Red Hook: The Good Fork

I hesitate to even write about the Good Fork. It's a crowded field out there right now. In reverse order, NYTimes $25 and Under (April 26), NYMag (April 24), Strong Buzz (April 24), Eater (April 21), A Hamburger Today (April 20), Amy's New York Notebook (April 9), Real Estate Observer (March 30), and countless other bloggers I'm probably missing. The restaurant, of course, has its own website, and there's even a few photos tagged on Flickr. All of this to say, that when I had dinner there this past Friday, I was expecting something quite phenomenal. I was expecting my sensory receptors to explode in ecstasy with every bite; I was anticipating that too-full satisfied, happy-with-life feeling one gets after a particularly fulfilling meal.

What I got was a two hour wait. The first hour or so was spent at Su/onny's drinking a beer while we waited for the restaurant to call us. They didn't, and we got a little nervous, so we headed back. Had our table been given away? Who knows. All I know is that it was another hour before we were seated. The staff was extremely accommodating, but when you've been standing/sitting outside for an hour and waiting for another hour, well, it's hard to make up for that kind of an entrance.  My first glass of white wine (on the house) was forgettable--so forgettable that I don't remember what it was, perhaps a Sauvignon Blanc. I turned to a Malbec for my second, and that brought the color back to my cheeks and life back into my taste buds.

Here's the rub. Everything was pretty good, but--with exception of the crab cakes and the burger--nothing was amazing. The sauce-drenched wings could have been spicier, the scallops were unevenly cooked, the boar ragu on homemade paperadelle had a too-sweet edge that competed with the gamey boar in such a way that I was very glad it wasn't my dish. Had I had this meal at any other restaurant without a wait, I probably would have enjoyed myself, felt happy and left with the idea of returning. And in Red Hook, the very appearance of a full-fledged eatery is exciting. But when a restaurant jumps from unopened to wunderkind  in a short month, you really expect greatness.

I think the restaurant is overwhelmed. It does not know how to move tables for this type of volume because I think it wanted to be a cute little quiet restaurant in Red Hook that got to take its time with its food, get to know its neighbors, and cap it off with a hug and promise of coming back next week. In this idealized sense, it will probably be a great restaurant. But right now, in this frenzy of gourmands, it should be avoided. Then in a few months, we can all go back for crab cakes and burgers and be properly satisfied.