Brooklyn Food & Drink Round-Up

Brooklyn Restaurants Reviewed This Week
Gothamist‘s Danielle Sucher hits up Park Slope’s Bussaco and describes their maple creme caramel, pictured above: “It’s like eating the extremely delicious bastard child of a perfect pot de creme and a soft caramel candy.” Plus, the new Carroll Gardens spot Buttermilk Channel gets a whopping 5 out of 6 stars from Time Out New York. And Chowhound binkis calls Vinegar Hill House “a fantastic neighborhood place, similar to Noodle Pudding in quality.”

Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You
Chowhound squid kun got in touch with the Calexico guys via email and learned that their new restaurant in the old Shnack space is set to open in “about a month.” And an Eater tipster says: “Was walking down 4th avenue in park slope last night, and the plywood is down at the ramen shop from the Sheep Station people and they were having what looked like a friends and family dinner.” Plus, The Stong Buzz says that Red Hook’s beloved sandwich shop Defonte’s “is set to open a branch of their hero heaven in Manhattan at 261 Third Avenue @21st street, 212-614-1500.”

After the jump: The Moxie Spot starts charging admission, the Times reports on Alan Harding’s divorce(?!), and three more restaurant openings in Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Clinton Hill…

The Moxie Spot is Charging Admission
81 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn Heights; (718) 923-9710
The kid-focused restaurant and hang-out, The Moxie Spot, is now charging children $2.50 just to enter their doors, says the Brooklyn Paper: “‘We just want to make [the play center] viable for business,’ said [owner Nat] Rubin, who opened last fall, but quickly found that replacing chewed up toys, ripped up books and food-smeared games costs real money.”

Alan Harding Reports on His Divorce
In the past couple of months, Trout closed, plans were nixed for the proposed oyster bar at Black Mountain Wine House, and Patois closed its doors on the space it had occupied since 1997 (but ZagatBuzz says that it’ll be reopening across the street). And now restaurateur Alan Harding is dishing the details of his divorce with the New York Times.

Now Open: Three New Spots
Roosters, a rotisserie chicken joint with “a couple of communal tables” is open at 448a Lafayette Avenue (at Franklin Avenue) in Clinton Hill, says the New York Times… “On Saturday, Second Stop Café began serving heralded Stumptown Coffee from Portland in its corner shop on Lorimer and Ainslie [in Williamsburg],” says Grub Street… And The River Barrel Café, “boasting an eggnog challah French toast with a cranberry and blueberry compote ($12) for brunch, and a wild mushroom ravioli with a sage brown butter sauce ($16) for dinner,” opened at 160 Franklin St. between India and Java streets in Greenpoint, the Brooklyn Paper reports.