Brooklyn Food & Drink Round-Up

Di Fara Las Vegas?
Dom DeMarco, Jr. is getting ready to open Dom DeMarco’s Pizzeria and Bar in Vegas the first week of January, according to this video clip from Josh Ozersky. Junior will be using his dad’s recipe, but the Vegas restaurant will be a bit more “elegant” than Brooklyn’s Di Fara — that is, no garish green paint on the walls.

Brooklyn Restaurant Openings
“Best Pizza, a new slice joint and sit down pizzeria that will open in the old Brooklyn Star space any day now… is a joint venture between the teams at Brooklyn Star and Bushwick pizzeria/restaurant/farm/radio station/hipster hang Roberta’s,” Eater reports. Grub Street adds that Brooklyn Star “is still on track to reopen in the old Lazy Catfish space.” … Eater also notes that Ditch Plains Drop In, “the new concession from Marc Murphy in Brooklyn Bridge Park,” is officially open… And the owners of Milk Bar in Prospect Heights are opening Café Madeline at1603 Cortelyou Road in Ditmas Park, “serving Counter Culture coffee and simple French fare,” says Time Out New York.

Recently Reviewed: Bab al Yemen
413 Bay Ridge Avenue (Fourth Avenue), Bay Ridge; (718) 943-6961
In the New York Times, Ligaya Mishan shares a very positive review of this Bay Ridge spot, serving authentic Yemini dishes that you’ll be hard pressed to find elsewhere in the city (such as the dumpling-like aseed, or fassolia, “a sauté of white kidney beans, tomatoes and onions, strewn with bits of scrambled eggs”). Plus, it’s crazy-cheap: “In keeping with Yemeni hospitality, each person at a table receives soup and salad, regardless of how few dinners you order. This results in perplexingly low tabs: one meal, for a party of four who left feeling that they had seriously overindulged, barely crested $30.”

After the jump: Brooklyn’s best butchers, Bay Ridge’s best baklavah, and Williamsburg’s Cajun takeover…

The Best Brooklyn Butchers
The New York Daily News cites their top 10 Brooklyn butchers. The much-buzzed-about (and hipster-friendly) Meat Hook doesn’t make the cut, but favorites do include Michael’s Prime Meats (1412 Nostrand Ave, Flatbush), Staubitz Market (222 Court St., Carroll Gardens), and M&S Prime Meats (312 Fifth Ave., Park Slope).

Best Baklavah in Bay Ridge: Sam’s Bakery
275 94th Street, Bay Ridge; (347) 560-6657
“To baklava connoisseurs, Samia Viade’s baklava is legendary. It is the kind of stuff rarely found in this country — airy, not too sticky or tooth-achingly sweet like most baklava… The trick, Viade explains, is subbing walnuts for pistachios, butter for vegetable shortening, and using a light hand when pouring on the sauce of sugar, lemon, rose water and orange blossom water.” [The Brooklyn Paper]

Williamburg Goes Cajun
Time Out New York rounds up 4 new NOLA spots in the Burg: Jen and Outlaw’s Fish Fry Truck and Crawfish Boil, serving “massive cornmeal-battered catfish po’ boys ($10) and superlative fried pickles ($6);” Tchoup Shop, a pop-up BBQ at d.b.a. Brooklyn; Goods, pushing “a spicy fried-green tomato sandwich ($6.75)—topped with tangy red-cabbage slaw and mild farm cheese;” and Honeychiles’ offering po’ boys and Jambalaya at the Charleston. Is it lunchtime yet?