Wednesday Food & Drink Round-Up

Now Open: Toby’s
6th Avenue and 21st Street, South Slope Greenwood Heights
Last Tuesday, Toby’s opened its doors with a menu of brick oven pizzas, such as the Margherita ($12), four-cheese ($14), and white ($13). They’re also serving up salads and antipasti, like a selection of “artisan Italian cured meats” (prosciuitto, sopressata, Italian ham) with focaccia. Customers can wash it all down with wine by the glass, booze, or beer — they’ve got a well-chosen selection, with Hofbrau seasonal brews on tap. But over on the Brooklynian boards, folks are already complaining that the pizzas are overpriced and griping about the “No Strollers” sign in the window. Check out an interior photo after the jump.

Now Open: Moxie Spot
81 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn Heights
As we reported last week, the Moxie Spot is finally open and serving up its family-friendly menu. But according to one Chowhound, some parents on a local list-serv are complaining about their “small portions, and out-of-synch serving (tables getting there plates 1 at a time).” On the bright side, the small portions are offered at low prices (burgers cost a mere $4.75), and Brooklyn Heights Blog is singing the praises of the place’s creative entryway, which features an adult-sized door, with kid-sized and pet-sized doors built into it.

Roberta’s: “Pizza as Art”
261 Moore Street (at Bogart Street), Bushwick; (718) 417-1118
“The 12-inch pizzas ($7 to $15) are the focal point of the short menu. Roberta’s offers a margherita and a tomato-only rosso, but the restaurant is not a destination for anyone looking to stoke memories of Napoli: the heretically creative pies are the thing to get… Roberta’s take on a Hawaiian pizza comes topped with paper-thin sheets of ripe pineapple, shreds of ham, sliced jalapeños and dabs of ricotta cheese.” [NY Times]

After the jump: A peek inside Toby’s, Brooklyn’s first “occasional restaurant,” Trois Pommes Patisserie’s hamataschen how-to, a look inside the Hideout and the Habitat, and the official details on Brooklyn Restaurant Week ’08…

Inside Toby’s

Open Sometimes: Jack
The Brooklyn Lyceum, 227 4th Avenue (corner of President Street)
Local blogger Habeas Brulee is opening an “occasional restaurant” called Jack in the Brooklyn Lyceum. That is, it’s “open for one seating per night at 7 pm on Saturday nights, every other week or so.” Their tasting menus are posted in advance, it’s BYOB, dinner costs $75 per person, and reservations are required.

Hamantaschen How-To
Just in time for Purim, Grub Street visits Park Slope’s Trois Pommes Patisserie and share this video in which Emily Issac demonstrates her recipe for rhubarb hamantaschen.

Reviewed: The Hideout
266 Adelphi St, Fort Greene
“Aside from the bouncer with the eye patch standing outside the thick black door, the Hideout is pretty unobtrusive…A Whiskey Fig Fizz ($12), with Glenfiddich, had a spicy, seedy tang; an elderflower margarita (also $12) tasted pretty much like a regular margarita.” [The L Magazine]

Coming Soon: The Habitat
988 Manhattan Avenue, between India and Huron, Greenpoint; (718) 383-5615
“Housed in an old convenience store and built with lumber salvaged from as far away as Maine, the bar and restaurant will let Brooklynites savor back porch ambiance without having to breathe the air from the nearby sewage treatment plant. The kitchen is located behind what looks to be the exterior wall of a house, and a raised deck seems destined for late-night bluegrass jams.” [Gothamist]

Brooklyn Restaurant Week: The Details
A Brooklyn Life reports on this year’s Brooklyn Restaurant Week, scheduled for March 24 through 31.