The end of year lists and awards for new Greenpoint restaurants keep piling up. While Greenpoint has plenty of under the radar affordable eats, some higher end establishments like Oxomoco (128 Greenpoint Ave.), which currently holds the neighborhoods’ only Michelin star, continue to win praise.
French-Canadian restaurant Chez Ma Tante (90 Calyer St.) was awarded “neighborhood restaurant of the year” by Eater NY, as voted by their readers for “serving clean, flavorful fare with just enough edge to keep things interesting. That means dishes like a pig’s head terrine next to a particularly stunning Caesar salad, or a pate as an appetizer before a standout chicken confit.”
The modern Vietnamese restaurant Di An Di (68 Greenpoint Ave) was voted in the same reader’s poll as having “best design of the year,” for its “neutral palettes, neon signs, rounded corners, copper-colored accents, and lots and lots of well-placed plants.” The pho is great too.
The”top NYC restaurant newcomers of 2018” list as identified by editors in a separate Eater NY post shouts out Di an Di and Paulie Gee’s Slice Shop (110 Franklin St.) for their quality food. Hint: you should really try Paulie Gee’s Freddy Prince slice that includes a hidden bottom crust of full of sesame seeds.
The festival not only tastes great, it supports a great cause. TASTE Williamsburg Greenpoint is produced by The Firehouse North Brooklyn Community Center (formerly known as Northside Town Hall), an organization “working to renovate and operate the former Engine Co. 212 Firehouse for Community activity. The Firehouse will provide a permanent home to neighborhood social justice organizations for continued advocacy and direct services to Williamsburg and Greenpoint. The Firehouse fosters civic and cultural engagement with original arts programming and community gatherings.” Other community organizations, like North Brooklyn Angles, a coalition of neighbors helping neighbors fight food and housing insecurity, and Billion Oyster Project, a harbor restoration and citizen science organization, also made it to the fest.
Photo by Julia Moak
As the festival got underway amid sunny skies, live music and games, booze was flowing and bites were flying off the shelf. Some restaurants even ran out of food before the festival was over. Scroll down for a look at some of the fabulous food, drink, and local purveyors in attendance!
Quinoa and Lentil Balls from Abracadabra Brooklyn. Photo by Julia MoakDu’s Donuts. Photo by Julia MoakSweet Crepes from Le Gamin. Photo by Julia MoakA local pour from Widow Jane. Photo by Julia MoakThe crew from Lighthouse. Photo by Julia Moak
Taste Talks, a two-day conference on Brooklyn Food and Drink, announced its curatorial voice with April Bloomfield (of the Spotted Pig) at its helm. The event, which took place on September 14th & 15th, brought notable food, chefs and taste makers together in a bevy of curated panels, discussions, workshops, and cookouts.
Among the roster of activities, I signed up for three panels and Cook it Raw, a collaborative outdoor event where chefs worked together to create a meal using locally-sourced ingredients and as little electricity as possible – all in under 6 hours. Below are highlights from each, including quotes to add to the Brooklyn culinary repertoire.
When it’s just too hot to put solid food to your lips, the only option is a liquid lunch, and I’m not talking about booze for once. Greenpoint has a pretty good selection of smoothie and juice spots depending on which end of the nabe you live. Continue reading →
When a reader recommended Lokal’s Pinto Bean and Mushroom Burger, I was excited because shamefully I have never been to Lokal, except for smoothies. The reason: why would I go anywhere aside from Five Leaves when I’m that close?
This was a good reason for me to finally sit down and take it all in. The place had a pleasant vibe and I absolutely loved the shell and sand below the plexi display tables. Continue reading →
Tomorrow – Sunday July 21st at 6pm begins the first in our monthly series of Sunday Night Guest Grilling atThe Exley (1 Jackson St). We are pleased to have “Our Good Friend’s Mother” come by for some home cooked Caribbean food.
Be there for Jerk Burgers, Shrimp Kabobs, Trini-Style Boiled Corn and slightly cooler weather! Items can be purchased a la carte although we strongly encourage you to spring for an exceptionally large meal made up of each individual dish.
As we always do on Sundays, we’ll be serving from the best cocktail and craft beer lists in the neighborhood, hosting our very competitive Sidewalk cornhole tournament (look it up, it’s SFW we promise), and looking forward to meeting some new people.
Duck confit croquetta with heirloom grapefruit, blood orange, roasted beet, cucumber, and celery salad in a sherry mignonette with fried walnuts
Before it was Anella, the restaurant space on Franklin St was the beloved Queens Hideaway that served “homely southern bent American cuisine.” If you are still broken hearted about its closing, head over to Southside Williamsburg for Chef Liza Queen’s new restaurant Potlikker(338 Bedford Ave), where you will find new riffs on old favorites because food is always on Liza’s brain.
Literally, she is holding a binder of recipes on her head!
On a recent super top secret important Greenpointers business meeting, I needed some sweet and Lauren at Milk n’ Roses described an Italian pastry stuffed with cheese and flavored ever so slightly with orange. “Give me that!”
What came was a sfogliatella, so I know why she didn’t even try to pronounce it. (Sf-oy-yuh-tell-uh) Crazy Italians! Who cares how to say it? It’s delicious and you shouldn’t talk with your mouth full anyway.
After working at an Italian bakery as a teenager in Queens, I quickly got sick of all the cannolis, rainbow cookies and the collect calls from the bakery owner’s mafioso son in jail, but I never got sick of the sfogliatelle (that’s plural).
Sfogliatelle are Nonna, my Sicilian grandmother’s, favorite dessert so it’s always in the box of pastries we bring to her house when we have our traditional Sunday eat-until-you-pass-out feast.
It is crispy dough infinitely layered into the shaped of a shell and inside is soft and not too sweet ricotta with a nice citrus tang and dusted with powdered sugar. Try one next time you’re at Milk n’ Roses (1110 Manhattan Ave), they’re irresistible!
