c/o Brooklyn Bowl

61 Wythe Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211
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718.963.3369
(Bowling Alley with food by Blue Ribbon)

Cuisine: American/Southern
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Cards: All Major
Price: $$$
Hours: Monday – Thursday 6pm-2am; Friday 6pm-4am; Saturday 12pm-4am; Sunday 12pm-2am
Family Days are Saturday and Sunday! Noon-6pm is ALL AGES!
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: L to Bedford
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: No
We say:

A stunning sprawling space, albeit pricey.

The New Yorker says:

We suggest that you eat with your non-bowling hand,” a note on the menu at Brooklyn Bowl states, in a nod, presumably, to both aim and hygiene, if not to the traditional carelessness of ten-frame dining. This converted warehouse at the northern edge of Williamsburg does triple duty as a bowling alley, a music hall, and a grub house. Its kingpin, Peter Shapiro, the former owner of the bygone jam-bandy club Wetlands, has dreamed up an emporium that combines hedonistic excess (deep-end leather couches, spiked milkshakes, brisket, live music) with eco-consciousness (reclaimed-cork floors, no bottled beer, live music). For the eats, he brought in the Bromberg brothers, the creators of Blue Ribbon, to draw up a rebuke to every limpid water dog and fossilized onion ring you’ve ever downed, then regretted, at Wherever Lanes. They tinkered with comfort-food classics, secure in the knowledge that no bowler will ever crave endive. It’s a menu that begs over-ordering, as well as this remark from your waiter, regarding the procedure for delivering the food: “You guys want it as it fits?” “Fits where?” is one reply; the table is bigger than the stomach.

Still, all you have to do, while stuffed, is take a few steps forward and drop a twelve-pound ball on the floor, so there’s no sin in downing the carefully considered greaseballs the Blue Ribbon boys sling your way. Their fried chicken, dipped in matzoh batter, seasoned with Cajun spices, and accompanied by white bread and honey, has Earl Anthony game. The calamari, commingled with fried jalapeño, is the Dick Weber of fried squid. The San Gennaro, loaded with finely ground Italian sausage, is the Johnny Petraglia of French-bread pizzas: crisp outside, fluffy inside, it has all of the virtue, and none of the vice, of Stouffer’s. There are a few gutter balls; some might find the mac and cheese too creamy and the “Really” Sloppy Joe really actually too sweet. But the score sheet shows more X’s than —’s.

On a recent evening, the lanes were busy but not loud; the pins hang on strings, which helps muffle the din. Giant video screens showed montages from raunchy old B-movies like “The Student Nurses” and “Caged Heat.” Around eleven, the Roots took the stage, the dance floor filled up, and a waiter came by with Nutella-bourbon shakes, a convergence that felt like nailing a spare on a four-ten split. (Open weekdays for dinner and weekends for lunch and dinner. Entrées $9-$19.)

c/o NY Mag

593 Lorimer Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211
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718-599-9899

Cuisine: Southern, American
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Cards: All Major
Price: $$$$
Hours: Sat and Sun 11 am to 4 pm., Dinner Everyday 5:00 pm to 2 am
Booze: Beer and Wine
Subway: L to Lorimer St.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: No
NY Mag says:

After a kitchen fire closed its original location in 2010, the Brooklyn Star is open in the former Lazy Catfish space. Cook Justin Burchill tells us that he and the rest of Joaquin Baca’s team have been working since last August to build the new restaurant. They’ve installed the old tables, chairs, and benches in a space that’s a bit bigger (there are about 75 seats in the dining room) and best of all, in possession of a liquor license. The downside: No woodburning oven, but the core of the menu is the same, with the addition of dishes like roasted veal marrow bones and a chilled grilled lobster tail. The full menu will be served from 5 p.m. till 2 a.m., and there’ll be a list of whiskey-heavy classic and classic-inspired cocktails from bar manager Simon Gibson.

c/o NY Mag

560 Manhattan Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11222
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718.349.3859

Cuisine: Southern/Bar
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Cards: All Major
Price: $
Hours: Mon-Fri 11am-11pm; Sat-Sun 10am-11pm; Bar open daily until 4am
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: G to Nassau Ave, L to Bedford Ave
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes
We say:

One of our favorite local bars. Plus they serve a great brunch and dinner. We had our misgivings since, well Enids is more of a bar than a restaurant, but surprisingly the food is great! One of the best — and crowded — brunches in the neighborhood.

Citysearch says:

When you think of Williamsburg–painters in splattered jeans, indie-rock kids, lots of Herzog fans–you’re basically thinking of Enid’s. Though it’s technically in an area that bleeds over into Greenpoint, this neighborhood bar plays home to all the characters who make Williamsburg so downright hip. Leavened with drinkers who are cool on the inside, it’s a comfortable stop for all. Enid’s is exceptionally large for a New York bar. On weeknights, there’s plenty of room to wiggle around; on weekends the crowd will keep your wiggling to a minimum. The flea-market couches and scattered tables and chairs make up the understated decor, though a big wall-hanging camel made out of gold sequins adds flair. Also check out the consistently bumping pinball machine and even a bowling game. Drink-wise, Enid’s keeps it simple, with an adequate stock of liquors at fair neighborhood-bar prices.

Fette Sau

354 Metropolitan Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
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718.963.3404

Cuisine: Barbeque
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Cards: Mastercard and Visa
Price: $$
Hours: 5pm-2am Daily
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: L to Bedford Ave. or Lorimer St.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes (except on Fri & Sat)
We Say:

Standing in line at Williamsburg’s newest barbecue joint, I witnessed something close to a miracle. The strangers on either side of my party wanted to engage in conversation. Card-carrying hipsters, notorious for cold shoulders and silent treatment, wanted to discuss the meat counter where we were heading. They asked questions and offered ordering advice, like one pound of pork shoulder should be enough for two people. For a restaurant to create an atmosphere of engagement is a feat that will keep crowds coming back, despite the long waits in line.
Fette Sau, which means “fat pig” in German, opened its doors in March 2007, brought to us by the owners of Spuyten Duyvil — a favorite beer garden across the street. Kim and Joe Carroll transformed a former auto-body repair shop into industrial barbecue cavern with a whole wall of hand painted cuts-of-meat, a fake fire burning on the television screen and heavy picnic tables — both inside and out. At the bar in the back you can choose from a wide selection of whisky or take a pint, quart or half gallon growler of beer back to your table to wash down the greasy meats.
At the meat counter, if it’s pork shoulder you want, arrive early. I have yet to try it, since the kitchen can’t keep up with the high demand. My reluctance to taste the recommended alternative, dissipated the moment I bit into the buttery moist pork belly, piled high on my butcher paper-covered tray. The brisket and sausage is also a hit. My only complaint is, with the exception of the smoky pork-laden baked beans, the side dishes are a huge let down and should be avoided. The broccoli salad was soggy with vinegar and the potatoes in the potato salad were undercooked and needed salt. Pay homage to Dr. Atkins and stick to the meat counter. And if you’re a vegetarian, just stick to the whiskey or beer. We’re hoping the Fette Sau will hire a pastry chef to prepare a juicy key lime pie to cleanse the palate after the full meat encounter. Until then, there’s beer, whiskey and the company of strangers.

Gothamist says:

Fette Sau (German for Fat Pig) rests back from the street off Metropolitan Ave, in an old garage outfitted with what is one of Brooklyn’s newest barbecue joints. It is rightly getting loads of press for its food, but what many of them forget to mention is that it’s also loaded with one of the most impressive collections of bourbons in the city. We counted 55 different ones the last time we were there, which sounds more like a dare than a list. It isn’t all about the different variations of Jim Beam, either. They have New York’s only bourbon, Hudson Baby Bourbon, and Four Roses, which just recently came on the New York market. Six bucks can score you a cheaper, rougher style (Rebel Yell!) that will probably suit those ribs better. If you’ve got extra cash burning a whole in your wallet, go for the $18 Pappy Van Winkle. They are all served in nifty snifers and can come however you like to suck it back.

c/o Flickr

577 Union Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
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718.218.7174

Cuisine: Southern Comfort
Our Rating: ★ ★ (meh)
Cards: Cash Only
Price: $$
Hours: 9:30am-10pm Daily
Booze: Full bar
Subway: L to Lorimer St.
Menu: Click Here
Website: www.jimmysdinerbrooklyn.com
Delivery: yes
Metromix says:

A starting point of how laid-back this Southern comfort food eatery is. Named after chef-owner Josh Cohen’s dad, the husband-and-wife-run Williamsburg diner offers plenty of homemade, seemingly-improvised, trailer trash-chic charmers to erase the memory of former tenant Union Pacific. Krispy Krunch French toast. Salmon hash. The Williamsburger (burger topped with potato latke, apple sauce, and sour cream). Cohen’s creations are either brilliant, or crazy, or, sigh…reminders of home.

Time Out New York says:

To say that Jimmy’s Diner is ersatz would be a compliment. The lonesome interior of Billyburg’s newest greasy spoon—shabby barstools, tattered screen door, graffiti-covered bathroom—might have been there long before the battered trappings could have been considered ironic. To some extent, the middling reputation established by owner Josh Cohen at Park Slope’s Biscuit BBQ continues here—fried chicken, touted on the menu as “Brooklyn’s best,” wasn’t. Its oily skin lacked the necessary craggy texture and addictive crunch. The dessert menu exhibits similar false claims, such as a “money-back brownie”—a generic square that made us want to reclaim the $2 we’d spent on it. There is the occasional stroke of genius: The seasonal veggies from upstate’s Honey Locust Farms that accompany a barbecued chicken platter (Jimmy’s tries to source all of their produce locally), and the brilliant Williamsburger, which tops a juicy patty with a crisp latke and tart applesauce. Fried deviled eggs are similarly inspired: The creamy, spicy yolk filling, encased in a jacket of rich batter, stands in stark contrast with the usually tired church-picnic nibble.

Jimmy's Diner Greenpoint

577 Union Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
view map
718.218.7174

Cuisine: Southern Comfort
Our Rating: ★ ★ (meh)
Cards: Cash Only
Price: $$
Hours: 9:30am-10pm Daily
Booze: Full bar
Subway: G to Greenpoint or Nassau
Menu: Click Here
Website: www.jimmysdinerbrooklyn.com
Delivery: yes
Metromix says:

A starting point of how laid-back this Southern comfort food eatery is. Named after chef-owner Josh Cohen’s dad, the husband-and-wife-run Williamsburg diner offers plenty of homemade, seemingly-improvised, trailer trash-chic charmers to erase the memory of former tenant Union Pacific. Krispy Krunch French toast. Salmon hash. The Williamsburger (burger topped with potato latke, apple sauce, and sour cream). Cohen’s creations are either brilliant, or crazy, or, sigh…reminders of home.

Time Out New York says:

To say that Jimmy’s Diner is ersatz would be a compliment. The lonesome interior of Billyburg’s newest greasy spoon—shabby barstools, tattered screen door, graffiti-covered bathroom—might have been there long before the battered trappings could have been considered ironic. To some extent, the middling reputation established by owner Josh Cohen at Park Slope’s Biscuit BBQ continues here—fried chicken, touted on the menu as “Brooklyn’s best,” wasn’t. Its oily skin lacked the necessary craggy texture and addictive crunch. The dessert menu exhibits similar false claims, such as a “money-back brownie”—a generic square that made us want to reclaim the $2 we’d spent on it. There is the occasional stroke of genius: The seasonal veggies from upstate’s Honey Locust Farms that accompany a barbecued chicken platter (Jimmy’s tries to source all of their produce locally), and the brilliant Williamsburger, which tops a juicy patty with a crisp latke and tart applesauce. Fried deviled eggs are similarly inspired: The creamy, spicy yolk filling, encased in a jacket of rich batter, stands in stark contrast with the usually tired church-picnic nibble.

c/o The Feast

112 Berry St
Brooklyn, NY 11211
view map
718.782.8777

Cuisine: Southern
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Cards: Cash Only
Price: $
Hours: Daily 11am-11pm
Booze: None
Subway: L to Bedford Ave.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: No
Metromix says:

This casual new café hopes to draw customers just off of Williamsburg’s main Bedford Avenue drag with its small but smart menu. The offerings are a mix of classic comfort foods both high (mussels steamed with white wine and shallots, $8) and low (pulled pork sandwich, $10). Plus: interesting burgers (chorizo, anyone?) and rotating specials like jambalaya ($14). While the décor and the extras are a bit sparse right now, expect a beer and wine license soon and an enclosed backyard in the spring.

c/o NY Mag

44 Berry St.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
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718.218.6655

Cuisine: Southern/BBQ
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Cards: All major
Price: $
Hours: 5pm-4am Daily
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: L to Bedford Ave.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: No
Grub Street says:

You might have thought that Williamsburg pretty much had it all as far as regional southern cooking goes. Not so, according to Louisville expat Meghan Love, who along with her Oklahoma-born artist husband Jeff Lutonsky opens Mable’s Smokehouse and Banquet Hall on Tuesday. “There wasn’t a place in our neighborhood to find the food we grew up eating,” says Love. That food — borracho beans, Rotel-Velveeta dip, Luzianne sweet tea, hot links imported from Schwab’s in Oklahoma City, pulled-pork tamales, and, of course, pie — makes its debut in a suitably honky-tonk setting that the couple built themselves.

Love, who used to shake cocktails in some of Manhattan’s finest restaurants, says her personal approach to bartending is relatively streamlined. “We have three vodkas, two gins. Our bourbon selection will be big, but nothing artisanal — that’s for damn sure.” The joint is named after Lutonsky’s grandmother (always a good sign), and she’s the one to thank for many of the recipes, including a barbecue sauce so closely guarded Lutonsky insists that kitchen staffers sign a confidentiality agreement.

Shecky’s says:

According to the owners, there wasn’t any place in Williamsburg where you could get the Southern food they grew up with, which might seem odd to fans of Fette Sau, Fatty ’Cue and Honeychiles to name a few. But take a trip to Mabel’s, and you’ll start to get sense of what they mean. The space is truly a labor of love, built by a restaurant industry couple who added Southern touches (scattered taxidermy, wagon wheel chandeliers, vintage feed store signs) to an essentially Brooklyn-esque space (wide warehouse feel, reclaimed barn wood, Edison bulbs nestled in hanging wash pails). The drinks also have that down-home feel (and down-home prices—$8 for specialty cocktails, $3-$6 for beers), with playful names like Dad’s Cold Medicine, a mix of Dr. Pepper and Crown Royal. The pulled pork is some of the best you’ll find this side of the Mason Dixon, and coming in at only $9.95 plus a side and slaw, the price is hard to beat (nudge, nudge Fette Sau). Just don’t ask what’s in the BBQ Sauce…they could tell you, but then they’d have to smoke you.

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.

Mama's Food Shop

310 South 4th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211
view map
718.486.9606

Cuisine: Southern
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★
Cards: All Major
Price: Moderately Priced
Hours: Tue–Fri 4pm-11pm; Sat-Sun Noon-11pm
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: L to Bedford Ave.
Delivery: Yes
Time Out New York says:

This comfort food-joint, an East Village fave since 1995, opens an outpost in South Williamsburg. Chow down on fried chicken, bacon-wrapped meat loaf and corn bread, plus specials, like sloppy joes or spaghetti and meatballs, based on recipes contributed by staff members’ mothers. Vegetarians can opt for their own platter of three sides, including options like mac and cheese, summer squash and beet salad.