Brooklyn Food & Drink Round-Up

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7 New Bars and Restaurants
(1) Fort Defiance, the new Red Hook spot from writer and Pegu Club alum St. John Frizell, won’t get a liquor license until late July, but they’ll start serving food this weekend. Eater says, “the sandwich menu includes Italian tuna, turkey, muffuletta with custom baked bread, and what else, banh mi.” (2) Brooklyn Heights Blog says that Brooklyn Heights Wine Bar has opened at Henry and Cranberry. (3) Grub Street says that Calexico is finally set to open next Tuesday, but Lost City isn’t sure why the word “thanks” was written in forks and knives on the sidewalk outside. (4) Lost City says that Black Horse Pub will be opening in two weeks in the South Slope, at 14th and Fifth Avenue. (5) Brunch Anytime noticed that another location of Bay Ridge health food spot Nature’s Grill is setting up shop a few doors down from Trader Joe’s in Cobble Hill. (6) Grub Street says that Italian-American restaurant Grandma Rose’s is opening today at 457 Graham Avenue (near Herbert Street) in Williamsburg. (7) And blogger Didactic Katydid reports that yakitori spot Sui Ren is now open at 302 Metropolitan Avenue (at Roebling).

Rye Gets Reviewed
247 South First Street (Roebling Street), Williamsburg; (718) 218-8047
New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni gives a single star to Williamsburg’s Rye and wonders whether it is meant to be “a drinkers’ refuge with ambitious food or a proper restaurant with a particular vanity about its cocktails… Maybe that’s a function of the neighborhood, whose hipsters are aging and being joined by more settled, stodgy types.” We’re not sure how the restaurant’s regulars are supposed to feel about this remark. In any case, Tasting Table raves about Rye’s meatloaf sandwich: “The glorious, two-handed sandwich comprises a half-pound tablet of ground pork, veal and duck cooked in its own reduced braising juices and planted between a chewy, crusty roll. Golden haystack onions spill out atop the meat loaf, while a layer of horseradish-dressed frisée packs serious zip, and briny, thin-sliced pickles temper the opulence.”

After the jump: a new home for the McCarren Park Greenmarket, Char No. 4‘s summer barbecue deal, a $5 dinner at Hope Lounge, a Red Hook bar crawl in photos, and new signage for Timboo’s…

Pending Relocation for Greenmarket
The Brooklyn Paper says that the McCarren Park Greenmarket is getting a new home: “The Parks Department is planning to uproot the popular Greenmarket from the corner of Bedford Avenue and Lorimer Street and plant it on the asphalt of Union Avenue because the farmers’ tents, tables, and customers have turned patches of grass into plots of dirt.” Farmers are worried that the new location will be bad for business.

A Meat-Lover’s Dream for 22 Bucks
196 Smith St., nr. Baltic St., Cobble Hill; (718) 643-2106
Wednesday nights through Labor Day, Char No. 4 will be serving a “$22 barbecue plate, featuring three meats (a rotating selection includes spare ribs, chicken, pork, brisket, and beef links), two sides, a draft beer, and a one-ounce whiskey pour,” says Grub Street.

Quick Bites
Next week on Wednesday, June 24, from 7pm-11pm, Hope Lounge will be hosting the second installment of Finger on the Pulse BBQ Blow Out series. Egg will be doling out $5 dinners and Les Savy Fav will be DJing. Entry is free… Metromix shares a photo-essay on a Red Hook bar crawl… And, finally, Lost City reports, “Timboo’s, one of the most untouched of Brooklyn dives, has gone in for a new sign. I’m guessing its the facade’s first update since the joint opened on Park Slope’s Fifth Avenue in 1969.”