Neighborhood: April 2006 Archives

I can't seem to get enough of Red Hook lately. Today we biked around the neighborhood and discovered a great pier overlooking the water on Coffee Street (see Google satellite imagery for a nice photo). We also biked by the Red Hook soccer fields, and the Latin food stands are operational. I see some authentic, tasty Latin fare in my immediate future.

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.

The talk about Red Hook is as thick as a chocolate malt shake--between Fairway, Ikea, and Good Fork, you'd think Red Hook was the next Manhattan. So it was nice to take it back to the old school and have a drink at Sunny's the other night. Though I'd tried to go to Sunny's several times before, this was the first time I'd stopped when it was open. Knee-slapping blue-grass on the stereo and $4 bottled beers had us quite happy despite the lack of food on our stomachs. Not much to look at (besides the bed pan turned ukelele on the wall), but that's exactly what a dive bar at this forgotten waterfront point in Brooklyn should be.

Oh, by the way, does anyone know what happened to Lillie's?

More bars nearby
Liberty Heights Tap Room (home of Sixpoint brewery)
Red Hook Bait and Tackle
Pioneer Bar-B-Q
The Hook
Hope and Anchor

I walked by the neighborhood comic book and graphic novel store, Rocketship, at 208 Smith Street this morning and saw a poster for Free Comic Book Day in the window. I've actually never bought a comic book before, but the idea of a free one appeals to me. The concept is simple: When you go into the store (or other participating stores) on May 6, you get a free special-edition comic book--find the list of publishers here. Hey, it's free, you can't beat that.

Well, perhaps not in Brooklyn. Despite what NYMag reported and we posted, Gawker is saying that while the ecentric owner thinks rents in Brooklyn are cheaper, there's no move in the works to our fair borough. So looks like some cantankerous person already living in Brooklyn will have to open up a restaurant--there will be no imports from Manhattan :) OTBKB also got the scoop.

I had the chance to go on a free tour of Top of the Rock, the new viewing tower atop Rockefeller Center, so I thought I'd show you what Brooklyn looks like from there. It's kind of small and far away when viewed from 50th Street, 70 stories up.

Now, if we could only get some grass to grow!

Our friend Adam (aka Half-Assed Rock Star DJ, DJ Adam) is spinning at Abilene (444 Court Street) tonight from around 9 p.m. to midnight, and this time he's raided ABL's CD collection for some new tunes.  He plans on bringing some more obscure vaugely electronic melodic pop and rock to the table, and he also promised he'd play me a Beck song. I don't know what one, but I'm sure it'll be good.  See ya there!

Is Yesterday's News, well, yesterday's news? The antique store on Court Street has newspaper up in its windows. Hard to tell if we're talking renovation or something more.

According to the NYDailyNews (Brownstoner and Curbed picked up on it, too), Luquer Street is having some kind of rat invasion. Well, they certainly haven't made it over to the Smith-Court-Clinton area. We have two rodent-alert critters in our apartment, and if the fuss they make over a spider in the apartment is any indication, we'd be well aware of a rat problem. I haven't seen any alive or dead on the sidewalks either. What I have noticed, however, is an increase in dog poop on the sidewalks. Do rats eat dog poop? Could we put them to work? (Just kidding folks!)

Has anyone noticed a problem?