Brooklyn Food & Drink Round-Up

Jack the Horse mac ‘n’ cheese. Photo by Maggie Hoffman for Serious Eats.

Best Under-the-Radar Brooklyn Restaurants?
Eater asked readers to submit their “favorite, somewhat oddball restaurant, bar, or place of note that perhaps exists mostly off the radar,” and Jack the Horse is among the first recommendations: “Jack the Horse Tavern is a well kept secret, even among Brooklyn Heights residents who might never find it if someone didn’t show them the way… The unquestionable winner on their menu is the mac and cheese app, a mix of cheeses including an incredibly smoky gouda lightly topped with crunchy breadcrumbs. You will see one on almost every table, and it is truly the best mac and cheese in town (I have had many, many.) The smoked gouda injects a rich bacon-y flavor, and my vegetarian friends cannot believe there is not meat in there somewhere.” Anybody else got a favorite under-the-radar restaurant they’d like to share?

$85 All-Bug Dinner, Anyone?
Yup. The Brooklyn Kitchen is hosting an bug-tasting event on September 18. “The dinner runs $85 a head and includes a four course pairing of edible insects and fine alcohols, like Wax Moth Larvae ceviche and Brooklyn Lager and Grass Hoppers with San Honesto Mezcal,” says Eater. Seems a little extreme to us, but you can purchase tickets here. Looking for a gateway bug? Park Slope’s Chiles & Chocolate is serving their guacamole topped with roasted grasshoppers, the Brooklyn Paper reports.

A Couple of New Spots
Greenpointers says that Calexico is “opening up a location in Greenpoint at the former La Brique [645 Manhattan Avenue]. They just filed for their liquor license earlier this month.” … And FREEwilliamsburg recommends the chocolate-peanut butter brownie at the newly-opened Champs Vegan Bakery (176 Ainslie Street, Williamsburg).

After the jump: Time Out’s fall restaurant preview, lots of Ditmas Park news, Red Hook Lobster Pound’s new seating area, and a word with the owners of Bark.

Coming to Brooklyn This Fall
Time Out New York‘s fall restaurant preview is a little short on Brooklyn food news, but it does note that the long-awaited Lucali offshoot Giuseppina’s (691 Sixth Ave between 20th and 21st Sts) is opening in early September, and a nautical bar called The Drink (228 Manhattan Ave between Grand and Maujer Sts, Williamsburg) is set to open in September, too.

What’s Up, Ditmas Park?
Ditmas Park Blog has been keeping busy this week, reporting on Jim Mamary’s Catskill Bagel shop, set to open the week after Labor Day, as well as the final(?) closing of Vox Pop. They’ve also posted the menu for the Ox Cart Tavern, set to open in the old Pomme de Terre space on September 7. And tonight, the Castello Plan is hosting a burgundy wine dinner and tarot card reading for $75 per person.

Quick Bites
The Red Hook Lobster Pound has opened its new seating area, says Fork in the Road… Plus, Eater interviews the owners of Bark on the restaurant’s first anniversary.