worked in the restaurant business for years.. its frustrating.
Bodegas was right in front of a train station.. it was positioned as a café. But it did not open in the mornings.. If a want a cup of coffee in the morning I have to drive to Myrtle and Clinton to Connecticut muffin. At 7am when they open they are packed! Because that is the only place open before 11.
Every time I went to Bodegas to pick up some dinner to bring home.. they were slow slow slow. The servers were way too cool to take your order. And bodegas was better then a lot of the other little places. If I see one more “café” that doesn’t open in the morning.. I mean when do you drink coffee? Look.. new rule.. if you are not open at 7am.. you are not a café.

It seems to me like everyone who opens a business in this neighborhood does it like a little hobby on the side. KUSH drops menus to my door saying they deliver.. but if you call them they don’t really want to come out and deliver. They say.. well.. maybe you could come pick it up. Sometimes they are closed for seemingly no reason. I’ll find a great jerk chicken place.. I’ll be really excited.. and then I go there and they tell me.. well.. I don’t feel like making the chicken today. They open when they want. They deliver when they feel like it. They are always out of things. There is a juice bar up the block from me that often.. doesn’t have about half their juice menu.. and it is a 20minute visit o get a juice! If you have exact change. They never have any change.. like for a $20. They are slow slow slow.. I swear I could go to the MET.. buy a bunch of fruit.. come home.. squeeze it by hand.. faster then I could order one from the Juicer Café (also not open in the mornings). They open sometimes at 10 … sometimes at 12..

I’ve lived in Clinton Hill for the past 6 years.. and I still go back to Williamsburg to go for a drink.. to pick up food to go.. like that little quick Mexican place on Bedford.. to meet friends, to go out for dinner, drinks, to see music.
I LOVE Clinton Hill. But I couldn’t live here if I didn’t drive. I can’t cook! Please please come to Clinton hill and open a restaurant! I go to diner, marlow’s or bonitas.. at least one of them once a week.

Posted by: Saint James at April 8, 2006 10:45 AM

Wow, Saint James- you took the complaints right out of my mouth! And your line about "...if I didn't drive"- I believe I said that verbatim this very weekend when I drove to Greenpoint for dinner one night and Park Slope the other. Oh, and to Dumont Burger in Wmsbrg for lunch yesterday which was delicious, thank you. And the lazy attitude of the business owners around here is indeed endemic and not limited to food service, but that's another discussion altogether ( Hello, Sister's overpriced service with a scowl hardware emporium).
I too was excited for Bodegas' opening, and was disheartened to recieve uninspired offerings served by a waitstaff who appeared for all the world to be doing a community service sentence in a cobbled-together plywood dungeon. It just doesn't seem THAT difficult to put together a good place, especially given the lack of offerings around here. I make this pledge: if I win the lottery or otherwise come into a large sum of money. my first order of business will be to open the place I described in the post above. And no, I will NOT play ANY Southern Rock, "Freebird" or otherwise.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 10, 2006 9:35 AM

I totally love Jive Turkey for a quick meal that I can eat in the comfort of my home. Nothing is better than sitting in front of the TV with turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy insanely delish chocolate chip cookies for under $10.

Posted by: Sara at May 30, 2006 8:34 PM

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