Wednesday Food & Drink Round-Up
Now Open (and Laptop-Free): The Rabbithole 352 Bedford Avenue (between South 4th and South 3rd Streets), Williamsburg; (718) 782-0910 Gothamist reports: “From the ashes of the beloved Read Cafe in Williamsburg (that space is now occupied by the decidedly un-funky El Beit coffee shop) comes owner Laurence Elliott’s new baby, The Rabbithole… When the full…
Now Open (and Laptop-Free): The Rabbithole
352 Bedford Avenue (between South 4th and South 3rd Streets), Williamsburg; (718) 782-0910
Gothamist reports: “From the ashes of the beloved Read Cafe in Williamsburg (that space is now occupied by the decidedly un-funky El Beit coffee shop) comes owner Laurence Elliott’s new baby, The Rabbithole… When the full kitchen is running (Elliott says he’s a week or two away on that) there will be breakfast, lunch and dinner; for now you’ll have to settle for panini, sandwiches, assorted salads, espresso and tea.” Elliott doesn’t have a liquor license yet, so can bring your own bottle of wine — but don’t even think about bringing your computer. The Rabbithole doesn’t have Wi-Fi because Elliott “doesn’t like seeing people on their laptops.”
A New Cafe for Boerum Hill?
One Eater reader wants to know what’s up with the space at Pacific and Bond Streets in Boerum Hill. A tipster responds: “apparently it’s going to be a cafe/restaurant, and they plan to start serving coffee in 3 weeks. they’re waiting on some permits, apparently. the space was open this weekend and is really beautiful inside, a complete 180 from its former life as the ghetto bodega with the man on the chair parked outside.”
Los Pollitos Renamed “La Stalla”
499 Myrtle Avenue (near Ryerson Street), Clinton Hill
“A reader tipped me off to the fact that Los Pollitos on Myrtle has mysteriously been renamed! What gives? I’m pretty sure it’s still owned by the Los Pollitos folks, since the Los Pollitos dessert menu is still hanging in the window. Remember how packed LP was when it first opened?! What’s going on here?” [Clinton Hill Blog]
After the jump: Sweet Melissa’s Cremerie opens, the Times hits the Moxie Spot, and the Porkchop Express talks about the new look of the Red Hook ball fields…
Now Open: Sweet Melissa’s Cremerie
276 Court Street (between Douglass and Butler), Cobble Hill; 718-855-3410
The new ice cream shop adjacent to Sweet Melissa opened over the weekend, and Vittles Vamp shares a few (somewhat blurry) shots of the menu. Looks like they’re serving Belgian waffles, shakes, egg creams, malteds, ice cream sodas, and sundaes. Salli Vates confirms the price of their “big Belgian waffles with two scoops of ice cream, homemade whipped cream and your choice of topping” — $10.95.
The Moxie Spot Caters to the Stroller Set
81-83 Atlantic Avenue (near Hicks Street); (718) 923-9710
“With galvanized steel walls, copper-topped tables and waist-high chalk boards, the effect is something like a Chuck E. Cheese for hipsters… The house-roasted Chinese pork can be too sweet and dry, but the Peking duck fares better, tucked into little wrappers with scallions and hoisin for $5.95. Meatloaf comes in a compact portion with good hand-mashed potatoes. Grass-fed beef also shows up as a hanger steak sandwich that is drowned in red-onion relish.” [NY Times]
The Ball Fields’ New Look
The Porkchop Express posted updated info on the status of the Red Hook ball fields. Here are the highlights, in blogger J. Slab’s own words:
- The Red Hook Soccer Field Food Tents will look very different: out with the tents, in with the city-mandated mobile food vending trucks.
- The Red Hook Soccer Field Food Tents will taste the same: as of our interview, each of last year’s vendors is planning on returning.
- The Red Hook Soccer Field Food Tents might expand their days and months of operation: the new permits are valid year-round.
- The Red Hook Soccer Field Food Tents need your support more than ever: the new permits, fees and operating costs have more-than-quadrupled their expenses.
- The Red Hook Soccer Field Food Tents are still not open: we’re hoping for mid-June, and we’ll let you know ASAP.
I live very close to Pacific & Bond and agree that the former “bodega” (really a numbers joint?) at that corner won’t be missed. The comment about the guy in the chair, however, was unkind. I still see some of the chair guys walking around the neighborhood, looking lost and strangely short.
Only one of the bodegas on Bond deals drugs. One is Jesses, a legitimate food establishment, two have a bunch of old guys in chairs hanging out, and the other has young guys standing around it in all kinds of weather starting at 7 a.m. Hmmmm. Which one could it be? Evidently, the police department can’t figure it out. So we’ll never know.
Had a middling expereince with LOS Polittos
However, you cant take Anthony Bourdaines book as gospel
If you follow that reasoning then the business owner should go down with a sinking ship. There may be other reasons to change cusine- like major competition from Castro’s
They changed their name, therfore the brand is different and see no problem in their changing cuisine.
Agree that Italian & Mexican seems like an odd combo but who do you think is actually cooking in most moderate italian restaurants? usually not mario from naples but most likely juan from juarez
12.57, so ghettos are a result of laziness? Just to clarify.
Los Pollitos III has made some very grave errors, the biggest one being that they changed their menu recently to include Italian. What does that mean??!? And why would anyone want to eat Italian from a “Mexican” restaurant?! This is one of the major no-no’s in Anthony Bourdaine’s book, never change your fare, no matter how bad business is. The other major errors have to do with horrible service and major screw-ups from the kitchen, which we have experienced almost every time we’ve ever eaten there. I once ordered 2 chicken soups (when i was sick) for pick-up and it took them over an hour to make them, and that was on top of the fact that i went there after 1/2 hour and was made to wait until i finally got mad and then they checked the kitchen and said there was a screw-up so i wonder if i might have ever gotten my soup if i hadn’t gotten in their face about it. Someone should slap some sense into whoever is presiding over this blunder of an establishment. I assume they’ve decided to break off from Politos because they think they’re going to make big bucks by including Italian on their menu. BAD IDEAS!
Regarding the Boerum Hill restaurant, I think it will be a good addition. There used to be 3 bodegas/Food Stores on that block. Jessie’s at the soutwest corner of Atlantic and Bond and another (can’t remember the names) at the southeast corner of the block are both good places. The other bodega (which is replaced by this restaurant) was always sort of a dog.
Why, 11:18, because no one with any sense wants to live near a dirty, hostile craphole bodega?
“ghetto” is not a natural state of being. It is what happens when too many people are too lazy to do what’s necessary to keep things nice and clean.
The guys on Bond and Bergen have a nice little deli and are friendly. It’s a modest place but they manage to take good care of it and not let it slip into dilapidation or be besieged by filthy drug dealing criminal scum.
Why is it that the bodegas on Bond and Warren and Bond and Butler, both of them drug dealer hangouts that should be shut down asap, or the one on Wyckoff and Nevins, somehow OK? What kind of world do you want to live in? I want to live in one with cleanliness, modernity and friendliness. Is THAT a bad attitude? Do you live in Bizarro world?
Btw, when someone says “I’m not a …” you can bet they are exactly that. You’re not an anti-gentrifier, but only on condition that people not be happy to eradicate ghettos and ghetto culture, only people who don’t say that the culture of White Angle-Saxon Protestants is actually a better way of living than any other on the planet. Well, guess what, if there were no more ghettos and no more ghetto culture, the world would be a better place – uplift the human race, dammit. Tough for you if you don’t like it. I hear Brownsville is lovely this time of year.
The Moxie Spot is not in Cobble Hill, notwithstanding the crack geographers at the old gray lady. Thankfully, the staff at Brownstoner has properly tagged it as Brooklyn Heights.
re:new cafe Boerum Hill— that tipster comment you highlight from Eater is really annoying. I am not an anti-gentrifier type at all but often the attitudes of many newcomers is real turn-off.