* Northeast Kingdom
photo: Bartomeu Amengual for The New York Times
American
18 Wyckoff Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237
in Bushwick
PHONE: (718) 386-3864
PRICES: $10-$17
BOOZE: Full Bar
CARDS: All Major
AVERAGE ENTREE: $12
SUBWAY: L train to Jefferson
WEBSITE: Click Here
MAP: Click Here
HOURS: Dinner: Monday - Sunday 5PM - 11PM (or later)
MENU: Click Here
FROM NY MAG
Bushwick is derived from the Dutch for “little town in the woods,” but a New England deer camp is the last thing you’d expect to find on its post-industrial streets. Nevertheless, husband and wife proprietors Paris Smeraldo and Meg Lipke have blithely imported touches of their native Vermont to the nether regions of the L train. Potted evergreens, seemingly the only vegetation for miles, mark the entrance, beneath a copper stag nailed to a slab of wood. Although a paint-by-numbers deer in a winter scene hangs over the bar, the interior avoids campiness; slate-gray planks in the ceiling impart a minimalist vibe. The food relies on fresh ingredients, with a menu that shifts accordingly. Gruyère cheese appears frequently, in a grilled mushroom sandwich, with cheddar in mac & cheese, and matched with coarse-cut country bacon in the N.K. version of a croque monsieur. Chicken pot pie is a signature dish, made with organic meat stewed with peas, carrots, and thyme, and crowned by a thick, flaky crust. An indie and glam-rock soundtrack sets a festive mood for the young crowd, reflective of a new Bushwick demographic attracted by cheap rents. And the discontinuity of northeast Vermont in northeast Brooklyn seems not to faze them. Recommended Dishes: Seasonal greens salad, $8.50; mac & cheese, $10; chicken pot pie, $12
FROM NY TIMES: THERE will come a time when the list of restaurant fads that haven't swept through New York will be shorter than those that have. One to strike from the first list: Alpine chic.Lodge, in Williamsburg, opened in the dead of the summer with no air-conditioning and a décor native to colder climes: porcelain antler sconces and chandeliers, tree-trunk bar tables and shaggy fake-fur carpeting. Aspen, in the Flatiron district, aims for its namesake city's sleazy-but-expensive snow bunny and white powder party vibe with bison burgers and Lucite taxidermy.
Northeast Kingdom, a modest and charming restaurant so far east on the L line that not even the most duplicitous real estate agent could sell it as East Williamsburg, is another one, a small place with a short menu of homey cooking in a one-story building surrounded by blocks of factories and warehouses.
The dining room is done up in salvaged woods: ceiling, floor, wainscoting. Vintage wallpaper decorates a corner, and found stained-glass windows with mismatched colored panes separate the kitchen from the dining room. Two tiny deer heads flank a large mirror hung on the wall near the communal table in the middle of the room. A far-ranging but coherent mix of music - from Can to Flaming Lips to Iron & Wine, with plenty of old-timey folk music for good measure - plays loudly over the restaurant's stereo system.
Paris Smeroldo, a law-firm librarian turned cook and restaurateur, opened Northeast Kingdom with his wife, Meg Lipke. They both hail from Vermont; they borrowed the name of the sparsely populated region on the state's Canadian border for their restaurant in a sparsely populated border region of Brooklyn.
Their menu has changed a number of times already in the month since they opened. A rotating selection of toasts ($4.50; two to an order), bruschetta by another name, makes up the bulk of the appetizer options. Toasts topped with sautéed kale and pecorino delivered on their simple promise one night; a pair piled high with eggplant and goat's milk Gouda did the same on a follow-up visit.
Menu staples include a hearty, simple dish of lamb stewed in red wine ($12), a homey chicken potpie ($12) and a B.L.T. dressed up with balsamic-spiked mayonnaise ($9 with a side salad). All are worthy.
The nightly specials, like grilled bratwurst with tender braised red cabbage or a rosemary-scented chicken leg over mashed potatoes, proved consistently rewarding.
Other than a lackluster apple dessert on my first visit, desserts (all $4) were all winners, excellent with a glass of port ($6) or the end of a bottle from the restaurant's gently priced list (all bottles $21 to $34). The best dessert was a slice of banana cream pie: crunchy crust, custardy banana filling exploding with banana flavor, freshly whipped cream on top. It's the slice of pie you hope will come out of that rotating display at a diner but never does.
Northeast Kingdom is an inviting, warm beacon on an otherwise spartan and industrial stretch of Wyckoff Avenue in Bushwick. Its owners made the right choice going for a cabin-in-the-woods feel, not a party-on-the-slopes one: you don't feel as if you're being hit over the head with an antler to drive the point home.
Northeast Kingdom
18 Wyckoff Avenue (Troutman Street), Bushwick, Brooklyn; (718) 386-3864.
BEST DISHES Macaroni and cheese; spinach salad with roasted eggplant, pine nuts and Parmesan; banana cream pie; most nightly specials.
PRICE RANGE Starters and salads, $3 to $8.50; sandwiches, $8 to $9; entrees, $10 to $12; desserts, $4.
From TimeOutNY
Think of this modest little spot as Brooklyn's very own Freeman's--a too-cool-for-school rustic restaurant in a nonintuitive location (Bushwick). The theme inside the 28-seat dining room is one part cabin-in-the-woods (wide-plank wood floors and ceilings, chunky wooden tables) and another part Grandma's living room (flowery vintage wallpaper, fabric-covered wall sconces). Chef-owner Paris Smeraldo, who opened the restaurant in December with his wife, Meg Lipke, has created a short menu focusing on country-style grub. Toast, for example, is smothered with tasty spreads such as butternut squash baked with brown sugar and cayenne or liver pâté spritzed with aged balsamic. Smeraldo's organic-chicken potpie (pictured) is superb: a thick, not-too-creamy stew studded with chunks of tender white meat, peas and carrots; flavored with thyme; and blanketed with golden, buttery pie crust. A selection of daily specials, written on a chalkboard, one day included Guinness-braised short ribs, which would have benefited from more braising sauce but were still tender and flavorful. Desserts like chocolate pudding and banana cream pie were much creamier and fluffier than anything normally harbored in a childhood memory. Two other welcome surprises: The wine list has many affordable selections--like a bottle of Sicilian Nero D'Avola for $27--and you no longer have to trek to an ATM now that the restaurant accepts credit cards.
Comments
Northeast Kingdom is a solid option that would probably receive less glowing reviews if it was in a more saturated market, but is still worth the trip. Good cocktails and solid beer selection. Table service is ok at best, I prefer to eat at the bar. There's a little lounge downstairs where you can have a drink while waiting for a table or catch the occasional Twin Peaks episode when they're showing stuff on the projector. Menu highlights include the duck and eggplant appetizers, burger specials when they have them, and the pork tenderloin. The kitchen is consistent - not spectacular, but you can count on a competently prepared meal - and the menu is pretty well-conceived. Clientele is young, white and arty, with some stuck-up pricks but some nice folks as well.
Posted by: nothumb | August 4, 2008 04:00 AM
Why so much hate? The atmosphere is wonderful, as are the drinks. Service has improved in the first part of 2008; eating at the counter is faster than a table. Avoid the macaroni and cheese, which seems to lack cheese. Salads are also not my favorite -- they taste kind of musty and the dressing is creamy. Everything else is very good, including anything made of duck, the chicken pot pie, the pork hash special, tomato soup, and the banana cream pie. There are also tons more restaurants on Knickerbocker and further down Wyckoff.
Posted by: mopar | April 12, 2008 10:29 PM
In response to the June 10th 2006 poster, it most certainly ISN'T the only option for food near the Jefferson stop. I've lived in that neighborhood since 2004 and there are tons of options that, unlike this place, don't offer overpriced, bland food & tiny portions from a menu that probably tastes better than what's written on it. Just within 2 blocks of my house (which is 3 blocks south of the Jefferson stop), there's Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Puerto Rican, Spanish, fast food & diner-ey options.
As for the service- just why ARE hipsters so bored all the time? Too bored to get my order right, too bored to even make an attempt to be friendly. Good lord, people. Get a hobby. I liked my neighborhood better before they started calling it east east east williamsburg & became populated with bored people wearing skinny jeans & sporting asymmetrical haircuts.
Posted by: Laura | March 12, 2008 10:18 PM
the food is always awesome...shame about the crappy service. i've had an obnoxious waitress almost every time i've been here. oh well.
Posted by: junebug | September 20, 2007 03:51 PM
Why is it always the same story? A neighborhood with few or no restaurants starts to get "gentrified" and the first restaurant to come along skips over about 3 price levels and cuts right to the $9.00 BLT and the $12.00 mac 'n cheese. Please.
And a note to one of the commenters above: the immediate area around the restaurant IS sparsely populated. The densly-populated immigrant part of the neighborhood is several blocks away.
Posted by: christopher | December 5, 2006 03:57 PM
Consistenly good with relaxed but friendly service. Good wine list with big glass pours. Lovely place to have so close.
Posted by: missred | December 4, 2006 03:34 AM
what a great find.i went there a couple of times when it opened and it was just ok, average at best...
i went recently, and it was so much better. i've been back twice in this past month...i dont know if they have changed kitchen staff or what, but the menu is much more interesting, the food is more flavorful and expertly cooked, and its now one of my favorite restaurants in the city.
its a very laid back place as well, great to just hang out and have a few drinks.
my only complaint is that while the service is fine, sometimes you get that irritating bored hipster attitude...
but all in all, its not that big a deal, considering the food, and prices, and atmosphere...
Posted by: jm | September 8, 2006 09:47 PM
This place is great. It has a liquor license now. The food contnues to be wonderful, and the prices are reasonable.
Please do not perpetuate the impression that the neighborhood where the restaurant is located is "sparsely populated" or located in the hinterlands. It's a densely populated immigrant neighborhood -- I've lived here for sometime, and call it home, even though most white folks may have just arrived in the last couple of years.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 24, 2006 07:39 PM
It's actually L train to Jefferson, not G to Montrose, which to my knowledge does not exist. The vibe is very warm and cozy. Menu is very limited. Food is tasty and hearty, if kind of basic. Could use a wider menu, and a liquor license, but a really nice space, nice people, worth going to (especially as its the only option whatsoever at Jefferson).
Posted by: - | June 10, 2006 04:26 AM
I don't think prices in NYC will be going down anytime soon...
Posted by: Matt C | June 8, 2006 11:32 PM