Wednesday Food & Drink Round-Up

Photo by shadowknows555

Closing: Armando’s
143 Montague St, Brooklyn Heights
“Armando’s will close on March 16, after 70 years in business. Armando’s owner Peter Byros told GO Brooklyn, ‘I am retiring,’ and said that a Midwestern chain restaurant would be going into the space, although he declined to name the chain. Neighborhood preservationists, along with state Senate candidate Daniel Squadron, are currently campaigning to save the neon ‘lobster sign’ that hangs over the door.” [The Brooklyn Paper]

Dine In Brooklyn: Restaurant List Preview
VisitBrooklyn.org has yet to annouce the restaurants that will be participating in Brooklyn’s restaurant week (scheduled for March 24 through 31, 2008), but the line-up, which is listed on the AmEx website, was leaked on Chowhound. The same Chowhounder who posted the AmEx link also asks, “whats really worth it?? i mean i love waterfront ale house for my burger and buffalo calamari, but i dont think it really makes sense to spend $23 for a 3 course meal there.”

Egg: Not Just for Breakfast Anymore
135 North Fifth Street (Bedford Avenue), Williamsburg; (718) 302-5151
“Most of the dinner menu is guileless, direct and plain good eating. A hulking pork shank ($16), braised to a lacquered darkness, comes scattered with a mix of chopped garlic and herbs — like an informal gremolata — atop a mound of yellow Anson Mills grits… The house version of Tater Tots — miniature hash browns that it serves at breakfast — accompany a good grass-fed rib-eye steak topped with blue cheese ($24). Fried nearly black, they are a blast of creamy, buttery pleasure in a crisp potato shell.” [NY Times]

After the jump: TONY rips on Jimmy’s Diner, no love for Driggs pizza, and sNice’s official opening date…

TONY Rips On Jimmy’s Diner
577 Union Ave between North 10th and 11th Sts, Williamsburg; (718-218-7174)
“To some extent, the middling reputation established by owner Josh Cohen at Park Slope’s Biscuit BBQ continues here—fried chicken, touted on the menu as ‘Brooklyn’s best,’ wasn’t. Its oily skin lacked the necessary craggy texture and addictive crunch. The dessert menu exhibits similar false claims, such as a ‘money-back brownie’—a generic square that made us want to reclaim the $2 we’d spent on it.” [Time Out New York]

No Love for Driggs Pizza
558 Driggs Ave (at North 7th Street), Williamsburg; (718) 782-4826
“I’m not sure I can even eat it as a last-resort leftover–it’s truly pizza that bring out the kid in me, as in ‘Mom, I can’t eat this unless you cut the crust off.’ Cardboard would be too vivid a comparison.” [A Brooklyn Life]

‘sNice Brooklyn Opens Friday
“The Park Slope location of what is currently the top-rated restaurant in New York by SuperVegan readers will open this Friday, March 7th at the corner of 5th Avenue and 3rd Street.” [SuperVegan]