Park Slope Reader

Katrina Yentch

Eating Local: Durian Ice Cream is Real

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A Chat with Jonathan Bayer of SKYICE

Here’s a combo you don’t see every day, at least not in the same restaurant: Thai food and ice cream. While you might venture for this creamy dessert after dinner, SkyIce gives you both entities in one sitting. Owned by husband and wife team Jonathan Bayer and Sutheera Denprapa, their spot on 5th Avenue serves savory Thai plates and ice cream flavors inspired by the like, with offerings like durian, white miso almond, green curry, and more. We sat down with co-owner Bayer to talk about the restaurant, his upbringing in the New York culinary world, and why he and Sutheera feel at home in the Park Slope neighborhood.

Can you tell me a little bit about your background in food and how you got interested in Thai cuisine?

Well, I have always been interested in food! I love to eat. Definitely love to eat. Growing up, we used to go out to eat quite a bit. My mother was a fantastic cook, had some amazing home cooked meals but we’d also go out to eat so I was always interested in restaurants and how they functioned. So I was exposed to very good food at an early age, which helped round out the palette. We also traveled a lot so I was eating food across the pond, on the West Coast, so I was exposed to a lot of different cuisines at an early age.

Are you from the West Coast?

No, no. Born and raised in New York. My family’s been here for about 150 years. Actually my great grandmother, when they opened up the tenement museum on the lower east side, she was honored as one of the living remaining original tenants of the actual Tenement building. Like, she was actually born in the museum. Where the museum stands was her apartment when she was a little girl so we date back to then.

So I’ve always had a love for food. I worked as a bus boy in high school at an amazing steakhouse in Huntington, Long Island and I waitered in restaurants and after graduating school I actually went to Wall Street. So finance is my background. And then, after various roles throughout finance I decided to go back into food.

What got you interested in Thai food?

Well my wife is Thai, born and raised in Bangkok. We actually started with ice cream in mind. My wife is a self-taught ice cream maven. She’s an artist by trade so she’s wildly creative and thinks up these flavors. But she’s also a huge ice cream fan so she started wanting to eat ice cream that she could not find on the market and her first flavor was Thai tea. She couldn’t find it anywhere and one day she woke up and was just like, “I’m gonna make Thai tea ice cream.”

So yeah she whipped up a batch, it took her about 6 months to make and perfect the formula and then we had this amazing homemade ice cream. We started to get really positive feed back from family and friends and we decided to just go for it and open up a shop. We weren’t sure how the winters were going to treat us. It turns out ice cream is a 12-month season but in order for us to kind of hedge we said, “Let’s offer some food.” So we offered a very small menu, some curry, some noodles, some appetizers, and we started to get a really great response from the food. So we said, “Alright, let’s expand this!” into what we have today, which is this really large, expansive, authentic, very traditional Thai food menu.

Did you learn the ropes of Thai cooking from your wife?

I would say I can cook. I don’t cook here. I would love to take credit but a lot of the recipes have my influence, my palette, what I like to eat. It’s kind of incorporated that into how we serve, the different flavors I really want to highlight. Thai food is so eclectic, there’s so many different flavors going on. And New York has many many Thai restaurants so I think through the volume, it’s lot some of its cachet. We wanted to kind of bring that back and pick up on the kaffir lime, the lemongrass, the tamarind, really get in touch with those amazing flavors that all kind of mix to make this amazing cuisine. So my influence is more in the recipes rather than doing the cooking.

How did you come to choose the Park Slope neighborhood for the business?

So we just celebrated seven years here. It didn’t look like this eight years ago when we first moved in so the neighborhood here in the North Slope. South slope was always very strong but over the last 7 to 8 years it’s really grown up around us. We looked all over. We hit it with this one. We knew we wanted to be in a family neighborhood because we had ice cream and we wanted something that was definitely family-friendly so we knew we wanted to be in that type of neighborhood. Trial and error found this location.

What would you say is one of your highlight ice cream flavors?

You know we get this question all the time and it’s such a hard question to answer because there are literally 15 flavors. We’ll have groups of people that come in just for durian ice cream. It’s popular, durian is a great flavor. There’s Thai tea, there’s the raspberry cilantro, the cucumber lime, white miso with almonds, the banana Nutella, the Belgian chocolate brownie, the roasted Thai coconut, Thai coffee. These are all really popular flavors.

 

 

Eating Local: Prospect Park’s Smorgasburg Market

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Another Summer in Foodie Paradise

There’s two kinds of foodies this day in age – the Instagrammer and the culinary enthusiast. However, both breeds commonly intersect, especially at New York City’s Smorgasburg, one of the biggest foodie festivals in the city. Park Slope is lucky enough to host one of its two weekly locations, and this summer has kicked off another round of good eats and photo-worthy treats. 

Smorgasburg started as a spinoff of Brooklyn Flea in 2011, a similar vendor market of niche artisanal finds and locally made crafts founded by entrepreneurs Eric Demby and Jonathan Butler. This food paradise is now the largest open-air food market in America and attracts 20-30,000 people to Brooklyn every weekend, with additional locations now in Downtown Los Angeles and Osaka, Japan. Hailed by The New York Times as “The Woodstock of Eating,” you’re guaranteed to find something offbeat and unique in the mass of 100+ vendors that roll through these spots regularly, many of which are local businesses – a way to sample through what you may end up visiting after hours. Treats from Ethiopian food and locally roasted coffee to short ribs and bone marrow are just a couple of the many items available, and some places booth on a regular basis too. If you’re too full to munch on that Dough donut today, there’s a good chance they’ll be around the following week serving up the same sweet calories.

As a somewhat newcomer to New York (I’m coming up on my first year anniversary this August), I wasn’t completely sure how crowded my first visit to Prospect Park’s Smorgasburg would be. Although I’d previously attended the Downtown LA market, I had no idea what to expect from one of the original locations. How many vendors would I see? Would it be packed despite an unusually chilly summer Sunday afternoon? 

Here’s the thing about food and New York though: You can’t get in the way of this essential “pairing.” Floods of people still flocked the booths with two hours left to spare in this seven-hour-long weekly affair, cold winds blowing through jean shorts and blouses on the brink of rain. A good 45 booths were still busy preparing foods like squid okonomiyaki and Indonesian coffee cocktails as people munched and Snapchatted and Instagrammed away, many of whom brought their pups along for the ride. An outdoor experience in New York is always a chance to bring a furry friend, essentially.

I decided to grab an entrée and a dessert – my poisons ended up being Mighty Quinn’s hearty and delightful short rib burger and Ube Kitchen’s vegan ube coconut custard flan. Both photogenic and delicious, I was easily stuffed within an hour.

Some things you may want to mentally prepare for upon visiting Smorgasburg are the lines. While you have a massive selection of foods to choose from, the saying is true: the longer the line is, the chance it’s much better too. At Smorgasburg, this is certainly the case. Come hungry but also ready to wait. Additionally, while many booths offer both cash and credit options, a good handful of vendors are still cash-only. While there are portable ATMs available, save yourself a few bucks worth of ATM fees and make sure it goes towards your treats instead! Lastly, these are not bodega takeaway prices. While many goods are served fast food style, you’ll still be paying close to the same amount you’d be spending at a restaurant with table service. The trade for this? Many foods are exclusively vendor/food trucks, so you won’t be able to find them anywhere else!

Happy munching, fellow foodie friends!

Eating Local: New in the Neighborhood

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MOTHERDOUGH PIZZA

72 7th Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn

929-295-0012  website: https://motherdough.pizza

 

In a city where pizza reigns superior, newcomer Motherdough makes it possible to continue this motto even if you’re on a health kick. 

A filling yet calorie-light endeavor, Motherdough’s naturally leavened pizza doughs come in a variety of guilt-free crusts including barley, whole wheat and even gluten free. And while many of us may shudder at the idea of a grease-free pizza, Motherdough’s craftsmanship actually manages to retain the “fluff” of a crust despite its “GF” nature.

Motherdough’s interior is playful and clean. While the space offers limited seating, perhaps 10 to 15 people at most, the building itself feels spacious. A massive kitchen reveals pizzas at work in the rustic ovens, and splashes of bright yellow and white cover the walls and tables. 

A stacked menu with fresh, light ingredients gives you plenty of variety in your guilt-free pizza experience while still staying true to the dish’s true Italian roots. The selections are organized into whole wheat, barley, and gluten free dough. Treats like the burrata & crudo di parma and margherita keep things classic, but if you want to get a pizza unique to the restaurant, try the veggie pizza with hummus, toasted almond slices, and more. The spinach and shrimps pizza also offers some interesting toppings (mustard and peanuts on top of what’s mentioned in its name). 

We decided to test the gluten-free margherita, the only gluten-free pizza on the menu. After tossing in a couple extras of the prosciutto crudo parma PDO, we were stuffed by the end of it. Although these are allegedly personal pan pizzas, you could easily split them too. Even though we were filled, it wasn’t in such a way that was over-bloating or greasy. Each bite felt fresh, and we didn’t leave feeling like we had just eaten 1000 calories. Instead, we felt ready to conquer the day, energized by a wholesome meal.

While Motherdough won’t give you the exact satisfaction of a craving you may be looking for with a traditional pizza, it certainly provides the opportunity to go out for a meal without ruining your diet.

Eating Local: A Floral & Fruity Precious Pup

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A Summer Cocktail Recipe From Dirty Precious

With climbing temperatures and increasing humidity, New York becomes more and more of a summer playground for drinking festivities. For something sweet and icy this season, take a few notes from the all-female team at Dirty Precious, a cocktail bar in Gowanus that serves up casual yet delightful sips and bites for the neighborhood. They bring you Precious Pup, a refreshing and versatile treat that’s floral, fruity, and boozy (co-owner Katipai Richardson Wilson recommends supersizing this cocktail for a punch bowl or pitcher). Feel free to substitute the recommended spirit with gin, tequila, or mescal too.

Precious Pup (not your Grandmas’s Boozehound)

1.5 Oz Vodka

.75 Oz lavender syrup

1 Oz grapefruit juice

.25 Oz lime juice

To make your own lavender syrup, steep 1/4 cup of lavender petals in 1 cup of hot water for 10 minutes. Strain and add 1 cup white sugar. Stir until dissolved.

Shake ingredients and strain over rocks into a Collins glass. 

Top with soda water and garnish with a grapefruit twist.

enjoy!

Eating Local: Four & Twenty Blackbirds: Strawberry Balsamic Pie

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Let’s be honest — Whether you’re a fan of sweets or not, who doesn’t love pie? Four & Twenty Blackbirds has become a staple in the Gowanus neighborhood for both their savory and sugary concoctions. Owners Melissa and Emily, who learned the tricks of the trade from their Grandma Liz, got their start building custom pies out of their Brooklyn apartment before establishing a flagship location in 2010. Now, Four & Twenty Blackbirds is easily the top spot in Brooklyn for pies. 

As the weather slowly warms, the time proves to be more than perfect for a fruit pie. The ladies have shared their recipe for the Strawberry Balsamic Pie for us, whose combination of strawberries and balsamic vinegar prove to make for an overall mouthwatering, satisfying treat.

Makes one 9-inch pie

Serves 8 to 10

Ingredients

¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 pounds fresh strawberries, rinsed and quartered (5 to 6 cups)

1 small baking apple (such as Northern Spy or Golden Delicious)

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 dashes Angostura bitters 

¾ cup packed light brown sugar

3 tablespoons ground arrowroot 

2 grinds fresh black pepper, fine setting

½ teaspoon kosher salt

Egg wash (1 large egg whisked with 1 teaspoon water and a pinch of salt)

Demerara sugar, for finishing

Recipe

· Have ready and refrigerated one pastry-lined 9-inch pie pan and pastry round or lattice to top (see page TK).

· Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of the granulated sugar over the strawberries. Stir gently to combine and allow the fruit to macerate at room temperature for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

· Peel the apple and shred on the large holes of a box grater. Drain the strawberries of excess liquid and combine with the shredded apple. Sprinkle on the balsamic vinegar and Angostura bitters.

· In a separate bowl, mix together the remaining ¼ cup granulated sugar, brown sugar, arrowroot, black pepper, and salt. Gently fold the sugar mixture into the strawberry mixture. Pour the filling into the refrigerated pie shell, arrange the lattice or pastry round on top, and crimp as desired.

· Chill the pie in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes to set the pastry.

· Meanwhile, position the oven racks in the bottom and center positions, place a rimmed baking sheet on the bottom rack  and preheat the oven to 425°F.

· Brush the pastry with the egg wash; if your pie has a lattice top, be careful not to drag the filling onto the pastry (it will burn). Sprinkle with the desired amount of demerara sugar.

· Place the pie on the rimmed baking sheet on the lowest rack of the oven.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the pastry is set and beginning to brown. Lower the oven temperature to 375°F, move the pie to the center oven rack, and continue to bake until the pastry is a deep golden brown and the juices are bubbling throughout, 35 to 40 minutes longer.

· Allow to cool completely on a wire rack, 2 to 3 hours. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

· The pie will keep refrigerated for 3 days or at room temperature for 2 days.

 

Good Wine, Good Company, Good Welcome

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A FEW OF THE BEST WINE SHOPS IN PARK SLOPE

Wine is new to me. However, coming from a specialty coffee background, I’ve naturally found myself drawn to the art of craft beverages, the art of curating and taste development. That being said, the world of craft beverages can be just as daunting as the culinary world. With so many flavor palettes, styles, and regions to choose from, any novice or expert can understand the importance of personalization when it comes to picking just the right vino to sip on – whether you’re looking to pair a bottle with food or want to try something new. Park Slope’s independently driven small business scene proves to be perfect for either party. With a small but mighty set of personally curated wines, the neighborhood’s friendly and knowledgeable business owners will easily help you pick out your next favorite bottle – and the one after that. 

 

Big Nose, Full Body

Situated right nearby the park on 7th Avenue, Big Nose, Full Body is an intimate wine shop that’s constantly bringing in new vines AND discounting you as an incentive to try them out. The gang regularly holds tastings every Saturday afternoon, plus additional ones as announced. The sun-filled space has a massive variety of both regions and price ranges to choose from, and the “staff picks” list is definitely worth taking a peek at for recommendations. If you’re on the go, chilled wines are at the ready.

Good Wine

Tastefully put (pun intended), 5th Avenue’s Good Wine is known as a “food lover’s wine shop.” A friendly staff of strong female entrepreneurs run this shop, a space that they took over nearly three years ago from its previous ownership. Not only do the ladies offer regular tastings of their selections (every weekday at 5:30pm and weekends at 4:00pm) they also have food pairing and education classes for the public. Finishing touches include homey seasonal décor and cookbooks resting above the shelves of wine selections, a mix of the owners’ own selections and neighborhood contributions. Deliveries within Park Slope require a two-bottle minimum – not too hard, right?

 

ACME Wine

ACME’s former origins as a 1930s deli are subtly hinted throughout the store; checkerboard floors, window signage for butter and cheese posted at the entrance. This cozy shop offers a large array of affordable wines from small producers around the world, and incorporates an entire wall of bottles under $14. The team also offers an extensive array of spirits that are Brooklyn and New York local, from gin to rum and whiskey, plus sake and cider for when you’re looking for sweeter buzzes. Join the email list to take advantage of tastings, plus the no-minimum wine deliveries till closing.

 

il Vino Torchio

Il Vino Torchio translates to “the wine press” in Italian, and ironically enough doubles as the namesake for this small but mighty wine nook on 4th Avenue. Argentinian-born owner Marcelo Torchio spent years strolling through grape vines back home before opening this spot in Park Slope in 2011. Hand-picked with his clientele in mind, Marcelo brings a mix of both old world and new world wines and offers tastings every Friday evening to showcase select vinos. He also curates a small but mighty selection of New York-made spirits.

 

 

 

 

From Sardinia to South Brooklyn: A Conversation with Convivium Osteria’s Carlo and Michelle Pulixi

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In a sea of new restaurants that rapidly open and close at a one-year-or-less pace, Park Slope’s Convivium Osteria has kept things going on 5th Avenue since 2000. Co-owner Carlo Pulixi notes, “This part of the neighborhood, I would say we were the very first. There were Spanish bodegas but nothing of what you see today. It was totally different.” The rustic, Southern Italian restaurant brings a little slice of Carlo’s Sardinia roots to Park Slope, a menu filled with fresh Mediterranean pasta and meat dishes. “It wasn’t really that I invented anything, more re-created. We brought it back to its origins,” Pulixi says. Co-owner and wife Michelle Pulixi met Carlo while working at Il Buco in the East Village, and the two decided that her Park Slope neighborhood would be the second home to showcase Carlo’s own home roots, along with Michelle’s Latin American family background. Today, you can still find many of the same menu items from when Convivium Osteria first opened nearly 20 years ago. We chatted with the owners about their experiences in the food industry and what they each love about Park Slope. 

Can you tell me a little bit about your background and how you got involved in the food industry?

Michelle: I’ve been in the food restaurant industry since I was 12, where I worked on weekends at my best friend’s moms apple pie shop, sometimes at the counter, sometimes making pies. Since then I have always just been working my way up at different restaurants until I ended up in NYC and within 6 months of moving here I met Carlo at a restaurant I was working at and 1 year later we started looking for a place to open up together. 2 years later we had Convivium. I worked along side him all the way through, he is the main brain behind it all, and I am good a supporting and giving fresh ideas and adding artistic touches. We raised our kids in our apartment above the restaurant and it is really a family thing. Our son is just about ready to start working at Convivium in about 1 year, but they have always helped in setting up and doing little chores.

Carlo: Well I’m from Italy. Sardinia. I spend half of my teens to half of them in Roma before coming to the United States. And since I’ve been in the United States I’ve always worked in restaurants. And it’s not that hard for me, came kind of natural. With a number of partners, I opened a restaurant in the city before coming here to Brooklyn, which that’s the time that I met my wife Michelle. I don’t know, it just comes naturally to me, the restaurant business. 

 

How did you help decide to move Convivium to Park Slope?

Carlo: When I met Michelle, she used to live here in Park Slope. I had never set foot in Brooklyn till then. Came to this neighborhood, got off at Grand Army Plaza, and fell in love with it. It was spring, the trees were green and all that. The neighborhood and the tree-lined streets, the sloping streets, the beautiful townhouses, and then, after almost 10 years in New York City, the kind of quietness. We lived very close to the park. It felt very great. We were planning on moving to Europe then really fell in love with it so we decided to open the restaurant here.

Michelle: We ended up in Park Slope because I lived here since 1998 and we both loved the neighborhood. Also, it had become impossible for little guys to open anything in Manhattan. Rents were reasonable back then in Park Slope, haha! We had very little money and had to squeeze everything in order to open up shop. Park Slope had a very cozy neighborhood feel, we felt at home here.

What do you think makes Convivium stand out from other restaurants in the neighborhood?

Michelle: What I think makes Convivium stand out is how when you enter the front door of our restaurant, you leave the hustle bustle of the city outside and, like a time portal, enter into a very rustic and cozy embracing atmosphere, at least I hope people do, that was our goal. A place where people can feel loved and appreciated, from the love we put into the food, to the setting and the service. Carlo is very keen to details and consistency at every level, from the wines he chooses to offer, to where he places a copper pot to shine just right, to quality and freshness of the produce and meat we offer, to the very rare and special wild fennel pollen that he chooses to spice a special pasta with. He was raised by farmers and chefs in Italy, so he has a lot of knowledge of the old world to bring to us.

 

 

Eating a Tuesday Night Away at “Taste of Fifth”

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If there’s one New York neighborhood you’d expect to be getting down on a Tuesday night, it certainly wouldn’t be Park Slope. However, if you throw in unlimited tastings of both food and alcohol, the residents can and will make an exception. This past Tuesday’s Taste of Fifth proved to be a massive hit, with hoards of people eating and dancing their way through the swanky yet funky event space of The Grand Prospect Hall. If Jay Gatsby were to have hosted his own food festival, he would’ve definitely put this venue on his list. 

[pullquote]Taste of Fifth continues to be a festive and filling gathering of neighborhood foodies, families, and New Yorkers looking for a good time and a good bite, of course.[/pullquote]With three full banquet rooms of 40+ businesses, Park Slope’s varied dining scene was truly showcased; Vendors served everything from Thai street food and ice cream (Sky Ice) to miniature tacos (Calexico). With an ever increasing amount of cafes and restaurants stepping up to the challenge of conquering the Fifth Avenue dining scene, the yearly Taste of 5th is easily the most fun, cost efficient, and timely way of deciding where your next go-to spot in town will be…and reversibly, which ones you may want to avoid! While Park Slope boasts an overwhelming amount of taco joints, both fusion and traditionally presented, not all vendors managed to match the savory flavors and fires of your true, authentic street taco. Similarly, the vast number of dessert providers had great ideas in concept, but in flavor may have fallen short in texture and quality. Regardless, Taste of 5th easily displayed just how diverse Park Slope can really be in its food scene, as I myself walked away with double samples and my own mental list of places I’ll be sure to grab full meals from later on.

 

A speakeasy serving up Tito’s Vodka cocktails provided a true getaway for folks seeking alcoholic provisions, while live jazz band Hot Club of Flatbush fueled both foodies and drinkers with an excess of strong energy and plenty of high-tempo jams to dance off the calories. Plenty of wine and beer vendors also managed create “warm spirits” throughout the evening. Not to mention, this was an altruistic occasion. 33% of the cost for every ticket went to a local charity of the buyer’s choice. Thanks to a myriad of humble and local sponsors, Taste of Fifth continues to be a festive and filling gathering of neighborhood foodies, families, and New Yorkers looking for a good time and a good bite, of course.

Warm & Buzzy Feelings: Our Winter Cocktail For You

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Ever since opening their doors in Park Slope six years ago, the Blueprint bar has become a staple in the neighborhood for meticulously prepared craft cocktails, a cove of alcoholic libations situated on the bustling 5th Avenue. Blueprint becomes extra essential when the temperatures go down and locals need something to warm them up. Last winter, co-owner Andy Bowtell crafted an extra merry holiday treat to sip and savor called the My Dear Julius, a beverage that has quintessential seasonal ingredients like cinnamon and maple. All the while, a mix of bourbon and a New York plum gin keep the drink buzzing yet still sweet with every sip. Come in and have a mixologist serve one up year-round, or try it at home yourself.

 

Andy Bowtell mixes a My Dear Julius at Blueprint

 

RECIPE: My Dear Julius

1 ½ ounces Bourbon

½ ounce Averell Damson Plum Gin Liqueur

½ ounce cinnamon syrup ¼ ounce maple syrup

¾ ounce lemon

4 dashes Fee Brothers Whiskey Bitters

3 dashes Regans orange bitters

1 egg white

– Dry shake ingredients (shake ingredients, including egg white, without ice)

– Wet shake ingredients (with ice) and strain over whiskey ice cube

– Garnish with angostura bitter love hearts

 

 

A Sip From Every Neighborhood: Where to Try NYC Coffees in Park Slope

By Filed Under: Eat Local

New York’s coffee scene is massive, to say the least. With closet-sized business spaces come a variety of restaurants and boutiques to every block; thus, the same holds true for the coffee shops of the city. While much of the café scene here is dominated by North Carolina’s Counter Culture, whose coffees can be found in nearly every other café, a small but mighty force of local roasters proudly brew and roast out of neighborhoods like Long Island City, Red Hook, and even our own Park Slope. Not only are these beans up to par, they’re improving the burgeoning coffee scene of New York from black and muddy brews to bright, floral and carefully prepared specialty beverages.

Park Slope plays host to a variety of these cafes, many spots whom hone in on local goods for both coffee and baked treats. In our neighborhood, you don’t have to trek on the bus to Red Hook or endure 12 stops on the G for some Long Island City-roasted coffee. Rather, you can simply wake up and walk over to the café down the street brewing something you’ll dig — and it’s likely it was roasted right in the boroughs around you. The only question is, whose coffee are you going to try today?

 

If you’re looking for both a savory pastry and a hearty brew, try out the Colson Patisserie (374 9th St at 6th Ave), whose one of two headquarters can be found off of 6th Avenue on 9th Street. A major wholesale pastry supplier of New York cafes, these guys serve up fresh, decadent pastries on the daily, along with espressos and a custom blend that the Brooklyn Roasting Company personally created for them.

 

Kos Kaffe (251 Fifth Ave at Garfield St) sits right in the hub of bustling businesses on 5th Avenue and roasts on site. A cozy space, it has homey elements like worn-in wooden floors, dining table chandeliers and a family of plants dispersed throughout the bar area. Come in and enjoy a full breakfast and lunch menu, along with simple coffee drinks served with their own supply. If you’re lucky, you may be able to smell fresh beans as they’re roasting on display.

A long-time staple of both Park Slope and NYC, Café Grumpy (383 7th Ave) roasts out of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and is a no-frills joint for a solid coffee. The utilitarian café has a consistent quality standard for their menu, as well as a huge selection of wholesale beans to continue the brewed goodness at home. Local pastries also fuel the café’s efforts to support the local scene.

 

If you don’t mind an extra two-block walk to the neighboring Gowanus, the newly opened Abbotsford Road (573 Sackett, between 3rd Ave and Nevins) brings a little taste of Australia to Brooklyn, whose roasters have been at it since 2002. The spacious interior and friendly faces make this a place to lounge around for a few hours, and the massive drum roaster on display also proves to be a wonderfully distracting sight in between sips.

Lastly, while Blue Bottle (203 7th Ave at 3rd St) may be based out of San Francisco, they keep things extra fresh by roasting out of Bushwick, whose bold blends and single origin made-to-order coffees make up for a solid, reliable go-to for a full, rich experience. Their chic, white and minimalist café brings a little touch of the SF coffee scene to Park Slope, but their friendliness and ability to remember your name by your third visit make it a neighborhood hang.