We’re hungry already:

The Best Wings In Brooklyn Competition is an annual event where restaurants, bars, and other vendors throughout the borough of Brooklyn showcase their wares before a panel of judges – and hundreds of Brooklynites – in a quest for the coveted title of The Best Wings In Brooklyn!

This yearly competition brings people from all corners of Brooklyn together to feast on, vote on, and just out-and-out celebrate one of man’s greatest creations – WINGS!!!

Wings, wings, and more wings!!! How do YOU like ‘em???

THE BEST WINGS IN BROOKLYN COMPETITION was originated at, and is hosted by, Red Star, located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. While some may attempt to imitate or duplicate, rest assured there is only one true “Best Wings In Brooklyn Competition,” and it’s right here, each and every February!

If you’re a purveyor of wings or if you’re a wing aficionado… this is your Super Bowl, folks!!!

[via Brokelyn]

At Red Star Bar
Greenpoint
March 16, 2-8pm

Vice went to Rye in Williamsburg as part of their ‘Munchies’ series to talk to chef/owner Cal Elliot. In this excellent video Cal even takes us behind the scenes of Samurai Mama and gets wasted before heading back to make more food. Check (more…)

Xi’an Famous Foods has been drawing crowds to Queens and Manhattan for the past seven years, and with the opening of its newest location on 86 Beadel Street between Morgan and Vandervoort, the signature ‘tingly and spicy’ lamb burgers, slurp-able cold skin noodles and spicy cumin lamb burgers are now ready for you to bite into in Brooklyn. Stake out a stool, hunker over your steaming burger/buckwheat noodles/bowl of soup, and don’t look up from the meal until you feel tears streaming from a mercilessly tasty mélange of spices.

Occupying an abandoned warehouse, the self-identified Greenpoint/East Williamsburg spot is the brand’s fourth location, opened on February 9. Created as a commissary cum eatery, the newest Xi’an Famous Foods serves as the production station for food served in all four of the brand’s locations, as well as a storefront for locals to dig into the Northern Chinese cuisine. Feeling a bit heavy from Hungarian pie and other popular Polish indulgences? Detour off of Nassau, pass the residential row of Morgan, and turn right on the desolate Beadel Street. If you can’t smell the chili oil cooking, you’ll soon see the snaking long line.

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GQ just released their list of most outstanding American restaurants of 2013, and Williamsburg’s own St. Anslem made the list. GQ Food critic Alan Richman writes:

More than a steak house or a bistro, St. Anselm is a Brooklyn restaurant, filled with independence, quiet sophistication, beautifully executed simplicity, and a touch of quirkiness. I asked our waiter if absolutely every menu item was grilled, and he replied, “Except the spinach.” The avocado-and-shrimp salad comes with grill marks.

Read the rest of the review here.

And they are correct. The Bagel Store is amazing!

Williamsburg almost lost this little Bedford Avenue gem when a rent increase pushed owner Scott Rossillo out of his North 3rd Street Space. Thankfully, Rossillo just moved his operation down to the Southside, and they’re still cranking out hot handmade bagels for morning commuters there, and at a second outpost on Metropolitan Avenue. The Bagel Store’s perhaps best known for their specialty limited-edition bagels: seasonal offerings include spinach artichoke ($2 per bagel), sun-dried tomato ($2), banana ($1.75) and bacon-egg-and-cheese ($2.50). They also offer vegan bacon egg and cheese bagels on request, plus themed ones like a red velvet Valentine’s Day bagel in the shape of a heart ($2) and a Mardi Gras french toast bagel with extra sprinkled sugar ($1.50). Now we’ve seen everything!

At Momofuku Milk Bar’s Williamsburg location (382 Metropolitan Ave) you can now learn to create their amazing treats yourself. Dessert legend Christina Tosi and her staff will teach and bake through the entire Milk Bar cookbook starting February 14th. Already scheduled classes include Cornflake Chocolate Chip Marshmallow cookies, Crack Pie, Blueberry & Cream cookies and more. Spots for the $50 2-hour classes are going quickly but you can sign up for the remaining dates here, and be on the lookout for new class announcements soon.

Welcome to February. There are only two acceptable reasons to ever leave the house in this most bitter of months: to eat, drink and then return home to sleep the pain away. Seamless, GrubHub and crew have made it almost too easy to receive sustenance, survive the winter, and never see another living soul again. But until a booze delivery service is developed or HBO is purchased, trips to the outside world are a must. Allow these five new players to hit the Brooklyn food scene to woo you out of your self-imposed hibernation, with promises of pizza, poutine, chicken and waffles and braised beef cheeks.

Aska
Was I the only local woefully unaware that Kinfolk Studios hosts a rotation of seasonal restaurants? Aska, a Scandinavian creation boasting dumplings, Scandinavian-style hot dog and an assortment of stomach-filling fare, is operating in the same locale you’ve spent a Saturday night sipping Japanese beer and feeling slightly discomfited by interpretive dancing. Indulge in the $65 tasting menu and enjoy earthy fare beginning with fried pike skin, followed by an assortment of root vegetables and locally-sourced seafood, until finally arriving at the restaurant’s crown jewel: the deboned pork trotter. Wash down the hearty meal with a cider or a quick injection of Aquavit, and you’ll forget you have to walk home all the way from Wythe Ave.

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Greenpointers recently announced a contest to see who could name Paulie Gee’s latest pie – a pizza that replaces vodka sauce with a sauce made from sake. They came up with some great suggestions — The Akira Kurosake, Land of the Rising Dough, Greenpointzilla — but Paulie seems to prefer classic rock names like In Ricotta Da Vita and Grapeful Dead. Here’s what he told Greenpointers:

“We are going to go with a name suggested by our busser Jake. It will be called Sake Mountain Way, a take off on the Joe Walsh song Rocky Mountain Way. Jake was inspired by whomever suggested Sake Balboa, so whomever suggested that is the winner.”

We love Paulie Gee’s and can’t wait to try it.

Fortunately, Paulie’s looking to name another pie:

inspired by my favorite calzone. Fresh mootz, sliced Canadian bacon, sweet Italian fennel sausage, a touch of fresh basil and post-oven ricotta dollops.

Any ideas? Go leave your suggestions at Greenpointers.

Speaking of Paulie Gee’s… he’s opening shop in Baltimore!

Fried zucchini, pickled jalapenos and barbecue chips tucked under a blanket of fontina and smashed between two thick crusty slices of Caputo Bakery-fresh bread. I fell in love with No. 7 Subs on a warm September day in McCarren Park, when a friend celebrated her birthday and the end of summer with a picnic lunch. The sub was complimented perfectly with another Greenpoint/North Williamsburg staple: that lethal combination of tequila and substances unknown concealed in Styrofoam and identified as a Turkey’s Nest “margarita”. Be it the potency of the pickled jalapenos or the near-incoherence courtesy of my beverage, No. 7 Subs was immediately crowned the best sandwich I’d ever eaten.

No.7 subs is the offshoot of Chef Tyler Kord’s Fort Greene-based, No. 7, an eclectic, old-world style bistro serving up Asian and Eastern-European inspired comfort food a few steps from the Lafayette Avenue subway stop. With dishes from the double-decker broccoli tacos, crammed with peanuts and feta, to the double cheeseburger, topped with Swiss cheese or velveeta, it’s not a stretch to see wherein the inspiration for these savory sandwiches lies.

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Reynard’s Andrew Tarlow on the dinner series (via Eater):

Some of the thought behind this was obviously that having a hotel, we can attract our friends and have them stay with us for a week. It’s the idea of cooking with friends and inviting them to our home. We’re trying to offer up an experience that you can’t get in New York.

We’re thinking about doing it monthly, and doing a series of like four to six of them, and then we’ll take a little break and figure out how we want to do it after that.” He plans to eventually host acclaimed chefs from outside the country. Reservations for the first three dinners can be made by calling 718-460-800

Here’s the menu for the first three events:

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