Brooklyn Food & Drink Round-Up
A Solid Review for Prime Meats & Carroll Gardens New York Times restaurant critic Sam Sifton gives Prime Meats two stars and also offers a description of its neighborhood scene through the eyes of an outsider: “You can see these people standing on Court Street nightly, staring through the plate-glass windows at a dining room…

A Solid Review for Prime Meats & Carroll Gardens
New York Times restaurant critic Sam Sifton gives Prime Meats two stars and also offers a description of its neighborhood scene through the eyes of an outsider: “You can see these people standing on Court Street nightly, staring through the plate-glass windows at a dining room packed with brownstone bohemians, third novelists, people with Web sites, with good art at home. They look slightly pained, these visitors from afar wondering about the life choices they made that put them in Chelsea or Park Slope or Montclair, and not down here in Carroll Gardens, this little Italian village off New York Harbor where life is obviously perfect.” (Photo by urbanblitz)
New Brooklyn Openings
The Aviator Sports and Events Center at Floyd Bennett Field is getting a new food vendor, says Grub Street: “The Brooklyn Smoke House, as the set of outdoor tents outside of Hangar 5 will be dubbed, will start by serving pulled pork, Texas-style brisket, Memphis-style ribs, and beer-can chicken.” … Catskill Bagel is supposed to open on Cortelyou sometime in June, says Ditmas Park Blog… Free Williamsburg‘s favorite coffee shop, Second Stop, is opening a juice bar called Get Juiced next door to the cafe on Ainslie Street, and it “will feature organic juices and smoothies made from fresh greens from the rooftop of The Brooklyn Grange.” … And the New York Times notes that Choice Kitchens & Bakery is open at 198 Jay Street (at York Street) in Dumbo: “This sleek buffet-style place, with servers, has a Mediterranean-accented menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
After the jump: New taco stand in Kensington, the word on Traif and Fornino Park Slope, Bay Ridge hookah hoopla, Marlow & Sons new cowhide menu, and Spike Lee’s Brooklyn vodka…
Chowhound Buzz
Kensington has a new taco stand in front of Walgreens on Church at McDonald. Chowhound noisejoke says, “They’re open Tuesday – Sunday, 2 – 9pm… Tortillas were nicely grilled, plenty of onion and cilantro, with lime and cucumber on the side. Tasty red and green salsa on hand. Brought home three good tamales too ($1.25 each).” … Fellow ‘Hound sir chowalot describes his dinner at Traif in Williamsburg as his “best meal in a long time.” … And Marion Morgenthal gives Fornino Park Slope a big thumbs up: “We started with the Pizza Vinny Scotto to share (bel paese, pecorino, fior di latte, cacciatorini al diavolo, roast pepper aioli, ricotta), and loved it… For main courses, winners were arancini, braised short rib ravioli, and chicken sausage.”
Quick Bites
Bay Ridge Community Board members are looking to shut down local hookah bars, says the Brooklyn Paper… The Cut shares a photo of “Marlow & Sons‘ first non-culinary products: plush leather bags and pouches made, in the use-everything spirit, from the skins of house-butchered cows and pigs.” … And, finally, Grub Street reports: “In what might be his weirdest marketing appearance since those Fresh Direct ads (and Absolut’s hippest campaign since they teamed up with Tim & Eric), Spike Lee is collaborating on Absolut Brooklyn, a $24.99 blend of ginger and red apple (after the Big Apple).”
Oh, well, if it’s NEWNESS that you’re after, there’s always Atlanta or Vegas or someplace like that you could live.
Also, I don’t think they’re “catching up”. More like “leaving us in dust.”
“You illustrate my point: good stuff opened here a while ago, now it’s coasting and people like Sifton are pointing out that PS is feeling left out.”
The only restaurants in the slope really worth going out of your way for are Al Di La and Alchemy.
The rest (that i’ve actually gone to) are good neighborhood spots but definitely not destination restaurants. (taking into account Blue Ribbon is a chain and nothing exclusive to Park Slope)
Al di La: been there for years
Blue Ribbon: been there for years
Fish Camp: years
Rose Water: years
Convivium: nothing special
Stone Park: take out the support-home-team factor, pretty mediocre
Applewood: great, not new
Cafe Steinhoff: food sucks
Flatbush Farm: on Flatbush
Alchemy: don’t know it
Franny’s: love it but it’s on Flatbush
Long Tan: don’t know it
Sheep Station: haven’t been there
Sotto Voce: totally lame
You illustrate my point: good stuff opened here a while ago, now it’s coasting and people like Sifton are pointing out that PS is feeling left out.
“Carroll Gardens gets Prime Meats, Boerum Hill gets Mile End, and we get some lame new sushi place on 5th.”
Plenty of great restaurants in Park Slope. Just off the top of my head, there’s Al di La, Blue Ribbon, Brooklyn Fish Camp, Belleville, Rose Water, Convivium Osteria, Stone Park Cafe, Applewood, Cafe Steinhoff, Flatbush Farm, Alchemy, Franny’s, Long Tan, Sheep Station, Sotto Voce, etc….
Park Slope got a head start on the restaurant trend. The other neighborhoods are still catching up.
The IRS doesn’t care about weed…. well, unless they were selling it and not collecting sales tax! 🙂
The Franks aren’t worried about an audit – these are the same guys from the weed article last week talking about how much they blaze.
The credit card thing is just stupid. If the reason is the 2 1/2% fee and the paperwork why do they take plastic at their location on the lower east side?
Besides, they’d certainly benefit from greater spending on wine, apps and probably tips as well.
I’ve never seen a place that is cash only that has 200 – 400 dollar bottles of wine.