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.

Bar Akariba

77 1/2 North 6th Street
Brooklyn NY, 11211
view map
718.388.6160

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Cards: Cash Only
Hours: Wed-Sun 6pm-Midnight
Price: $$$
Subway: L to Lorimer St.
Food/Menu: Japanese/Oysters
Booze: Full bar (specialized in sake)
Happy Hour: No
Menu: Click Here
Grub Street says:

Shaul Margulies and Motoko Watanabe, the couple that owns Zenkichi, have converted their Williamsburg izakaya’s backyard into Akariba, a 40-seat lounge specializing in what Margulies calls “the deadly combo of sake and oysters.” Once it opens next Thursday, it’ll feature a seasonally rotating ten-item menu of oysters (everything from Blue Points to Kumamotos), small bites such as grilled toro, and within the next weeks, sashimi prepared by Zenkichi’s chef Tetsuya Akikawa, who honed his sushi skills at Jewel Bako. Desserts will come form Zenkichi.

Most of the dishes (excluding the sashimi) will be priced from $5 to $10, and cocktails made from beer, wine, and sake (which will also rotate seasonally) will cost $8 to $11. We’re told Akariba translates to “the glow of a lantern in the dark,” and as you can see in our slideshow, the interior (capped by a glass ceiling) is every bit as sultry as its sister establishment. Reservations won’t be accepted — just find Zenkichi’s hidden door and Akariba’s is a little bit to your right. Listen for the jazz …

Time Out says

Husband-and-wife restaurateurs Shaul Margulies and Motoko Watanabe have added this izakaya-style bar in the backyard of their Williamsburg Japanese restaurant, Zenkichi. The glass-enclosed patio is outfitted with marble tables, cast-iron lanterns and an abundance of leafy plants. The cocktail list will have a Japanese bent, with hand-chipped ice and concoctions like a lavender lychee-tini, made with pureed lychee and shochu. The selection of 10 to 20 seasonally changing sakes, meanwhile, is meant to be paired with oysters, which are offered raw, grilled or sautéed, along with a limited selection of other small bites.

Alameda

195 Franklin Street at Green Street
Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Brooklyn, New York 11222
view map
347.227.7296

Cuisine: American Bistro, Pub Fare, Small Bites
Our Rating: ★★★★
Cards: All major
Price: Entrees $10-$17, Cocktails $10
Hours: Mon – Fri: 4:00 pm – 2:00 am
Sat – Sun: 11:00 am – 2:00 am
Brunch: Weekends
Booze: Full Bar with fancy cocktails
Subway: G Train to Greenpoint Ave.
Delivery: No
Menu: Click Here
Website: www.alamedabk.com
says:

Eater says:

Evan and Oliver Haslegrave, the brothers behind the Home design company, are opening a new bar and restaurant in Greenpoint called Alameda. Brooklyn Star veterans Nick Padilla and Waine Longwell are also partners in this project. Nick will be the chef and Waine will be in charge of the bar. Alameda will inhabit the corner space that formerly housed The Greenpoint Coffee Shop and The Garden Spot Cafe.

Padilla describes this as “an American Bistro.” The chef tells Eater: “The idea is to provide a set list of raw bar itmes, salads and sandwiches and supplement it with chalkboard specials that are seasonal and frequently changing.” The restaurant will serve Blue Bottle Coffee, and the team hopes to offer dollar oysters during happy hour. Expect a full list of beer, wine, and cocktails.

The Haslegrave brothers designed Paulie Gee’s, The Manhattan Inn, Donna, Goat Town, and Torst, but this is their first time building and running a place of their own.

Allswell

124 Bedford Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211
view map
347.799.2743

Cuisine: American Nouveau
Our Rating: ★★★★
Cards: All Major
Price: Fairly expensive
Hours: Sun-Tue 10am-2am, Wed-Sat 10am–3:30am
Booze: Full Bar
Reservations: Yes
Subway: L to Bedford Ave.
Menu: http://allswellnyc.tumblr.com/
Delivery: No
Time Out New York says:

Chef-owner Nate Smith, who earned his gastropub stripes at the Spotted Pig, breaks out on his own with this laid-back Williamsburg tavern. The 47-seat space is done up with a reclaimed pine bar, vintage wallpaper in different patterns and brass-hunting-horn chandeliers with matching sconces. Choose from chefly bar grub (like smoked-trout spread or spicy pork-stuffed pastry rounds); heartier dishes (such as roasted lamb or shellfish stew); and greens (including a chicory salad with figs and pomegranate). The drinks list takes a locavore slant with small-production wines and craft beers on tap, plus a selection of market-driven cocktails.

The New York Times says:

With its half-timbered facade, this place would suit an English village. The chef, Nate Smith, formerly of the Spotted Pig, understands the gastropub genre. Much of the food is seasonal and inspired by the euro zone (sardines with sea salt, pork chop with chestnut spaetzle and onions). But it’s clear that Mr. Smith also picked up a British accent, with potted pork, corned beef and cabbage pie, malt-pickled onions, lamb-liver toast with marmalade, and gentleman’s relish (in other words, anchovies). A communal table can be reserved for groups of 8 to 12. “That’s where I’ll serve family-style dinners,” Mr. Smith said

Late Night Menu, 12-3am, Wed-Sat:
Allswell.late.Night

Anchorred Inn

57 Waterbury Street
(between Meserole St & Scholes St)
Brooklyn, NY 11206
view map
347.881.9095

Rating: ★ ★ ★
Cards: All Major
Price: $$
Subway: L Train to Montrose
Hours: Mon–Fri 1pm–4am; Sat, Sun noon–4am
Food and Drink Menu: Click Here (pdf)
Booze: Full bar
Website: www.theanchoredinn.com
NY Post says:

The new watering hole signals comfort after a long day or night for the world-weary rockers and other tattooed, skinny-jeanswearing locals who people the bar, which mashes up a maritime theme with a dive bar vibe.

Co-owners Adrienne Dowd and Carmen Mello dreamed up the nauticaldive fusion while working together as bartenders at The Half King, and opened the doors to their Brooklyn joint in February. A golden mermaid and a wood sign emblazoned with an ornate anchor and the bar’s old-timey logo (which Dowd, who’s an artist, created) mark the entrance. Inside, Mello’s collection of kitschy velvet paintings lines the walls, and true to the bar’s seafaring focus, one depicting a whale and a giant squid in a oceanic death match hangs over the bar, while a vintage deep-sea diving suit suspended from the ceiling hovers nearby. Cushioned red vinyl booths, salvaged from a pizza parlor Dowd frequented in her youth, offer spots to kick back and enjoy the suds and tipples on hand.

On a recent night, the beer selection was ample and reasonably priced enough to meet the needs of those with only a little cash to spare as well as those with money to burn, and happy hour brought a $1 discount for all drafts. Six taps rotate seasonally, and recent drafts included a standard low-priced lager, Yuengling ($4) and craft brews from local breweries, such as Sixpoint’s Brownstone ($6) and Bluepoint’s Toasted Lager ($6), as well as some further afield, including Left Hand Milk Stout ($6) from Colorado. The cans and bottles covered a wide range, from the ever-popular, low-budget drink of the effortlessly cool, Pabst Blue Ribbon in a can ($3), to the bottled microbrew Dreamweaver Wheat ($7) from Tregs Brewery in Pennsylvania.

The Anchored Inn’s cocktail list steered away from the oceangoing theme and into the realm of divey rock ‘n’ roll with a menu of drinks inspired by the local bands that tend to make up the majority of The Anchored Inn’s crowd. The Mutante Supremo ($9), named after the death metal band Mutant Supremacy, was a Tecate Michelada with a shot of chipotleinfused mezcal, and The Bad Dream ($7), created in honor of the grime metal band Bad Dream, mixed stout with Stoli Vanil. Simpler well cocktails go for $6, and several fine liquors, including Woodford Reserve bourbon ($9), Whistlepig Rye whiskey ($10) and Ron Zacapa rum ($9) were available. And cheap shot possibilities abounded. Any canned beer paired with any well shot costs $5, and the ubiquitous pickle back shot, with well whiskey and pickle juice, was also a mere $5.

But despite all its welcoming qualities, The Anchored Inn’s intense noise level sometimes made it hard to relax. On a recent night, the sound of the hardcore band playing at The Acheron next door was so loud that The Anchored Inn’s bartender had to blast the Black Sabbath blaring from the bar’s speakers just to make it audible above the din.

TimeOut says:

Adrienne Dowd and Carmen Mello, longtime bartenders at the Half King, break out on their own with a nautically themed drinkery in Williamsburg. The bar features a golden mermaid bust outside and a hanging Russian metal diving suit indoors, plus 20 black-velvet paintings, including a squid-versus-whale rendering. Tip back one of six draft beers (Left Hand Milk Stout, Sixpoint Sweet Action) or opt for a sipping liquor (Woodford Reserve bourbon, Flor de Cana rum). Overboard boozers can counteract the night’s tippling with salty bar snacks, including nachos, boiled peanuts and an intriguing combo of pickles with whipped pork fat.

c/o NY Mag

222 Franklin St
Brooklyn, NY 11222
view map
718.389.8100

Cuisine: Italian
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Price: $$
Hours: Sun-Thu 5:30 pm. – 10 pm; Fri-Sat 5:30pm-11pm; Sat-Sun 10am-4pm Brunch
Cards: All Major
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: G to Greenpoint Ave.
Menu: Click Here
Web: www.anellabrooklyn.com
Delivery: No
New York Mag says:

Anella opened in the spring of 2009, quickly establishing its reputation as a solid Greenpoint joint with a knack for slightly upscale comfort food like brick oven-pizzas and olive oil mashed potatoes. But in early 2010, Chef Joe Ogrodnek took over the reins, launching the restaurant from reliable neighborhood standby to Brooklyn standout. Ogrodnek favors bold, classic flavors: tangy short ribs and a rich, tender pork cassoulet share space on the menu with more creative fare like sweet carrots served with fluffy whipped ricotta. But it’s the little touches that propel his homey dishes into new terrain: the generous helping of fennel on the potato-crusted cod, a scoop of ever-so-slightly tart buttermilk ice cream paired with a chocolate bread-pudding, or candied orange peel served atop the lemon tart. Even the bread, baked and served in terracotta flowerpots, is magnificently rich and salty. The wood-paneled space is warm and inviting, ideal for stretching out for a long, late-morning feast (at brunch, the pastry basket with homemade jam never disappoints). In nice weather, the backyard garden opens, a cozy spot to sip a cocktail or linger over dinner.

Metromix says:

When Greenpoint’s beloved restaurant du jour Queen’s Hideaway shuttered last fall, it was a major blow to the hood’s most-adventurous diners—the restaurant was known for crafting a daily menu, playing off the seasons and the chef’s legendary mood swings. Chanterelle vet Michael Sullivan aims to bring his own strong personality to the handsome space, but more with his Italian-rooted cooking than “Top Chefian” meltdowns. The trattoria serves five types of brick oven pizza, including truffled cheese with onions and the signature pie of bacon and pepperoni. A pork loin wrapped in bacon is an early favorite, as well as a chocolate terrine dessert with pistachio crème anglise. Sullivan plans to install greenhouse, growing herbs and produce on-site.

115 Berry Street
(@ North 8th Street)
Brooklyn, New York 11211
view map
347.763.2635

Cuisine: Italian
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Cards: All major
Price: Entrees $15-$30
Hours: Sunday–Thursday; 6pm–11pm
Friday & Saturday; 6pm–12am
Brunch: 11:30 to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
Booze: Full bar
Subway: L train to Bedford
Delivery: No
Reservations: Yes
Menu: Click here
Website: www.anticapesa.com
Gotham says:

The big, crackling fireplace across from the bar at Antica Pesa has a special history—it’s an homage to the fireplace that sits in the restaurant’s original since-1922 sister spot in Rome. Bottle-lined walls and dim lighting via modern circular ceiling lamps add to the cozy-romantic atmosphere, as does the fresh-from-Rome fare. Whatever you order—we love the family-recipe chitarra alla carbonara, guanciale pasta with Parmigiano, black pepper, egg, and Italian bacon; or the sumptuously juicy guancetta, braised beef cheek with whipped carrot and thyme puree—we suggest starting off with the gita fuoriporta. A luxe rendition of an appetizer sampler, it arrives in a wooden box, which opens to reveal a picnic-like assortment of everything from Roman pecorino and mozzarella cheeses to focaccia bread with spek to porchetta with pear sauce. End your evening with a dessert like house-made gelato, and curl up around the fire with an aperitif of Italian wine or a signature cocktail. We recommend a reservation, as New York big-names like Ivanka Trump and Mayor Bloomberg are already fans.

NY Observer says:

Restaurants where Italian food is served in charmingly ramshackle conditions are manifold. Between Fiore, Aurora, Osteria Il Paiolo and other vowel-heavy trattorie too legion to mention, wandering around the neighborhood can feel like stumbling about Cinecitta’s Palermo back lot. But that’s not Antica Pesa.

Whereas those restaurants, whether by design or default, offer a homogenized view of humble Italy, a nation of casalinghe and clotheslines, Antica Pesa—Italian for “the old scale”—presents the Italy of Loro Piana, Fiat, Brioni, Trussardi and Ferragamo. This is the Italy of oligarchs.

On a recent Saturday night, the scales were fully loaded with richesse. Every table in the high-ceilinged room was occupied by patrons who smelled nice and looked nicer. Men wore thick gray sweaters with shawl collars. Women wore Carven frocks and Isabel Marant shoes. Scarves for all, Moscots for many, New Balances for none.

The bar was crowded, but its patrons civilly spaced. Out of a silver cup, a woman sipped a Piazza di Ricci, a cocktail made of vodka, fresh raspberries, mint, lime juice, homemade ginger syrup and ginger beer. Next to her, a man nursed a negroni and checked in on Foursquare.

Even the leather settee in front of the fireplace was occupied by a warm if silent couple. The man had made the mistake of wearing a hoodie. Man that I am, I could tell that he felt insecure in the company of so stylish a crowd. The woman, sensing trouble, drank a cocktail called Goodbye Lovers (Tequila 8, agave sec, yuzu juice, lime juice; $14) to steel her nerves.

That fire, set in a fireplace with an immense burnished-wood frontispiece, imbued the restaurant with a golden light. The fixtures at Antica Pesa are custom-made brass tubes in which bulbs are recessed. They consequently cast a soft brassy glow that seems beamed in from mid-century.

This is not the first Antica Pesa. To find its progenitor, one must travel to Via Garibaldi, 18, in Rome’s Trastevere, the neighborhood of that ancient city that lies west of the River Tiber, and climb up the family vine four generations to 1922, when the Panella family opened the restaurant in a former Vatican tollhouse.

Today, Antica Pesa is to Rome what Cipriani is to New York, a tollhouse for the cavalcade of big-name stars whose brilliance is only burnished by plates of high-priced pasta. The walls are lined with photographs of Hollywood celebrities like ScarJo, Matt Damon and Jessica Alba arm-in-arm with the owner, Francesco Panella, taken in front of a wall full of photographs of celebrities arm-in-arm with the owner, Francesco Panella. It’s a mise-en-abyme of celebrity and cuisine. And that star has not diminished. In early January, the Roman mothership hosted a premiere party for Django. Quentin Tarantino, it turns out, loves the spaghetti cacio e pepe.

The Brooklyn outpost of Antica Pesa is primarily the work of two of the four Panella brothers, Francesco and Simone. But when I arrived, both were in Rome, where they live, and I was met by Lorenzo, the only one of the brothers who lives in New York full time—who, like a Roman colonist of yore, had set off from the shores of Latium to seek his fortune in distant climes.

Suave and handsome, Mr. Panella looks like Johnny Depp impersonating Robert Downey Jr. He is given to cashmere sweaters and high-quality blazers. His goatee is unparalleled in lushness. The menu is expensive—pastas start at $16 and main courses range up to $30—and the presentation of its content is fittingly elegant, the result of its owners having run a very successful restaurant for 90 years. I don’t think it would even occur to them not to serve their fresh baked grissini, foccacia and pane casareccia in a wooden box with a brass clasp or to decant the olive oil—from the family orchard, no less—without a flourish of the hand. They don’t, for lack of a more graceful term, peasant-up their cuisine.

Starters like crudo e bufala croccante ($17), a treacherously addictive ball of imported mozzarella baked in a jacket of filo dough, or arzilla confit ($15), silky confit skate sautéed with escarole, pine nuts and spelt bread, aren’t presented on heavy, chipped porcelain with a floral border. They are, rather, accompanied on broad white plates by an entourage of fussy dots of balsamic vinegar, in one case, or draped, painstakingly, over a hillock of escarole in the other. The rack of lamb ($30) is perfectly frenched, very well cooked and served, not with mashed potatoes, but with a dainty potato gâteau.

Even the pasta, which is hard to present in a way that gives proper credit to the effort needed to produce it, comes across well. The cacio e pepe, in which pecorino and Parmesan bind themselves to thick al dente strands of homemade spaghetti, is phenomenal. Disagree as you will with Mr. Tarantino’s taste for violence, his taste in pasta is top-notch. The schiaffoni all’Amatriciana, little fat rigatoni with guanciale and pecorino, is equally addictive.

In short, the food is presented with pride. It’s a pride that, unlike in many other prideful restaurants, is presented in an entirely unforced and unself-conscious way. The Panella brothers are stars in their own world; their food is lionized in its own town, their charm is unimpeachable and it does not occur to them that it might not fare as well in a foreign land.

Their confidence, I hope, is justified. But, it must be said, confidence has an overweening side and can well swoop perilously into silliness. When I asked Lorenzo why his family opened in Williamsburg, as opposed to, say, the West Village, he told me that the neighborhood reminded him of the scruffy charms of Trastevere. “We wanted to open here,” he said, “before the neighborhood blossomed. Before,” he said, looking at me earnestly, “it was too late.”

So deep and puppylike were his brown eyes and so soothing the little massage he gave my delts that I couldn’t bring myself to say, “What the fuck are you talking about?” Instead, I sipped a Manhattan that a man in a turtleneck had made for me and nodded. In fact, Williamsburg might be the apotheosis of a neighborhood whose scruff had been shorn by capital and condominiums—the very condominiums, I wager, from which these patrons had issued.

And yet the more I thought about it—aided and abetted by a terrific bottle of teroldego ($35), one of the many stars on an all-Italian wine list, and by the ministrations of a waitress born in Osaka and raised in Sydney, who had moved to Greenpoint only five months earlier and who, she told us, had a passive-aggressive boyfriend—perhaps Mr. Panella was correct. It was just a matter of scale.

Ten years ago, Antica Pesa would have been the restaurant to which Williamsburgians brought their parents in order to prove they didn’t live in a dangerous hinterland. Now, those erstwhile children have grown up, grown richer and grown unashamed to eat well. They can, in fact, eat Lucullan feasts, not in faux grubby diners with egalitarian waiters who nestle next to you, but like mini-captains of industry. And now the burden of parental soothing has fallen farther out on the L, to places like Roberta’s, Northeast Kingdom and Dear Bushwick. Only a fool would call Williamsburg hinter anything.

Bahia

690 Grand St.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
view map
718.218.9592

Cuisine: Salvadoran
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Cards: All Major
Price: $$
Hours: Mon-Thurs 11:30am-10pm; Fri 11:30am-11pm; Sat 9am-11pm; Sun 9am-10pm
Booze: Beer and Wine Only
Subway: L to Graham Ave. or Grand St.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes
We say:

Our favorite under-the-radar restaurant Bahía was featured on the Food Network recently and we were delighted to see them finally get some props. If you haven’t tasted their pupusas yet, run out now and try them. (Pupusa are yummy corn pancakes filled with cheese, pork, etc). Their cerviche is also always fresh and delicious. Never had Salvadoran food? Do yourself a favor and try Bahía before everyone else discovers it. The atmosphere is bland, but the food is amazing. Note – the pasta dishes are ok, but are mainly included to please the heavily italian neighboorhood. Stick to the Salvadoran food.

Citysearch says:

Rows of glass-topped, red-tableclothed tables stretch back to the rear of the brightly lit space, whose white walls hold a few seafaring decorations–a boat painting here, a captain’s wheel there. The small wooden bar and counter up front incorporate a wine rack and dessert display. Neighborhood friends and families spread out with plenty of room to spare. The best surprises on the El Salvadorean menu are the appetizers. Pupusas, filled with pork, beans, chicken or cheese, are sumptuous pancakes bursting with the flavor of fresh corn. The simple corn tamale comes with a mild homemade sour cream, and the inexpensive enchiladas, prepared with expertly spiced strips of beef, could easily serve as an entree. Main dishes, such as the sirloin steak, are less robust, but the enormous mixed seafood grill, including stellar shrimp, salmon, calamari and mussels, stands out. Finish with a lovely flan.

c/o NY Mag

32 Withers St
Brooklyn, NY 11211
view map
718.384.8831

Cuisine: Old school Italian
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Cards: All Major
Price: $$$
Hours: Mon, Wed, Thurs Noon-10:30pm; Fri Noon-11pm; Sat 1pm-11pm; Sun 1pm-1opm; Closed Tue
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: L to Lorimer St.
Menu: Click Here Delivery: No
We say:

Established in 1900, Bamonte’s has the best Italian atmosphere in the hood. Has an old-school, Sopranos feel and is gloriously hipster free. Plus, many of the pastas are homemade. Bamontes effin rules and is a hidden treasure. The best place in Williamsburg to take out of towners. Be sure to make a reservation on weekends. Bamonte’s will make you feel like you have gone back in time to experience the authentic American Italian experience in Brooklyn.

NY Mag says:

Bamonte’s attracts an unusual mix of customers: Some have been kicking around the place since the 1950s (as have the waiters), and others are drawn from Williamsburg’s now-thriving artists-and-yuppies community. You don’t need an archaeologist to identify the strata of renovations, from original chandeliers to mid-century paneling to a modern glassed-in kitchen. Stick to the basic appetizers: clams casino, mussels marinara, and prosciutto with melon. Salads are serviceable, but they just delay the inevitable: Bamonte’s gigantic handmade cheese ravioli, in a light tomato-and-meat sauce, are de rigueur, and among the finest available. Lasagna with chicken and spinach, too, is extraordinary. Many customers order pastas as their entrees, but for those who must have meat, stick to veal-the seafood isn’t quite so impressive. –Steven A. Shaw ” Recommended Dishes: Handmade cheese ravioli in tomato-and-meat sauce, $12.95; lasagna with chicken and spinach, $12.95; pork chops with hot and sweet vinegar peppers, $17.50

c/o The New York Times

346 Bedford Avenue
(Near South 3rd Street)
Brooklyn NY, 11211
view map
718.218.7067

Cuisine: Vietnamese
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★
Cards: Cash Only
Price: $
Hours: Mondays from 12-10 pm, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights from 6-10 pm
Booze: Beer and wine
Subway: L to Bedford Ave., J,M,Z to Marcy Ave.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes
NY Mag says:

A few days a week, An Nguyen Xuan, a Vietnamese chef who was born and raised in France takes over Simple Café in Williamsburg and operates it as Bep (meaning “Kitchen” in Vietnamese): “I serve Vietnamese staple dishes like pho, bánh mì, bun, and fried spring rolls.” There are also specials, like caramelized pork belly with pickled bean sprouts. Xuan is using natural ingredients and hoping to offer an alternative to current Vietnamese restaurants, which she says are sometimes too expensive and use too much MSG. Hmmm. We have yet to encounter these expensive Vietnamese joints, but if she claims hers is cheaper and better, we’ll see her soon!

In January, An Nguyen Xuan opened Bep, which means “kitchen” in Vietnamese, at the Simple Café in Williamsburg. At first, the concept was confined to Mondays, restaurants’ day of doldrums. But the experiment proved so popular that last month Bep expanded its hours to Thursday through Saturday nights. Mr. Xuan’s food tends to the Hanoi style, which uses herbs and spices more subtly than its southern counterpart. Texture is key. Cha gio ($4.50), fried spring rolls, are chubby with pork and mushrooms, their rice-paper skins crisp and bubbled without being oily. A steamed rice crepe is tucked around crunchy pork and silky Vietnamese ham ($10). Many of the brief menu’s supplemental specials deserve to be staples, like the catfish, coppery with turmeric and aromatic with dill, atop vermicelli ($10), and a tangy salad of mango, cabbage and banana blossoms ($9). But the pho ($8) lacks character, and the banh mi ($5.50) are filled with too gentle a hand. Still, it’s rare at this price to find such exquisite details as the dried sour plum bobbing among the mint leaves in the house-made lime soda ($3).