Staying local for Christmas? You’re in luck! North Brooklyn is filled with fantastic options for celebrating next week. The neighborhood has everything from multi-course Christmas Day menus to takeout feasts to pick up before the big day.
Here is a roundup of North Brooklyn’s best places to dine or get takeout on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Shalom Japan
Shalom Japan (310 S 4th St.) is hosting their 10th annual Christmas tradition of Miyazaki films and hot pots this year. Aaron Israel, who owns Shalom Japan with his wife, Sawako Okochi, said, “For our family, Christmas is all about hanging out, watching movies, and eating hotpot and okonomi latkes. We wanted to share our traditions with everyone. Ten years later, we’ve shared it with a lot of people!”
The $75 special Christmas prix fixe menu will be offered on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The menu includes appetizers of caesar salad, beet Jew egg, and lions mane karaage. There is also an option to add an okonomi latke for an extra $10.
The second course includes the choice of either a Wagyu beef hot pot, matzoh ball ramen, sesame temomi mazemen, or a lox bowl. The third course is dessert featuring chocolate banana challah bread pudding, Japanese sweet potato cheesecake, or a seasonal selection of homemade sorbet.
Esme
Esme (999 Manhattan Ave.), not normally known for Italian fare, is changing things up and hosting “A Red Sauce Christmas Eve” on December 24 at 6 p.m. Esme calls it a “cheerful take on a Red Sauce Holiday Dinner.” The dinner costs $65 per ticket, which must be pre-paid on booking.
Esme says that the menu is Chef Ron’s take on a classic Red Sauce Christmas Eve Dinner. The restaurant’s full bar will be available, plus optional wine pairing. Esme says that guests are encouraged to wear festive sweaters, turtlenecks, corduroys, or anything else that shows off their holiday spirit.
Antica Pesa
Williamsburg’s Antica Pesa (115 Berry St.) is offering three seatings on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at 5:30, 7:30, and 9:30 p.m. The famed Italian restaurant is offering a set menu for $100 per person featuring both classic favorites and new holiday specials.
The three-course menu starts with a choice of antipasto, like the crudo e buffalo croccante or the vitello tonnato. The second course includes a choice of a pasta or secondo. The pasta choices include Antica Pesa’s famous cacio e pepe and rigatoni all’amatriciana. The secondo choices include a holiday special called petto d’anatra, which is a roasted duck breast. The third course features a special dessert of gelato al panettone, a very popular Italian Christmas speciality.
Leuca
The William Vale’s Italian mainstay, Leuca (111 N 12th St.), is offering a traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes menu from December 20th through Christmas Eve. Leuca’s à la carte menu with holiday specialties will be available on Christmas Day.
The Feast of the Seven Fishes is $95 per person for four courses. The first course of antipasti includes tuna crudo, salt cod crostini, and smoked butter bean dip with bottarga.
The second course includes scampi ravioli and wood-roasted octopus. The third course includes a grilled branzino and fire-roasted cabbage. And the fourth course is Sicilian pistachio cake with olive oil gelato.
Leuca is also offering a Christmas Takeaway Feast for pickup on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. The feast costs $105 per person and includes assorted grissini and sesame semolina, plus several antipasti. Antipasti include sausage stuffed mushrooms, octopus arancini, antipasti spiedini, and butternut squash dip.
The feast also includes a choice of short rib braciole with pine nut gremolata or roasted porchetta with salsa verde. The main course comes with wood roasted root vegetables and potatoes with orange thyme butter. For dessert, Leuca’s feast also includes local pear upside down cake with amaretto cream.
Leuca is also offering the option to order individual items for pickup if the feast sounds too grand. Smaller options include lasagna for six or Leuca’s famous sheep’s milk ricotta for four.
Marlow and Daughters
Williamsburg’s Marlow and Daughters (95 Broadway), is offering several individual holiday specials that can be pre-ordered until December 20 for pickup between December 21 through Christmas Eve.
The glazed smoked ham is $89 for approximately three pounds that serves four to six people. The meat comes from Gibson Family Farm in Valley Falls, NY, and is smoked over applewood and hickory and coated in a honey-cider vinegar glaze. The ham is fully cooked and ready-to-eat.
The Holiday Roast Chicken costs $50 and serves 2 – 4 people. It is a roasted pastured chicken from Snowdance Farm in Livingston Manor, NY stuffed with lemon, garlic & herbs and rubbed with fennel pollen & chili flakes. It is also fully cooked and ready to eat.
Marlow and Daughters’ holiday specials also includes a Cheese and Charcuterie Platter for $115. It includes a combination of the shop’s favorite cheeses and charcuterie accompanied by olives, honey, fruit, and nuts, plus a sliced loaf of She Wolf bakery bread and crackers. The platter serves 6 – 10 people.
There are also several other selections of Marlow and Daughters’ butchered meat, plus prepared foods like hummus or chicken liver mousse, that can be pre-ordered for pickup. Plus, Marlow and Daughters is selling a limited number of She Wolf panettone, which will be available up until Christmas.
Greenpoint Fish and Lobster
Local favorite Greenpoint Fish and Lobster (114 Nassau Ave.) is currently accepting pre-orders for Christmas takeout. The selection includes an extensive selection of the fresh seafood that Greenpoint Fish and Lobster is known for. The list includes oysters, clams, mussels, shrimp, scallops, whole lobsters and lobster tails, to name a few.
One highlight is the Caviar Kit for Two, costing $155. It includes two ounces of caviar, two hand-carved Mother of Pearl spoons, two bags of North Fork potato chips, and creme fraiche. Greenpoint Fish and Lobster touts it as “the perfect luxurious romantic evening.”
Edy’s Grocer
Greenpoint’s Lebanese market Edy’s Grocer (136 Meserole Ave.) is offering a selection of “holiday bites” which Edy calls “a unique assortment of ready-to-go platters perfect for entertaining.” These specials are available only in December.
The Very Merry Boreks platter costs $24 and includes spinach, cheese, and mushroom stuffed puff pastries. The Loaded Holiday Hummus is $15 and includes hummus topped with ground beef, onion, pine nuts, and spices. The Christmas Feta Bake is $18 for Bulgarian feta baked with tomato jam, capers, nigella seeds, rosemary and thyme. The fourth option is the Middle Eastern Cookie Box for $70. It includes a pistachio baklava, sesame cookies, tahini swirl brownies, and date maamoul.