91 Greenpoint Ave.,
at Franklin St.
Brooklyn, NY 11222
view map
718.349.1595

Cuisine: Bar snacks, Burgers
Our Rating: ★★★★ Great
Cards: All Major
Hours: Sun – Thurs, 4pm-2am
Fri & Sat, 4pm-4am
Brunch: None
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: G at Greenpoint Ave.
Delivery: None
Menu: Click Here
Website: www.blackrabbitbarnyc.com

NY Mag says:

If the Coen Brothers were scouting for a Prohibition-era bar in Greenpoint, they’d stop looking once they chanced upon Black Rabbit with its prewar light fixtures, nineteenth-century floorboards, and flower boxes in the windows. Booths outfitted with saloon-style swinging doors are so private that you’ll need to button-activate a lightbulb to get your waiter’s attention. But that’s just the sort of detail that Ethan and Joel get off on. Sure, some of the ever-changing house concoctions (like the Black List: rye whiskey, liquid ginger and lemon juice) and menu items like tangy Welsh rarebit read a little too British pub, but there are plot points to be found in such digressions. A garden with parasol-shaded picnic tables is open until 11 p.m.; the sumptuous interior, complete with working fireplace, suggests cinematical possibilities on a snowy evening.

78 Greenpoint Ave
(between Franklin St & West St)
Brooklyn, NY 11222
view map
347.529.6133

Our Rating: ★★★★ Great
Cards: Cash only
Hours: Monday – Thursday: 2pm – 10pm Friday, Saturday, Sunday: 12pm – 10pm
Booze: Craft beer only, growlers
Subway: G to Greenpoint Ave.
Delivery: None
Beer Menu: brouwerijlane.com
Website: brouwerijlane.com
NY Mag says:

For the past decade, Ed Raven has imported beers like Jever Pilsner, Gaffel Kolsch, Gosser, and Gruut; he gives them a proper retail showcase at Brouwerij Lane, his Greenpoint beer store. The onetime chop shop is partly heated by a wood-burning stove, and of the 400 craft brews for sale, ten are available by the $10, 64-ounce growler.

1110 Manhattan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222
nr. Clay St.
Brooklyn, NY 11222
view map
718.389.0160

Cuisine: Coffeehouse, Southern Italian snacks, Sandwiches
Our Rating: ★★★★ Great
Cards: Cash Only
Price: cheap
Hours: Mon-Thu, Sun 7:30 am – 11 pm
Fri-Sat 7:30 am – 12 am
Brunch: Weekends
Booze: Beer & Wine only
Subway: G at Greenpoint Ave.
Delivery: None
Menu: Click here

NY Mag says:

Coffeehouse by day, winebar by night. Milk and Roses is a multi-purpose restaurant with an emphasis on light bites; panini, salads, cheese plates.

597 Manhattan Ave., nr. Driggs Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11222
view map
no phone or website

Cuisine: Korean
Our Rating: ★★★★ Great
Cards: All Major
Price: cheap
Hours: Mon-Fri, 5pm-4am; Sat-Sun, 2pm-4am
Brunch: None
Booze: Full bar
Subway: G at Nassau Ave.
Delivery: None
Menu: Click here

Zagat says:

The Lowdown: This easygoing dive on the border of Williamsburg and Greenpoint opened without a name or a sign, so the patrons just started calling it No Name Bar. The moniker stuck, and the “nameless” bar is quite popular with the hip boozehounds that frequents this ‘hood.

How to Find It: Although it doesn’t have a name, this joint is hiding in plain sight. Just look for the building clad in dark wood that’s tucked in between random mom-and-pop shops on this strip of Manhattan Avenue.

When to Visit: When it’s nice out. The big secret of this secret bar is its backyard garden. While knocking a few back in the dimly lit interior is just fine, daytime drinkers can soak up a few rays (and a few cigs) as they chill in the surprisingly large outdoor space.

NY Mag says:

Though it’s short a name, there’s no shortage of character at this upscale bar. Marked by an unpolished door nestled between the Greenpoint Gazette office and an industrial supply store, the space was styled by Jessica Lee Wertz and owners of Matchless to resemble a tavern in an ancient Chinese trading village. It’s nicknamed “Woodpussy” by Greenpointers for its cedar interior and the attractive women who frequent it; an in-house D.J. spins vinyl, energizing the crowd with eighties hits before mellowing out the scene with a slower alternative choice. Benches against burlap-masked walls form alcoves of intimate spaces, adding to the rustic Zen feel. But the real lure of 597 Manhattan Avenue lies at the end of the narrow bar, where stairs descend into an expansive backyard garden. Locals gather at large picnic tables or perch on a cement fire pit, $4 cans of Tecate in hand. When the garden closes around 1 a.m., the crowd shuffles back upstairs for more cheap drinks. Newcomers take mental note of the bar they luckily stumbled into that night, wishing they could remember its name. — Alice Urmey

The downstairs noodle bar, added in summer 2012, is a favorite

64 Frost Street
(at Meeker Avenue)
Brooklyn, NY 11211
view map
718.384.8902

Food: Bar snacks, burgers
Cards: All Major
Hours: Mon–Wed 5pm–2am; Thu, Fri 5pm–4am; Sat 11am–4am; Sun 11am–2am
Rating: ★★★★ Great
Subway: L to Lorimer St, G to Nassau Ave
Food/Menu: batteryharris.com
Website: batteryharris.com
Booze: Full bar
Happy Hour: Mon-Fri 5-7pm
Time Out says:

Vets of Village Pourhouse and the Taïm truck turn to Caribbean comfort food and Latin cocktails with this 144-seat bar. The Queens-born owners pay tribute to the Rockaways with the name—a nod to an abandoned beach bunker in Fort Tilden park—and shore-inspired decor, including colorful stained-wood interiors, a transparent geometric roof and a wraparound deck. Richard Gibbs (Caracas Arepa Bar) dispatches spiced plates like jerk chicken wings, jalapeño mac-and-cheese pie and roasted-corn-and-cabbage slaw tossed in a Scotch-bonnet vinaigrette. Rum-heavy tipples include the Double Impact (lemon, kumquat shrub, vanilla and orange-blossom water) and the Quest (lime, basil and Angostura bitters). Also on offer: nearly 20 domestic beers and four wines on tap.

Thrillist says:

Named for a lineup of big-ass guns out in the Rockaways, this indoor/outdoor sky-oasis of cocktails, beer, and Caribbean eats has taken over the former gas station/Loreley spot in Williamsburg and built up that classic tropical/industrial vibe everyone loves. To wit: all sorts of greenery and communal tables outside (under an overhang that’s “inspired by an F-16″!), and an airy interior that gets blasted by a massive skylight.
TOTALLY COINCIDENTALLY the cocktails all have names that JUST HAPPEN to be Van Damme movies. They’re mixed up by their head bartender who was previously at La Mar Cebicheria in San Fran, then took some time to explore Peru, a culture that seeped into the drinks — especially this Lionheart, which employs a housemade chicha morada (a Peruvian specialty of purple corn, pineapple skins, spices, apples…), triple sec, light rum, and organic passion fruit. It’s also going to be available as a slushy.

173 Irving Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11237
view map
929.210.9531

Cuisine: American Traditional, Burgers
Our Rating: ★★★ Good
Cards: All Major
Price: $8-$14
Hours: Daily 11am – 10pm
Closed Tuesdays
Friday & Saturday ’til 11pm
Booze: Beer & Wine Only
Subway: L at DeKalb Ave.
Delivery: None
Menu: www.fritzlslunchbox.com
Website: www.fritzlslunchbox.com

They say:

Fritzl’s Lunch Box is now open for lunch and dinner, at 173 Irving Ave in Bushwick. Owned by Dan Ross-Leutwyler, who has worked at Roberta’s, Fatty ‘Cue, The Breslin, Bellwether, and Vinegar Hill House, Fritzl’s menu features inventive and traditional sandwiches, seasonal salads, a house-ground burger, classic pastas, local fish, and pies from Pies ‘n’ Thighs for dessert. The restaurant is sunny and cozy with 19 seats, and a large outdoor seating area

Serious Eats says:

Fritzl’s Lunch Box opened this spring on one of these blocks, just around the corner from the Dekalb Avenue stop on the L train. Fritzl’s is the creation of chef Dan Ross-Leutwyler, whose previous cooking experience includes Roberta’s, The Breslin, and Resto, among others. Though its opening is yet another signal that gentrification will soon breach Ridgewood and Queens, its wayward location means that crowds are manageable and prices are still comfortably low.

Fritzl’s is narrow, seemingly squeezed between its neighbors. The walls are painted a pale yellow and a long wooden bench parallels the arched, white ceiling. A lone bookshelf holds an eclectic collection of cookbooks, but the restaurant is otherwise relatively plain, making it feel more spacious than its dimensions. The effect is pleasant, seemingly closer to a comfortable bungalow in Hilton Head than north Brooklyn. It’s especially sunny during the day, when doctors and nurses clothed in scrubs from nearby Wyckoff Heights Hospital crowd in for lunch. The menu is divided into sections ranging from snacks to “pastas and plates,” but the focus seems to be on sandwiches, including a fried chicken sandwich ($8) and fried bacalao ($9). But I’m here for one reason, laser-focused on my goal. Ross-Leutwyler makes a fine burger, setting a new standard in an under-served neighborhood. At only $8 ($9 with cheese), it’s a bargain. Patties are close to six ounces and made of a combination of chuck and cheek, which Ross-Leutwyler estimates to be about 75/25 meat to fat. Ross-Leutwyler grinds it himself, throwing slightly more chuck in the mix. The cheek hails from Pineland Farms in Maine and is a leaner (but more flavorful) cut, so Ross-Leutwyler combines it with a fattier piece of chuck, which comes from grass-fed and grain-finished California vintage beef. Together, these bi-coastal cuts result in a beefy, tender patty whose rough grind holds a steak-like chew.

NY Mag says:

Dan Ross-Leutwyler’s (Roberta’s, Fatty ‘Cue, Bellwether) latest endeavor is a casual, narrow luncheonette in Bushwick. The subdued colors are accented by red plastic chairs reminiscent of grade school, a high bookshelf lined with cookbooks, and a hanging hornet’s nest in the window. Don’t be misled by the name; Dan’s grandfather, Fritz, was a Swiss restaurateur, but Fritzl’s menu is mostly American, save for some Mexican-influenced snacks, like the baja shrimp cocktail tostada, salsa-brined chicken wings, and blood sausage tamale. Skip the fried chicken-sandwich and opt instead for his prized burger, a salty mix of beef cheek and chuck meat. Beyond the sandwiches, Fritzl’s menu offers simple pastas, including tasty ricotta dumplings topped with flavorful shredded peekytoe crab. The pork ribs, though nicely seasoned, are more bone than meat. If you recognize the banana cream pie, that’s because it’s delivered daily from Pies-n-Thighs, where Ross-Leutwyler’s wife, Carolyn Bane, is a chef and co-owner.

Falansai

112 Harrison Place,
Brooklyn NY 11237
view map
347.599.1190

Cuisine: Freanch and Vietnamese
Our Rating: ★★★★ Great
Cards: All Major
Price: Entrees $12-$20
Hours: Daily 11:30am–11pm
Brunch: None
Booze: Wine and beer only
Subway: L to Morgan
Delivery: Take Out only
Menu: falansai.com
Website: falansai.com

Time Out says:

Chef Henry Trieu brings a little Vietnam love to Bushwick. The San Francisco import—who imbued traditional Vietnamese flavors with fine-dining finesse at Charles Phan’s acclaimed Slanted Door—roots through the street food of his childhood for this 54-seat joint. Named after his Chaozhou-bred father’s mispronunciation of the world Français, Trieu’s cross-cultural restaurant unites Vietnamese and French standards. Hanoi street-cart staples like pho bo (Vietnamese beef noodle soup), banh cay (spicy yucca fritters) and cha ca la vong (dill-flecked fried cod) share menu space with Gallic bistro standards like escargot in garlic butter and steak frites. Settle into a reclaimed-wood table for curry goat and a Vietnamese beer snagged from the tile-covered bar. Repurposed trappings fill the restaurant—French doors recycled as windows, light fixtures leftover from an abandoned Italian eatery—while garage-sale-mined birdcages hanging overhead give the space a Far East vibe.

Mama Joy's

1084 Flushing Avenue
(at Porter Ave. in Bushwick)
Brooklyn, NY 11237

view map
347.295.2227

Cuisine: Southern
Our Rating: ★★★★ Great
Cards: All major
Price: Entrees are $12-$14
Hours: Mon-Fri 5pm, Sat-Sun 11am
Brunch: Weekends
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: L to Morgan or Jefferson
Delivery: Yes
Menu: mamajoys.com
Website: mamajoys.com
NY Mag says:

According to MenuPages, there are 110 gastropubs in this town. By our calculations, that is an increase of 109 gastropubs since the Spotted Pig unleashed its first bowl of gnudi in 2004. Now, in addition to British gastropubs, we have French gastropubs and Austrian gastropubs and—what’s this?—even a Filipino gastropub. There’s also a new Wylie Dufresne gastropub, if you count Alder as such (Dufresne may not, since he refers to the East Village spot as a plain old pub, despite ample evidence of its “gastro”-ness). Some people think that this gastropub thing has gone too far, but the Underground Gourmet is all for it: If you define the term as a business that functions primarily as a bar but aspires to serve great food, what’s not to like? Which brings us to Mama Joy’s, a self-described southern gastropub located on the outskirts of Bushwick, in whose divey premises the U.G. recently discovered plenty to like, even love.

For starters, there is the crumbly crusted fried chicken—a resoundingly crunchy thigh and drumstick harboring some supremely juicy flesh beneath its matzo-­meal armor. It comes with hot sauce and honey and mashed potatoes, plus some buttery fresh-off-the-cob corn that might make a disapproving locavore shed his seasonality shackles just this once. More corn satisfaction can be found in the ­jalapeño-laced hush puppies and the incredibly soft and moist, almost ganache-­textured cornbread. The boutique grits come from an obscure Georgia mill and can be had as a soul-­soothing side or as shrimp and grits, which is pretty much a perfect exposition of American regional cooking on a single plate.

As the restaurant’s website has it, Florida and South Carolina expat mom-and-pop owners Chad and Laura Hensel decided to open the place after moving to the neighborhood six years ago and not being able to find any honest-to-goodness southern-style cooking. Which is funny, considering that today it seems like entire swaths of Kings County have been transformed into the Deep South, with biscuits and barbecue springing up everywhere from Williamsburg to Gowanus. They named it for Laura’s grandmother, a community-minded Wichita Falls, Texas, super-hostess named Virginia Joy Florey Biggs, whose likeness stands sentry by the kitchen door in a couple of vintage photos. The overall vibe, though, is more honky-tonk than church fund-raiser. It’s dark and drafty. Decades of paint and paneling have been peeled away from the walls to expose the rough framework. The bar, which dispenses American whiskeys, craft beer, and $8 cocktails, has been salvaged from a shuttered East Village gin joint, and the moody paintings have been curated by a moonlighting line cook. In a word, it’s not the type of setting at which you’d expect to catch Mama Joy throwing one of her binges.

The kitchen, on the other hand, seems to have expertly channeled the generous spirit of this grande dame. On recent visits, we’ve feasted on aptly winterized belt-­looseners like tender stout-braised short ribs with sautéed cabbage and cheesy mashed potatoes, pot roast with sweet parsnip purée and roasted carrots, mac ’n’ cheese with duck confit, and chicken and dumplings rescued from potential blandness by a mega-blast of cracked peppercorns. Truth be told, the kitchen tends to overdo it with the pepper, which some (not us) might consider a flaw. And in the face of heightened competition on the burgeoning wood-smoked scene, the BBQ pork plate with its blandish meat will win no blue ribbons. The Old Bay aïoli that comes with the hush puppies and the fried green tomatoes (which materialized as red one night, without prior warning) is kind of gluey and needs work. Still, with its modest charm and surprisingly deft execution, Mama Joy’s underpromises and overdelivers on its version of southern comfort. Case in point is the banana-pudding dessert special, as homey as the kind they sell at New York’s retro-southern bakeries but as light and frothy as an Italian zabaglione whipped up tableside. — Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite

Note
Check out the backyard in warm weather.

Ideal Meal
Fried chicken or shrimp and grits, banana pudding.

The Bounty

131 Greenpoint Ave,
Brooklyn, NY 11222
view map
347.689.3325

Cuisine: Seafood, Raw Bar, Bar Snacks
Our Rating: ★★★★ Great
Cards: All Major
Brunch: None
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: G to Greenpoint Ave
Delivery: None
Menu: thebountybrooklyn.com
Website: thebountybrooklyn.com

Achilles Heel (c/o Village Voice)

180 West Street
Brooklyn, NY 11222
view map
347.987.3666

Cuisine: Bar snacks
Our Rating: ★★★★ Great
Hours: 8am – 2am • Every Day
Brunch: None
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: G to Greenpoint Ave.
Delivery: None
Website: achillesheelnyc.com

Village Voice says:

Look out the window from your seat at Achilles Heel, the new Greenpoint bar from Andrew Tarlow — whose expanding empire includes Marlow & Sons, Diner and Reynards, among others — and you’ll look straight into the shipyards, where a dock worker might be casually leaning against a brick wall and smoking a cigarette.
Historically, this address served that crowd, but after it went dark forty years ago, it remained vacant until Tarlow inked the deal for it and decided to open a cafe and bar inspired by — and meant to cater to — his neighbors across the way. “When Andrew saw this space a year ago, he fell in love with it,” explains Mike Fadem, a Marlow alum who now manages this spot. “It looked a lot like it does now. He saw it, saw the neighborhood, thought about what this was last time it was an operation, and decided to recreate that from his taste.”

That meant preserving a lot of the original details, like time-worn wood floors and the bar mantle. And it also means the spot will be serving early morning beers if it can lure in workers coming off the night shift. “People are on a different schedule on the docks,” says Fadem. “There are people out early, and it’s unique to have this kind of a place now. Back in the day, bars were open early, and in other places, they sometimes still are. But it’s not that way here anymore. But at our bar, we will serve drinks.”

The crew would also like the spot to serve as a local gathering place for the other folks who’ve moved into this nook of Greenpoint, many of which are used to trekking down to Marlow for their morning coffee fix. “There are a lot of daily customers at Marlow that live on these two blocks that don’t have to go there for their scones now,” notes the manager. That’s because thanks to a delivery service that connects all of the restaurants in Tarlow’s group, the Marlow scones are available behind the counter, as are croissants from Reynards. Those bites pair with the same ambitious coffee program that connects all of the sibling restaurants, too, with George Howell beans serving as the base for cappuccinos, espresso shots and pour-over cups brewed to order. “We have a lot of people who treat Marlow as their neighborhood coffeeshop,” explains Fadem. “So Andrew was definitely interested in opening a cafe.”

While coffee drinks will be available until 11 p.m., the place definitely turns bar-focused sometime in the mid-afternoon, when locals start wandering in for a beer (the well-edited list features drafts from Evil Twin and Pietra and bottles from ‘T Gaverhopke and Firestone) or a cocktail chosen from a classically slanted but perpetually changing short list of seasonally appropriate tipples. Bartender Craig Weinrib explains that many of those, like the Hemingway daiquiri, as well as the back bar are currently a bit rum-centric — “it’s a shipyard bar so it seems appropriate,” he says — but notes the spirits program will continue to develop, and that all bartenders can stir up classics not called out on the list.

And the wine, he says, is a big argument for drinking here, too. “The woman [Lee Campbell] who buys wine for this bar buys wine for the whole company, and she’s one of the most looked-to spokespeople for natural wine in New York. So there’s a heavy focus on her wine program, and it seems like there’s going to be a lot of people here to drink wine.” The list explores crisp white Muscadet, Grand Cru Champagne, Provencal rose, and Burgundy designation Chambolle-Musigny along with a number of more obscure varietals and geographies, which firmly plants the program in serious oenophile territory.

Eventually, says Fadem, the spot will ramp up its food program, offering oysters, meat and cheese plates and other snacks. But there will never be a kitchen, he notes, and the focus is always going to be on the bar.