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The Reader On Food

“Be Pasta” and the Joy of Eating in a Closed Box

August 12, 2025 By Andrew Napolitano Filed Under: The Reader On Food

There’s a certain kind of magic that happens when a restaurant gets intimacy right. Not just intimacy in scale—though Be Pasta is certainly cozy—but in spirit. I felt it the moment I stepped through the door for Be Pasta’s grand opening, accompanied by my mother—the original source of my love for food. Her kitchen was where my earliest culinary revelations unfolded, and she showed me that when food is made with curiosity and care, it transcends nourishment and becomes a kind of storytelling. I’m happy to say that the folks at Be Pasta speak that same language. 

The space itself is small, but absolutely lovely: a single room that draws the eye directly toward the kitchen, where pasta dough is floured and folded by hand, visible behind a counter scattered with beautiful half-constructed dishes and glinting copper overhead lights. It’s a subtle act of transparency, of theater without performance. Patrons get to sip their wine while peeking into the workshop—no mirrors, no pretense, just some of the wildest pasta dishes made by people who know exactly what they’re doing. The rustic white-brick walls are decorated in an eclectic mix of Italian art, chalkboards, and even a vintage punch card machine.

Monia and Alessandro, the husband-and-wife team behind this new venture have already earned the neighborhood’s affection and esteem with their first restaurant, Terre BK, known for homemade pasta and a love affair with natural wines. Be Pasta is clearly an evolution of that passion—a slightly more playful, deeply personal project that feels as much like a dinner party as it does a dinner service.

My mother and I began with a bottle of 2022 Podere Pradarolo, a skin-contact wine from Parma that danced with floral perfume notes and finished with a whisper of rosewater. It was dynamic in the best way—structural but friendly, a wine that shapeshifted as we moved from course to course, somehow always finding the right note.

The menu at Be Pasta reads like a collection of Italian idioms, each dish named with a turn of phrase, hinting at something poetic or curious underneath. First to arrive: “The Goats and the Cabbages.” What came to the table were Brussels sprouts, blanched and bright, standing upright like little green boats. Each carried a tiny arrangement of fragola carpaccio, anchovies, capers, and a delicate drizzle of basil oil. The crunch was immediate, the flavor gently briny and herbaceous. It was one of those dishes that teaches your palate to listen closely.

Then: “To Go to Bed with the Chickens.” A plate of busiate—durum wheat pasta coiled tightly like a corkscrew—nestled into a ragu that tasted like a medieval love triangle: goose, chicken, and rabbit, all slowly stewed into harmony. The sauce was rich but not overbearing, clinging to the ridges of the pasta like it was meant to live there.

My personal favorite came next: “To Buy in a Closed Box.” Mezzi paccheri, those fat, short tubes that almost beg to be over-sauced, instead came dressed with elegance—a sauce of clams and celery root puree, crowned with peas so fresh they might’ve been picked outside the kitchen window. The name of the dish caught me, so I asked. Monia smiled and explained: in Italian, “to buy in a closed box” means to purchase something sight unseen—because your trust in the quality is so absolute, you don’t need to check inside. An ideal metaphor for this restaurant, really. You could close your eyes, point at anything on the menu, and be rewarded.

For dessert: “To Be at the Fruit.” A deconstructed caramelized pasta tart, filled with sweet Chantilly cream and paired with seasonal fruit. The crisped pasta shell, delicate and ridged, reminded me of a sfogliatella—that iconic Neapolitan pastry that shatters into a hundred flakes the moment you bite in. It was a sweet little miracle that reimagined pasta as dessert, without losing the soul of either.

But what truly elevates Be Pasta beyond the sum of its ingredients is the warmth that flows from the staff like a second wine pairing. Our host was generous and genuine, and not in that rehearsed hospitality school way. She spoke about the dishes with pride, joked with my mother like an old friend, and explained the idiomatic menu with the kind of detail only someone deeply involved would know. Executive Chef Andrea’s hand is unmistakable in every plate—there’s control without rigidity, a balance between creativity and comfort that’s as rare as it is welcome.

Be Pasta doesn’t shout. It doesn’t need to. It hums along like a well-loved song, one you don’t mind hearing again and again. Be Pasta is the kind of palace you take a first date to (they will remember dinner, even if they don’t remember you!).  Be Pasta is the kind of place where you take your wife on a temperate summer evening just to celebrate being alive together. Be Pasta is the kind of palace you take your mom to show off, when she comes to visit you in Brooklyn.

Be Pasta

447 1st Street

Filed Under: The Reader On Food

Pure Sourcery

July 18, 2025 By Angela Xu Filed Under: The Reader On Food

Bhavna Kolakaluri grew up in a small city in South India, in a home where food wasn’t just food—it was ritual, memory, and love. After moving to the U.S., she found that the grocery store spices were flat and flavorless—nothing like the vibrant, aromatic ingredients she had grown up with. Thus began her journey of sourcing fresh spices directly from small family farms in India.

She founded Sourcery in 2023 with the goal of bringing freshness, fairness, and flavor back to the kitchen. Since then, her farm fresh spices have appeared in various farmers markets, CSAs, cafes like IXV coffee in Boerum Hill, and markets across Brooklyn, including Greene Grape Provisions in Fort Greene.

I recently attended an AAPI Heritage Month dinner and had the opportunity to meet Bhavna, learn about her inspiring story, and taste the vibrant flavors of Sourcery for myself.

Angela: Hi Bhavna. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and how you started Sourcery?

Bhavna: So I grew up in India and moved to New York to go to grad school. Then I worked in food startups like Fresh Direct, Daily Harvest, and Blue Apron where I got to peek behind the scenes of how immigrant food makes its way into the grocery store shelves and onto people’s plates.

I noticed that the richer stories are all stripped away, probably because the people sourcing the foods have not lived in these cultures. At the same time, the Indian food scene in New York was bursting—Semma had opened, Masalawala had opened—and I thought, “Maybe there’s an opportunity for me to do something here.”

My parents live in the southeast of India, in a state called Andhra Pradesh, and I go visit them every year. Sourcery was borne from my desire to deepen my own relationship with my country while sharing my culture with the world.

That’s interesting that you worked at so many food startups. Was food something you’ve always been interested in?

Yeah. My family is really into food so I have all these memories that tie back to food. I grew up in a family where my mom and my dad were both actively making three meals a day, and they spent a lot of time preparing dishes. For instance, to make the batter for dosa, they had to take rice to be ground at the local mill first. But they both really enjoyed the process of cooking.

In the summer during mango season, my grandmother would start the pickling process, so my aunts and my mom, we would all buy mangoes from the markets and cut them up, and the house would smell really wonderful. I loved those moments where all the members of the family would come together and the food made the house smell so good.

I visited a market in my hometown of Qingdao recently, and everything was seasonal and what you saw was what you got. Meanwhile in the U.S., we expect to have everything at all times, even if they’re not in season, and that sometimes translates into cultural meals that are diluted or don’t taste like they’re supposed to. 

For sure. Some ingredients you only get for an extremely short period of time, and you really intensely enjoy it at that time, and then wait for another year. And your experience of it is so much richer because of how ephemeral it is.

So one of the things that I wanted to do with the spices I offer is to treat them more like food.

In the U.S. spices are so commoditized that by the time they reach the grocery stores, they’ve been sitting around in warehouses for ages and you don’t know how old the spices are. When people smell my spices at farmers markets, even something as simple as black pepper, they’re like, “Whoa, it smells raisiny!” It really opens their mind to the idea that fresh spices actually taste really good and have real complexity.

That adds to the complexity of the dishes they’re used in, right? And deepens our understanding of their respective cuisines.

Totally.

And there are so many regional foods too that people don’t know about. Like sure, tandoori chicken is popular, but there’s also sambar, which is this lentil blend that you dip dosa in. I remember my mom making it every Saturday or Sunday, and it just smells really nice, because it’s tangy from tamarind and sweet from jaggery.

One of the things I want to do is make more regional flavors like sambar accessible through spice blends. 

What sets Sourcery apart? How are your spices so flavorful?

So in order for spices to be really flavorful, there are a few things that need to happen.

One is the seed variety. We opt for heirloom varieties, which are basically what naturally grew and evolved in a specific place. 

They usually don’t look as pretty—for example, the heirloom variety of green cardamom is really small, whereas the variety that has been bred for consumption and high yield is really large and green. But in terms of complexity of flavor, heirloom varieties are much better. So I try to source heirloom varieties as much as possible. 

I also source from small farms, because people who’ve had land in their family for generations tend to take better care of their land. They intercrop it. They’re not just growing for yield. So I’m focused on finding these farmers who are trying to do things sustainably.

It’s so interesting how these ancient cultures—Mexican, Indian, Native American—all practiced intercropping. They knew about this chemical-free way for different produce to grow synergistically while also preserving the quality of the soil. That ancient wisdom seems lost in modern U.S. agriculture.

I mean, as soon as you treat land to maximize yield and production, then you’re treating it as something that is expendable to some end. And that leads to really disastrous consequences. 

Native agriculture or regenerative agriculture is just how agriculture was done a long time ago before industrialization kind of messed it up.

It sounds like sustainability and ethics play a huge role at Sourcery.

For sure. I also aim to pay farmers more than what they would get if they sold in their own local markets or sold to traders or anybody else here. That’s a big value as well.

How do you find these farmers?

It wasn’t easy. At first I thought, “Oh, I’m just going to find them on the internet.” But no, farmers are not on there.

I knew that Andhra Pradesh was the biggest producer of turmeric in India, and there is a market in the town my mother is from where turmeric is traded. So we went to this town and we talked to a bunch of farmers there and asked them to take us to their farms. That’s how we started building these relationships. 

Then I discovered that a lot of farmers who grow things organically form networks. They share information amongst each other because organic farming is actually really hard. It’s like a race against nature: you do something, nature does something back. It’s like a chess game and so they have these networks to exchange information.

Once I found a really good organic farmer, he introduced me to other farmers. 

Reaching that network is so valuable. You had to know the language, have family in the area, understand the culture… I feel like that’s something that only someone in your position could have done.

Right. Another example of a spice that I wanted to source for a really long time is tamarind. It grows wild in the region that I come from, but it’s in these forests that are really, really dense. There are some tribal groups that live there whose livelihood is foraging wild tamarind, and they bring it to these local tribal markets where traders then buy them for resale.

For a long time, I really wanted to buy tamarind from them. One day my dad and I embarked on this six-hour journey into this town called Chintapalli, in order to track down these foragers and try to buy directly from them.

If didn’t quit my job to do this, I would not have been able to have this experience.

Can you talk about the experience of quitting your job to build this small business?

Yeah. I worked as a product manager and primarily built supply chain systems. So I saw from a distance how businesses are run, but I never thought I would start my own company. I didn’t know a big part of how businesses are run, but I thought, “Okay, I’ve figured out a lot of projects. Like, I can figure this out.” 

Two years ago, I received my green card and had the ability to quit my job. So I decided to give myself six months to see how far I could get.

I started sourcing two spices: jaggery and turmeric. Along the way I learned how to do all of stuff like, you know, start an LLC, like, make a website. But I didn’t know anything about marketing. I find it hard to promote myself on social media. The path that made the most sense to me is selling in farmer’s markets, where I’m interfacing with people one-on-one and I’m able to tell them my story in a more concrete way. 

I get the sense that Sourcery is very grassroots and it’s very rooted in the local community.

Oh, yeah. When I first started, I set up a table on Willoughby Street with a friend who makes chili crisps. That’s how I made a lot of friends who are other founders in the neighborhood. And from there, I progressed to other markets in the city. A bunch of people introduced me to their friends who owned stores — Sujuk on DeKalb Avenue is one of the stores I was referred to. So it kind of grew very organically.

How has the growth been beyond the first six months?

It’s not been linear. I got the thing off the ground within six months, but I also wasted a lot of time agonizing on all these minor details like which colors and fonts to use. I look back, and I’m like, “What did I do in those first six months? I feel like I just sat at home looking at my website and wondering why nobody was buying anything.”

I also had to develop thicker skin and learn to pitch my product to grocery stores, which I was a bit too scared to do at first.

I just came out of it a little bit stronger with thicker skin, um, and, like, went and started, like, pitching my product to, like, grocery stores, like, to Green Grape, um, and, like, doing these things, which I was, like, a bit too scared to do in the first six months.

When you see other businesses on social media, you don’t know what journey they’ve been through. You see someone who’s very successful now, but we don’t know what they’ve gone through or how long it has taken them. In my experience, it always feels like one positive thing happens and then nothing happens for a while. 

I feel like things are starting to click a little bit more, but it’s a very up-and-down ride. You might reach a goal that you’ve set and then you realize, “Oh, this is not it.”

What does the near future of Sourcery look like?

So I started with two spices, jaggery and turmeric, two years ago. Now I have 17 spices. And I’m doing Fancy Foods later this month!

It’ll be my first trade show. I’m excited to see if my product has a shot at a big grocery store and to talk to a big grocery store buyer and see what they do and don’t care about.

I’m also launching spice blends, which I’m really excited about. I noticed that a lot of people actually don’t know how to use spices and I think spice blends actually make it easier for people to start cooking

Do you have a long-term dream for the company? 

Oh, good question. I think what excites me most is really the sourcing part of my job. I want to turn that into value for the customer, by sourcing this diverse range of spices from South Asia that people cannot normally access in grocery stores, and like bring really high quality versions of them. I really want to go deep because there are so many spices in South Asia that people don’t know about.

Totally. And I feel like there are so many stories to be told when you do. 

It’s a treasure trove. And it’s also a personal journey of exploring Indian cuisine. As I go deeper, I learn more and I find that enriching. Half the reason why I do what I’m doing with Sourcery is just pursuing my own interests.

It sounds like your relationship to Indian cuisine and ingredients changed after leaving India. 

Growing up in India, I just consumed what my parents made. I was curious about other regional cuisines, but I didn’t have much access unless we traveled, because I grew up in a small city (of 3 million people obviously). And it’s funny, I had access to a greater diversity of regional Indian cuisines after I came to America.

But also as I got older, I started digging deeper into my roots, beyond what the history books teach. I think that is one of the reasons that prompted me to start Sourcery — it gives me an avenue to spend more time doing this.

Do you have a fondest food memory or a dish that is just so nostalgic for you?

I have very strong memories of food scents.

Like when my mom would make ghee at home. She starts by making yogurt at home and skimming the cream of the yogurt. Over time it accumulates in the freezer until one fine day they’ve collected enough and it’s time to make the ghee. 

And it’s melting that hardened milk cream in a pot creates ghee. It makes your home smell so heavenly, and when you make it, there are these brown bits of ghee stuck to the bottom of the pot. My mom used to skim it off and put some sugar on it and give me a taste, and that was always my favorite.

Filed Under: The Reader On Food

Mockingbird Takes Flight

April 10, 2025 By Angela Xu Filed Under: Eat Local, The Reader On Food

Since each person’s decision to embark on a sober journey is unique, the founders of a new zero-proof cocktail bar set out to create a space in the neighborhood where everyone is welcome. Together, they’re pouring uniquely crafted concoctions while curating an environment that will both quench your thirst and satisfy your craving for community.

The newest bar on 7th Avenue is doing things a little bit differently. Mockingbird, founded by Evan Clark and Coulton Venuto, is a booze-free bar focused on serving unique craft cocktails in an inviting space. I recently chatted with the duo to learn about the inspiration behind the bar, their personal journeys with sobriety, and their uniquely scientific approach to creating delicious zero-proof cocktails.

Angela: Hey Evan and Coulton, thanks for taking the time to chat today. Could you tell me a little bit about yourselves and what led you to open a non-alcoholic cocktail bar?

Evan: So Coulton and I have been friends for forever. I have been sober pretty much my entire life, and Colton decided to go sober last year.

We basically saw that the options for spaces that were kind of upscale and more adult-oriented were really lacking in the city. Think like a good date night spot that’s cozy and also serves really good drinks. There are a few in Manhattan that are more dive bar-esque, but we wanted to do something that was a little bit different.

Coulton: Plus I feel like non-alcoholic options at restaurants and bars feel kind of like an afterthought. They’re not really doing anything creative, and I don’t fault them for that. But we wanted to create a space that’s dedicated to creative non-alcoholic drinks.

Angela: What are some examples of creative cocktails on your menu?

Coulton: So this one is pretty polarizing, but it’s kind of like a Ramos Gin Fizz. We use heavy cream and egg whites and we charge it with nitrous oxide in a whipped creamer, which creates this kind of bitter, sweet milkshake drink. 

Another one is our take on a spritz. Instead of using non-alcoholic wine, we use verjus, which is made from pre-harvest wine grapes. Using our special carbonation system, we pressurize the drink and then give it a shake and it’s much more interesting than your average spritz.

Those are just two things on the menu. We only have five drinks on the menu now.

Angela: It sounds like your menu is very thoughtfully curated in terms of flavors and preparations.

Coulton: Definitely. We’re leveraging N/A (non-alcoholic) spirits, which, on their own, frankly aren’t good. You need to know how to work with them, and what to mix with them.

And we’re doing unique things with tea concentrates. In traditional cocktails, you use syrups to cut the ethanol from the liquor. But with non-alcoholic drinks, you don’t necessarily have that component. So we’re leaning away from syrups and more into teas.

We’ve spent a lot of time being very meticulous about the flavor profiles of everything, and making sure that it’s something you’re going to sip. 

Angela: How do you make sure your drinks are more sippable than guzzleable?

Coulton:  If you’re just mixing a bunch of juices, you’re going to be able to down it immediately. So we play with carbonation, with the Perlini system. We play with bitterness, with bitter spices like Junshin, Wyrmwood, and Dandelion root. There are so many different bittering agents you can use to make it so that it’s hard to drink really quickly.

Angela: That’s a really layered approach to making cocktails. Do either of you have previous bartending experience?

Evan: My background is actually in biochemistry, in applied molecular biology. I’ve taken a lot of the principles of traditional laboratory science – of experimentation, of knowing how things interact at a chemical level – and used them to drive a lot of our understanding of how all these ingredients work. For example, which flavors work together or what specifics a concentrate needs to have to match a certain flavor profile.

It’s a very technologically focused approach, and there’s a lot of time spent on the minutiae. If a note is not quite where we want it to be, we adjust it bit by bit, ingredient by ingredient, to get to the profile that we deem as consumable for everyone.

Angela: That’s fascinating. What about you Coulton?

Coulton: I work as a software engineer. So our menu is smaller because we both have day jobs and we’re working 12-14 hour days. But we’re doing this because we love it – I nerd out on the cocktail science stuff, which is why I dipped my toes in this venture.

Angela: Could you share a bit about your journeys to sobriety?

Evan: Mine is simple. I used to work in nightlife; I used to DJ many late hours for many years. When I turned 21, I was just like, “I don’t think I need to drink.” It was kind of something where I decided, “If I don’t miss it because I haven’t tried it, then I’m not gonna miss it if I don’t try it.” 

Coulton: For me, I stopped drinking a little over a year ago due to some health concerns. And I think that everyone has a different relationship with alcohol. That’s something that we’re hearing every day at the bar, about how alcohol has affected people, both directly and indirectly.

Angela: Do you also offer non-cocktail non-alcoholic options?

Coulton: Part of the reason why I wanted to open the space was because I discovered all of these great non-alcoholic options that didn’t exist two or three years ago. The non-alcoholic spirits, the beers, the wines – there’s this whole new emphasis on health and wellness. If not full sobriety, then drinking in moderation.

So that’s why I wanted to create this space to share all of these great products. There’s all these great non-alcoholic beers and wines that aren’t widely distributed. And we really wanted to highlight small businesses, things that you can’t easily find anywhere else. For example, we’re introducing a new IPA out of Portland that is currently only sold in Oregon State. 1911 Cider is a de-alcoholized cider made outside of Syracuse, which is pretty rare.

Angela: So is your palette and sense of curation mainly influenced by you finding alternatives for yourself and exploring what you like?

Coulton: Basically, yes. But it’s funny, I lean more on the sweeter side of drinks and Evan does not. So he’s pushing my boundaries with some of our drinks.

We make a pretty good clarified Bloody Mary. We use a consommé with traditional Bloody Mary spices and clarify it with egg whites. Then we add the Pentire Adrift, which is a more savory spirit, as well as hot sauce, soy sauce – a lot of things with umami. And we’re working on a few more cocktails for the Winter menu that will be more on the savory side.

We’re really looking forward to being almost experimental in the non-alcoholic space, which I feel is lacking in New York in general.

Angela: Beyond filling this need for elevated non-alcoholic cocktails, how did you think about providing an alcohol-free space for the community?

Evan: We designed it to be like a cocktail bar just because that just alludes to a more adult experience. We invested heavily in the booth seating because we wanted people to be comfortable. And we also wanted a fairly large bar for people who come alone to be able to chat with other people who are there alone. 

We’ve seen quite a bit of people come by themselves and chat with the bartender or with other people for the whole night. Which is really cool and not something that we planned for. But I think building those connections without alcohol is so cool and so rewarding.

Coulton: I can point to several examples of groups of sober people coming in and saying, “Oh my God, we deserve a space like this too.” We’ve seen a wide variety of people come in: people who drink, people who don’t drink, people who just aren’t drinking for the night, people who are pregnant. So I feel like this space is for everyone.

Angela: How did you choose Park Slope?

Coulton: We both live in this part of Brooklyn, but we weren’t initially planning on choosing Park Slope. We saw this as the end goal of what we wanted to do. But we were just exploring and looking at spaces, and we just fell in love with the neighborhood: the proximity to the park, all the cool restaurants and bars on Fifth and Seventh Avenues. There’s all sorts of cool new restaurants, bars, mom-and-pop shops. It just felt right.

Angela: What would you say has been the biggest challenge so far, and what is your biggest goal for the future?

Evan: The biggest challenge so far has just been getting open, because there are so many small things you have to deal with. It has been so much work just getting to a place where we could start serving. But we opened mid-January and we’re actually seeing more traffic than we were expecting. Friday, Saturday night, it’s usually full house.

And we’re seeing people come back and become regulars. We have a lot of people in the neighborhood who are really trying to find some space that they can have to themselves outside of the home. So the positive outlook is that there is definitely the need for our bar and there are definitely people who support it.

Going forward, our biggest goal is to be the neighborhood spot where people are gonna come, they’re gonna get some food around the corner, they’re gonna meet their friends, and they’re gonna be able to have a nice night out. I think that will be a big win for us.

Filed Under: Eat Local, The Reader On Food

New York City’s First Ever Unionized Pizzeria Closed at the End of February

March 27, 2025 By Lauren Hartley Filed Under: The Reader On Food

The storefront of Barboncino

One month after its closure, now-vacant Barboncino still lingers in the minds of its customers and workers—and in the larger conversation around labor power in Brooklyn.

BROOKLYN — Barboncino in Crown Heights served its last wood-fired pizza on Feb. 28. 

The pizzeria had become known for more than its Neapolitan style crust: it was the first unionized pizza place in the city and a community staple.

“It is a place where you can go at any moment and see someone that you want to talk to,” said Andrea Lopez, 34, a bartender and server at Barboncino, who lamented the loss. “It’s a really, really special place, and it’s a really rare thing in this increasingly kind of atomized and isolating world.”

The closure is also a blow for labor organizers, and it hints of how tough such efforts will be in Brooklyn in the months ahead. Workers United, a national union which had helped organize the pizzeria’s workers, had scored another big win at the Starbucks in Park Slope in October 2024. But like Barboncino, the Park Slope Starbucks closed in January, with the company citing financial strains.

The ability of workers to flex their power seems to be fading rapidly as the Trump administration makes changes at the National Labor Relations Board and a cooling labor market suggests more unemployed people are available for companies to hire. 

At Barboncino, owners and workers had been unable to agree on pay and other terms for more than a year. Similarly, they now disagree on the reason for the shop’s demise. Employees say the new owners failed to provide the quality and care that had cultivated a loyal following.

The owners say the business succumbed to the financial pressures common among small restaurateurs. On Instagramthey posted, “We believed in Barboncino’s long-term potential, but because of rising economic strains, diminished sales, and other industry-wide challenges, it is with great sadness that Barboncino must put out the oven-fire, and close the doors.” 

Employees at the Crown Heights restaurant worked with Workers United to officially form a union in July of 2023, but negotiations stalled, and a contract was never signed between the owners and the union. The union represented the 32 hourly employees.

Becca Young, 28, a server at Barboncino and one of the lead contract negotiators, described negotiating as “a really drawn-out process.” 

“They were willing to meet with us once a month, mostly,” Young said of the owners. “Except for when they were away vacationing in Capri, which was often.”

At their final negotiation meeting before the closure announcement, workers presented their economic proposals. The owners delayed responding until eventually announcing they were closing for good. 

“Our community, one we have worked to preserve and improve, is being dismantled at the hands of absent owners that have repeatedly ignored our needs,” is written in an Instagram post by Barboncino Workers United, announcing the closure of the restaurant. “A union can’t salvage the damage done by incompetence, neglect and disregard.” 

Most of the front-of-house staff worked part-time at the pizzeria and supplement their pay with other work. However, for many, Barboncino was their primary source of income. 

Staff have started a GoFundMe to help staff that are in financial distress after losing their jobs. They have raised over $10,000.

Despite lacking a formal contract, the union was able to achieve some worker protections. One victory came when morning shifts were abruptly cut—a total of ten shifts. Initially, staff were given just a week-and-a-half notice, but after pressure from the union, management agreed to delay the major scheduling change to give workers a chance to find other work.

Another was the implementation of a step-by-step protocol to address incidents when a customer harasses an employee.

Barboncino was bought from its original owners by Jesse Shappell and Emma Walton in October 2022.

“I think they viewed the restaurant as an investment, and we viewed the restaurant as a home, and I think they couldn’t understand what they had bought,” Young said.

Lopez, who has been at Barboncino for six years, said that staff noticed business was lagging and customers were unhappy but felt ignored when they brought their concerns to the owners. 

“They were just raising the prices, lowering quality, and we were like, people are complaining about the prices and the quality of the food,” Lopez said. “And they were absolutely ignoring us at every turn. They took no steps to, in any way, try to bring back business.”

Filed Under: The Reader On Food

Chilly Wind from the East

January 31, 2025 By Andrew Napolitano Filed Under: Park Slope Life, The Reader On Food

And a Duel between Dumplings

Take a break from the brisk winter air and fill your plate with warm, savory dishes inspired by old Chinatown tea houses at East Wind Snack Shop. It only took one visit to capture this author’s heart (and stomach) and become an instant favorite. You may even see him during your next visit, and you too can join the debate of which dumpling reigns supreme. 

East Wind Snack Shop’s charming Park Slope location brings some of the best dumplings in the city to our very own backyard.  

My love affair with East Wind Snack Shop began on a cold blustery Saturday afternoon at the end of October. After a long and stressful month with disappointingly few fall-weather days, we finally had our first really chilly day, and that occasion called for dumplings!

I had only just learned about East Wind the week prior, where a good buddy of mine had gushed about his experience with their deluxe wonton soup.

I probably shouldn’t be telling you this as a food writer, but I have a personal bias toward Chinese comfort food. The most sacred room in my culinary mind-palace is not reserved for a 7-course tasting menu, or a dish garnished in Michelin stars. Nope. That room contains a small formica table and a plate of steamed spare ribs from none other than Chinatowns own Nom-Wah Tea Parlor.

Now that I have disclosed my prejudice, I can openly express how excited I was to learn of this charming little tea parlor in our very own neighborhood. As soon as we arrived, it was love at first sight. 

The storefront, decorated in cherry-red, has the warm and inviting vibe of an old school Chinatown cafe. Upon entering, the interior of East Wind opens to a high tin-finished ceiling, painted landlord-special white, with a wraparound wainscotting caked in a primary red paint. There is countertop seating, as well as a few tables and chairs, and the back of the establishment opens fully to the kitchen, where a few wooden privacy screens denote the line between those eating the dumplings, and those preparing them for consumption. 

As we sat down, I turned to the bright red wall to my right, where the paint had rendered an electrical outlet perfectly unusable. I turned to my left, where a woman and her daughter sat quietly engaged at the countertop, slurping on soup and noodles. Above their heads, a large television played YouTube videos of Chinese street food being prepared. I turned my head back to my wife, already deep in thought and concentrating on the elegant little paper menus and I exclaimed “I love it here.”

We had not even tried the food yet, but I was experiencing a feeling similar to the very first time I had dim sum in Chinatown. The feeling was pure comfort, a simple sensation of “welcome.” We dove right in, ordering the aged beef potstickers (a dish they are particularly well known for), as well as the “Incredible Har Gow” shrimp dumplings. 

But how could we just stop there. We ordered a side of the Shanghai Noodles to share, and two of the “Gwaco” pork belly bao buns. I washed it all down with a Ramune soda for good measure.

When it all arrived at our table in spartan cardboard bowls, I thought we had ordered too much food, but if we had, it didn’t matter. We ate every last bite, and those were (to date) THE best dumplings I have ever had. We couldn’t even decide which we loved more between the beef and the shrimp. In fact we were so torn, that we had to come back the following weekend and order it all again.

On our second trip out East, we substituted Shanghai Noodles, for the Spicy Crispy option which I liked even better; This time I decided that the dry aged beef dumplings were my favorite, but my wife disagreed, marginally favoring the crystal shrimp dumplings, with their sweet and savory abalone sauce. It was still a very close race between the two.

Of course, we still hadn’t had the wonton soup. My friend who initially turned me on to East Wind said it was his favorite, so we had a good excuse to come back the very next day with him and his wife. For those keeping track, from Sunday to Sunday I had already patronized East Wind Snack shop three times. 

It wasn’t even a question as to what I would be writing about for the winter edition. 

I had not fallen so head-over-heels in love with a spot since Nom Wah Tea Parlor, and now I didn’t even need to go to Manhattan. The dumplings were better here anyway (sorry Nom Wah, your steamed spare ribs will always have my heart).

The following weekend was the New York City Marathon, and the only reason we didn’t get there for lunch was because we were busy cheering on friends. But the weekend after that, we had five friends visiting us from Boston, and you will never guess where we took them to eat.

On our fourth visit, (another particularly chilly day) we were given cups of hot water, as opposed to the usual chilled tap. This custom I learned is quite popular in some Asian countries, where the warm liquid is thought to be better for digestion in colder weather. I am decidedly a fan and I got a kick out of seeing all my Boston friends gingerly sip at their piping hot tea water. Of course, this time around I had reversed course, and decided that the shrimp dumplings were in fact my favorite, but as I sit here writing about them, I’m already thinking there may just need to be another round between the two of them this week.

Four consecutive trips in half as many weeks is about as ringing an endorsement as I could give, and I do not plan on slowing my cadence any time soon. So, this winter, when the holidays are behind us, and the icy grip of New York City’s wind chill tightens around our scarves and hats, I hope you will join me with a hot cup of tea (or water) and two paper trays of dueling dumplings.

Locations:

417 7th Avenue, Park Slope

253 Smith Street, Carroll Gardens

Filed Under: Park Slope Life, The Reader On Food

Queer Soup Night

January 9, 2025 By Angela Xu Filed Under: The Reader On Food

Serving Solidarity in these Trying Times

In the wake of the 2016 election, Liz Alpern knew she needed to tap into the power of community and hosted the first ever Queer Soup Night. 8 years filled with countless bowls of warm meals coupled with tens of thousands of dollars in donations to local organizations, Queer Soup Night is a true testament to the expansive impact we can make when we gather together with spoons in hand and open hearts.

Earlier this summer, I had the opportunity to chat with Liz Alpern, chef and founder of Queer Soup Night, a project that was set in motion after the results of the 2016 election. I recently reconnected with her to catch up after the results of the most recent one. As we head into winter, and an unpredictable four years, I want to share our conversations with you. Liz’s words remind me of how soup can be not only a wholesome source of nourishment, but a form of solidarity, and how we have to keep showing up for our local communities now more than ever to collectively build the world we believe in. I hope these interviews bring you comfort like they did for me

Angela: Hi Liz, thanks for chatting with me today. One of the first things I learned about you was your passion for soup. Could you share more about why you love soup so much?

Liz: I’ve always had a passion for soup, almost comically so. I’ve always loved soup as a medium for sharing culture and stories and also comfort. And I love how playful the format is.

I always wanted to do something with soup, but I struggled to put my finger on what it was. You know, I work in food full-time and I cook and I do events, but I was like, “What’s compelling enough for people to come to a place for soup?”

How did the election in 2016 inform your thinking?

After the 2016 election, it became immediately clear that queer folks, LGBTQ folks, were feeling particularly vulnerable. Like, are all our rights gonna be rolled back? It’s almost hard to imagine how scary that felt.

There was a cafe that I was working in at the time, and the cafe owner mentioned to me that the space was free in the evenings if I ever wanted to do an event there. And the idea to take over this coffee shop and throw a soup party for queers kind of came together at that moment.

There was something that unlocked in my mind, like, soup makes sense to bring people together in this time of feeling vulnerable.

And how did that first event go?

It was a really great gathering. I made three soups with some help from friends, and friends of friends came. The energy was really amazing. We ended up raising a lot more money than I expected.

And it also happened to be the weekend – and this certainly couldn’t have been planned – when Trump had established all these travel bans for people coming from majority Muslim countries. And so people were coming from the airport after protesting at the airport and having a bowl of soup at the end of the day.

So it ended up being a really successful first event, and it was very clear that this was something we could replicate.

And now it’s in eleven (thirteen, as of November 2024) cities across the country. Can you talk about how you grew the organization?

We developed pretty slowly and with a lot of intention. The party first moved to another city because one of the founding people who’d been organizing, moved to a new city. So we tested the waters and did two events there.

Before long, a friend of mine who’s a chef out in Portland, Oregon, was like, I kind of love this idea. So the first two chapters in Gainesville, Florida, and Portland, Oregon were started by chefs I knew personally, who really took time to learn the model.

After that, we started getting contacted by people we didn’t know. That’s how lots of these things grow: they start with your network, and then they go one rung out at a time. And that was when we really had to establish what this was. You know.

what are the guidelines?

Could you speak more to the guidelines? For example, are non-queer guests allowed to attend or to cook?

The short answer is yes, anyone can attend. We have always had in our mission statement that all are welcome at Queer Soup Night.

We have this threefold mission, and it has been unwavering: 

Strengthen your local queer community

Raise money for organizations in your place, and

Lift up the chefs in your place where you live.

At the same time, we definitely are not going out there looking for any chef. We really try to seek out queer chefs, but there have been plenty of instances over the years where someone who’s not queer-identified makes a soup. So I would say, 85% of the time everyone involved is queer, and there’s about 15% of people who may not be queer-identified, but are strong allies.

Bringing it back to the soup a little bit, I’m curious to hear what you think is the unique power of soup to express and also to connect.

No matter what culture you’re from – whatever your background is, whatever your story is, however you were raised – you are going to associate soup with comfort, with really deep nourishment, and with a feeling of home.

I’m an Eastern European Jew and I love matzo ball soup and chicken soup. They call it Jewish penicillin. But through Queer Soup Night, we’ve had Mexican chicken soup. We’ve had Vietnamese chicken soup. We’ve had Filipino chicken soup. We’ve had Korean chicken soup. We’ve had so many different versions of the same theme, right?

And the theme is, hey, this is what I’m going to serve you and it’s going to feel really good. It’s going to make your house smell like comfort and it’s going to stick to your clothes in a good way.

What has been your experience of being able to feed people such nourishing food?

You know, we’ve been doing Queer Soup Night for eight years, and I have never made money off of it. It’s purely a passion project for me; seeing people feel nourished by the food that we make for them is extremely motivating.

One of the things that I really like about Queer Soup Night is that it gives you an automatic inroad to chat with other guests. Soup is much more relatable than a lot of foods and easier for people to talk about, even if they’re not culinary minded. So I would say another part of the reward is just seeing other people be involved in conversations around soup. And that is another layer of nourishment, the connection.

Could you talk a bit about the collective impact that you’ve had on local grassroots movements here in New York?

Just in the last six months, we raised funds for more than 15 different local organizations. And I would say collectively, probably somewhere around $20,000 just in the last six months. 

We raised over $50,000 in total in 2023. And that came from thousands of donations that were $12. That’s the kind of thing that I think of as collective impact – that you can show up to an event and pay $12 to $20. And then when it comes to the end of the year, this collective queer community has raised over $50,000 for different organizations.

And we select organizations that could really use a small amount of funding, where $500 to $2,000 would make a huge difference.

What kind of initiatives do the recipients of the donations revolve around?

Our only criteria is that they have to be local. We don’t send funds outside of the community. So your $12 stays right in your community.

Now we are defining “community” by geographic boundaries and you could definitely say that community is so many different things, but our goal with Queer Soup Night was always to build something that strengthens IRL connections.

I really admire the focus on the local.

I will tell you, it’s not always easy to restrain yourself, because there are so many places that our money needs to go. But especially when our eyes are on global events unfolding, it is so important to remember all the work that’s being done locally.

Like we, as an organization, basically started during the (2016) Trump presidency out of outrage and fear and concern and resistance. But we always said, “This party is not going to become irrelevant when Trump is no longer president.” There were a thousand things we were activated about before, and there are a thousand things we’re going to be activated about.

When Biden became president, no one was like “I think we’re just going to chill.” And look at where we are in 2024 facing another.

 

Filed Under: The Reader On Food

Dog Day Afternoon

July 11, 2024 By Andrew Napolitano Filed Under: The Reader On Food

Although the menu features a contentious rivalry of hot dog styles, Dog Day Afternoon offers a selection to satisfy even the vegan in the bunch. The restaurant’s decor and atmosphere welcomes film buffs, gamers, and hot dog fanatics alike to enjoy the classic hand-held meal together under the same roof.

Hide out from that Sirius summer heat, with some of the best franks in Brooklyn. What is a dog day afternoon exactly? We have all heard the expression, and most of the people reading this article will be familiar with the critically acclaimed 1975 film starring Al Pacino. Anybody who has lived through a summer in New York City has experience coping with the ‘dog days’ of summer, but where do we get the expression?  

Well it might surprise readers to learn that the expression originates in ancient Greece and Rome, where it was believed that in late July, Sirius’ rise in the sky alongside our sun contributed to the blistering temperatures seen in the northern hemisphere. Sirius being the astrological dog star, this period from Late July through mid August became known as the “dog days of summer’, a time for humans and canines alike to favor stillness and lethargy in merciful shade, far away from the ire of Sirius and our own beaming sun.

 And what memories do those sweltering city summer afternoons conjure up? Perhaps images of open fire hydrants, whose white jets of cool water quench the cast-iron heat of our neighborhood asphalt. Or the scent of a thousand charcoal grills wafting through the lush and shaded paths of Prospect Parks. For this writer, nothing pairs better with memories of hose water and the heat-advisory than an all-american hot dog and a cold beer.

And so for my article this summer, we move away from the formality of full service sit-down French bistros, and embrace a Brooklyn institution perhaps older than most of this Boroughs restaurants, the humble and ever versatile hot dog, and what I believe to be our neighborhoods latest and greatest purveyor: Dog Day Afternoon.

Situated between Prospect Ave and 17th Street, right off Prospect Park West, the small-yet-mighty storefront has been serving a variety of top-notch dogs to the residents of Park Slope and Windsor terrace since they opened in August of 2021.

I was first turned on to this spot last summer by a good friend of mine who had recently fallen in love with their Chicago dogs, and insisted on bringing me along to pick a few up for a movie night. Since then, my friend and I have been eating at Dog Day Afternoon with enthusiastic regularity.

 The storefront is small, but I would stop short of calling it ‘unassuming.’ On the contrary, the place is dripping with a unique and eclectic style that almost contradicts its size and spartan construction, inviting pick-up customers to linger and take in the vibes. And that vibe is good.

The walls of the shop are adorned with all kinds of NYC cinema classics; Dog Day Afternoon is there of course, right alongside another Brooklyn-classic, Do the Right thing. Ghostbusters, Rosemarys Baby, and a healthy dose of comic-book-chic transport patrons to a particular time and place.

 As a matter of fact, the first time I walked into Dog Day afternoon on a warm late summer evening, I felt the unique sensation that I had just stepped back in time, to a place and time in the city’s history not long before I was born. Despite having existed here for only three short years, there is an undeniable air of authenticity to the shop that makes one feel as if it has existed here for decades, and that it may well exist for decades to come.

On my most recent visit, I caught Jay of the owners, and I asked him about the inspiration for their establishment. The answer he gave me was equally authentic, unpretentious, and proudly matter-of-fact. “We decided we wanted to open up a hot dog shop, and I wanted it to have free games and just a good vibe.” That’s it. No grandiose marketing-heavy soliloquies common in the culinary business world. Just a good old fashioned vision, well-executed and expertly operated.

Jay and his partner Joe both worked together in the food service industry for a number of years, and when COVID-19 hit, they saw how badly restaurants and food industry workers were affected by the economic uncertainty. The experience left an understandable impression on them, and inspired them to take destiny into their own hands.

Their vision was to build something small and dynamic, with a lean-run operation and a focus on culinary specialization. Joe, who is from Chicago originally, had grown disappointed in New York’s lack of options for those partial to the Chicago Style dog, and so their idea for a dedicated neighborhood Hot Dog Shop was born.

For those New Yorkers unfamiliar with the Chicago style, a Chicago dog features an all-beef frank (Vienna Beef in the case of Dog Day Afternoon), on a poppy seed bun topped with mustard, pickle relish, diced white onion, tomato slices, dill pickle, pickled peppers and celery salt. The presentation is lavish, by hot-dog standards, a feast for the eyes as much as for the senses. 

As a proud New York-style food fan, I have to admit the Chicago dog is quite delicious, and a very welcome addition to our proud neighborhood (even IF I still narrowly prefer their New york style dog myself).

Filed Under: The Reader On Food

Bean Sprouts, Basil, and a Bounty of Broths

April 25, 2024 By Andrew Napolitano Filed Under: The Reader On Food

For the Spring edition of the paper, I am featuring the bright, crisp, sweet and tangy flavors of Vietnam, and my favorite neighborhood Pho spot, Ha Noi.

Nestled on the bustling southeast corner of 7th Avenue and 9th Street in central Park Slope, Ha Noi’s humble and understated facade on the ground floor of a townhouse, conceals a gem of authentic Vietnamese cooking.

Upon entering Ha Noi, guests are treated to a beautiful interior of dark exposed brick, and east asian wood decor. The ceiling, framed by sturdy wood and thick knotted rope evokes  nautical theme, as if one has just found themself entering the captain’s cabin of some 18th century galley ship. The vibe is cozy and inviting, and on most nights, patrons will find Ha Noi filled with locals, families, friends and couples on dates, quietly and cheerfully chatting over their steaming bowls of Pho and fried dumplings.

The scent of those rich soup stocks saturate the air, and the aromas married with the scent of plum sauce and fresh basil set the mood and stimulate the appetite immediately.

I first stumbled into Ha Noi on an unseasonably cool late spring evening in 2017. My wife and I had only just moved to the neighborhood a few months earlier, and in early May I had caught an absolutely terrible cold. I have thankfullynot experienced the like since, as it left me feeling like death for two straight weeks. 

At the end of my second week of this super-cold, I was so stir crazy and miserable that I decided I needed to overcome my fatigue and go for a walk with my wife. Half way up 9th street, we were bombarded by the aroma of warm meaty soup broth, and decided to poke our heads inside to find the source of the smell. So yes, ignorant of social-distancing courtesies, we sat down at a small table in the back of Ha Noi and ordered 2 bowls of the chicken curry pho.

The phrase “Chicken soup for the soul” comes to mind, but that falls short of describing the experience that that first bowl of Pho was for me at such a low point in my well-being. Each spoonful of creamy, unctuous, spicy curry broth gave me hope. I found myself staring down into the bowl, dazzled by the way the oils danced with the rice noodles and the tender chunks of white meat chicken. That bowl of soup, whether by coincidence, or by some deeper older kind of medicine, healed me that day. Two weeks of misery, fatigue, fever and chills abated that very night, and I will forever remember Han Noi for that perfectly timed bowl of soup. 

The phrase “Chicken soup for the soul” comes to mind, but that falls short of describing the experience that that first bowl of Pho was for me at such a low point in my well-being. Each spoonful of creamy, unctuous, spicy curry broth gave me hope. I found myself staring down into the bowl, dazzled by the way the oils danced with the rice noodles and the tender chunks of white meat chicken. That bowl of soup, whether by coincidence, or by some deeper older kind of medicine, healed me that day. Two weeks of misery, fatigue, fever and chills abated that very night, and I will forever remember Han Noi for that perfectly timed bowl of soup. 

And thus, like many of you reading this article, we came to love Ha Noi as our go-to place for Pho in the neighborhood.

But that’s enough about my personal experience with one magican bowl of soup. What else does Ha Noi do well? My wife’s personal favorite is the Pho Combination Special, featuring vermicelli noodles in a beef broth, beef balls, brisket, rare steak, tendons and tripe, served with a generous bundle of basil leaves, sliced jalapeno, bean sprouts, lime wedge, and hoisin sauce. 

For starters you can never go wrong with their fried pork dumplings, served with a crispy laced bottom, also known as a dumpling skirt, which is achieved by adding a thin salt-flour batter to the bottom of the pan as they fry. If you have a slightly more adventurous taste I would strongly recommend the frog legs. They are served alongside sweet onion slices, sauteed with lettuce in french butter. These tender morsels are fried to perfection and the meat is succulent, more tender than chicken wings, with a subtle sweetness.

Finally, if you are looking for a noteworthy entree you will not regret trying the Grilled Pork Banh Hoi. This is a self-serve style wrap dish featuring woven bundles of vermicelli, tender strips of sweet braised pork, peanuts, shallots, pickled carrots and daikon. These can be wrapped in lettuce leaves to form individual wraps and dipped in a sweet and salty nuoc cham sauce. The result is a bright and crispy sort-of summer roll, with a sweet and tender, garlicky pork center.

Beyond the charm of its cuisine, it is Ha Noi’s impeccable service that sets it apart. For the seven years my wife and I have been going there to dine in, or to pick up, Ha Noi’s staff have always been professional, attentive, and kind without a single exception, and that service only adds to the hearth-and-home ambiance of the establishment.

As winter’s cold chill gradually and stubbornly eases its grip on the city, and the warm bloom of spring turns a corner, I invite my neighbors to celebrate the season with the eternal vibrancy of good authentic home cooking, at Ha Noi Vietnamese Kitchen.

Filed Under: The Reader On Food

Retour au Début: A long overdue review of Olivier Bistro

January 18, 2024 By Andrew Napolitano Filed Under: The Reader On Food

There is a bias in food writing toward featuring the new, the novel, and the trendy. It is important to draw attention to established places where chefs are trying out new things, or striving to elevate and reimagine cuisine.

I could argue that this place was the first neighborhood spot that made me realize how great this borough’s culinary offerings could aspire to be. And the ONLY reason I haven’t featured them in my writing yet, is because I have been distracted by what was new around the corner instead of appreciating what was great right next door.

n featuring the new, we often neglect the consistent, the classic, the local gems that grew with the neighborhood, and maintained their commitment to quality for their long-time patrons; those places that have found success long enough and maintained it, to become “staples” of their respective neighborhoods. 

I want to feature one such neighborhood gem that really deserves our appreciation.

Olivier Bistro has been serving the neighborhood of South Slope for over a decade now (August was their 10 year Anniversary). In a city with no shortage of French “brunch spots”, Olivier stands out for its truly authentic French menu options, its comprehensive listing of European liqueurs, and its rustic old-world ambiance.

When you visit, there’s a very good chance you will find Olivier Verdier, the passionate proprietor of Olivier Bistro, walking the floor of his establishment with purpose and professionalism. He is a local and a hands-on restaurateur, who appears most at ease dining at his own table. His journey traces back to his roots in Pezenas, France, where his love affair with the culinary arts ignited at the tender age of 11. He honed his cooking skills alongside his grandmother, Rose Marie, and that familial connection to the traditions of French cooking formed the bedrock upon which Olivier built his culinary dreams.

Fuelled by a storied tapestry of flavors and techniques, passed down from his family matriarchs, Olivier ventured into culinary school, refining his craft, moved to the US, and in 2013 founded his bistro.

Reflecting on his culinary pilgrimage, Olivier reminisces, “It was an accomplishment and a dream 

of many years… I opened my bistro because I wanted to give the people of Park Slope a French experience like my grandmothers used to cook!”

And Olivier’s dedication to his country’s heritage reflects in his offerings. While the Sunday brunch can contend with the best among them, where Olivier Bistro really shines is on its dinner menu, where you will find such delicacies as Foie Gras Torchon Maison with brioche toast points and a velvety apple puree, or  Escargots de Bourgogne, served in the traditional caquelon dish, each snail luxuriating in a rich emulsification of garlic butter and its own sweet liqueur.

While most French establishments content themselves to offer the American palate the classic brunch fare (and rest assured, Oliviers does), this unassuming haunt offers its more passionate patrons some of the finest French dishes, as casually and as confidently as a local diner might serve up eggs and bacon.

I am embarrassed it has taken me so long to write about this place. This review is well-earned and long overdue. I met my (now) mother-in-law for the first time at Olivier’s back in 2015. My (now) wife and I moved in together for the first time in 2017, two doors down from their fashionable, French Flag adorned storefront.

I can recall wandering downstairs on a quiet weekday afternoon, and discovering their charcuterie menu- a tightly curated assemblage of rare cow’s milk cheeses, aged salami, sweet spiced sausage varieties, and distinguished hams. 

I have enjoyed countless meals with friends and family in their establishment. In 2019 when my wife was laid off from her first job, we cushioned the blow with a visit to Olivier, and enjoyed some of the best red snapper we have ever had to date. Three months later we celebrated her new job with another meal there featuring their Moules Frites, a harmonious marriage of plump mussels steeped in white wine, shallots, and garlic.

The first time my parents visited Brooklyn, we took them to Olivier to show off what our newfound home had to offer. 

This winter, when the bitter winds blow, and the chill sets in, I look forward to the warmth that comes from returning to where my passions first began. Sitting down to eat in that establishment that first kindled my love for the food here. I want to revisit the bar where I tasted Grand Marinier, and Ricard Aperitif for the first time. I want to make friendly conversation with Olivier, his bartenders, and those professional, knowledgeable waiters; to indulge in a rare Hanger Steak, served with pommes frites and peppercorn bearnaise. And most importantly I want to share that joy that comes from appreciating the storied classics with friends new and old.

I want my share in Olivier’s dream, to have a taste of provinciale France here in New York, and to bask in the privilege that we all have living in this city where restaurants like Olivier exist. 

I invite my neighbors and my fellow readers to join me this winter, come celebrate one of the restaurants that first kicked off our neighborhood’s ascent into culinary excellence.

Filed Under: The Reader On Food

A Burger for the Ages

October 26, 2023 By Andrew Napolitano Filed Under: The Reader On Food

In Red Hook, there is no shortage of seafood and beer in the neighborhood, and one could write an article dedicated to the various perfect ways to spend an afternoon in the dockside enclave. However, today I am not here to talk about the dives, or the crabs, or the breweries. Today I am here to talk about a burger and the tavern that makes it.

First some history:

Along Brooklyns western coast, Red Hook emerges just south of Brooklyn Bridge Park, as a storied neighborhood steeped in maritime heritage and urban transformation. Originally settled by the Dutch in the 17th century, it evolved into a bustling port, welcoming immigrants and fostering a diverse community. The 19th century marked an era of industrial growth, with shipping, manufacturing, and warehousing driving the local economy. The industrial and merchant interests that first built Red Hook, brought with them a steady supply of salty maritime men, and with them, came the demand for dockside bars and taverns. Today, Red Hook, like its parent borough, has embraced an economic resurgence, while retaining its distinctively nautical and charmingly divey character.

There is no shortage of seafood, and beer in the neighborhood, and one could write an article dedicated to the various “perfect” ways to spend an afternoon in the dockside enclave. However, today I am not here to talk about the dives, or the crabs, or the breweries. Today I am here to talk about a burger, and the tavern that makes it.

Extraordinary claims:

A few months ago, a good friend of mine from the neighborhood made a very bold claim in our local group chat. “Yesterday, I had the best burger of my entire life. Maybe the top culinary experience of my entire life.” He told us about his trip to the Red Hook Tavern and about how he was caught completely off guard by how ‘next-level’ their unassumingly named burger was.

I was skeptical. Very skeptical to be frank. As much as I love good food, I generally don’t rank hamburgers that high on my list for fine dining consideration. Burgers are great, classic, delicious, crowd pleasers for sure. But their tastes are maximalist, often topped with competing condiments and loud overwhelming flavors. And more to the point, most tavern burgers taste more or less the same to me. So the idea that this burger was maybe the best meal of my friend’s life, was shocking to me. 

Another friend of ours, who does consider himself to be a hamburger connoisseur and a casual expert on the matter, was equally intrigued, and perhaps a bit more open minded than myself. “When can we get there? Lets all try it out.”

We set a date, and planned for a lunchtime excursion into Red Hook on a temperate late summer sunday afternoon.

Now I’m going to break the fourth wall here a little bit: When I was thinking of a spot to write about for the fall issue of this fine local paper, a burger joint was not high on my list. Our editor even told me it probably was not worth going outside the bounds of the neighborhood to review a burger place. And I generally agreed with him. But given the claim my friend was making we decided that if indeed the burger won me over, we could make an exception. Deep down, I did not think the burger would win me over.

Extraordinary evidence:

Leading up to the reservation I decided to read up on the Red Hook Taverns staple tavern burger, and what I read very quickly began to change my perception of what a burger could be. The burger had been reviewed by the likes of Pete Wells, food critic for the New York TImes, There were articles featuring it in Eater, and Resy. There’s even a youtube video featuring the burger with Action Bronson. I quickly began to realize that this burger did not need my review to elevate it. All the more reason not to write about it. And yet, here I am writing about it. So what happened?

Well, not to bury the lead, I had the best hamburger of my entire life at Red Hook tavern. And I want to tell you all about it.

At the heart of this masterpiece is the dry aged beef, an art that transforms meat at the molecular level. There are only a handful of steakhouses in all of New York City that offer dry aged beef. As steak is left to age in a carefully controlled setting, enzymes within the meat gently break it down, tenderizing it internally. The flavor of the meat takes on notes of nuttyness, bleu cheese, mushroom funk. The meaty flavor is elevated, sweetness and savory umami intensify greatly the longer the beef is allowed to age. The process is expensive, time consuming, even a little wasteful, as it leaves the outer layer of the meat desiccated and inedible. But culinary enthusiasts everywhere know that dry aging a steak is among the best ways to elevate its flavor potential.

Extraordinary:

We arrived as a party of eight, and were seated in the covered outside seating area, although we would each get a chance to glimpse the charmingly decorated interior, featuring turn of the century wallpaper, converted gas light fixtures, and a gorgeous mirrored cocktail bar. Everyone in the party had agreed to order the Tavern Burger as recommended. The burgers arrive perfectly medium rare, served upon a butter-toasted bun, crowned with American cheese, a slice of crisp white onion, strategically served beneath the patty to keep the lower bun dry. The plate also comes with crinkle-cut medallion fries, and a pickle on the side. In a small cup, ketchup awaits, though this burger stands alone, its fragrant meaty, just pink interior requires no condiment. So save the ketchup for the fries.

The consensus was instant and universal. I let out a chuckle. “It is. It is absolutely the best burger I have ever had.” By now I had already known it would be. I knew the second I smelled them cooking it. That unmistakable aroma of aged beef, I had only ever smelled it before in Peter Lugers Steak House. Here it was, in Red Hook, The thick mouth-watering scent pouring out into the street. My friend, the burger-expert, spoke next: “OH, no doubt. This is the best burger I’ve ever had. I’ve never had anything like it before.” We try to temper our enthusiasm if only for posterity’s sake:

“I mean I’m sure there are other burgers that can claim to be the best, but I’ve never had one as good as this.”

I joked to my friend who first turned us onto the spot: “I won’t go as far as saying it was the best culinary experience of my life. But these guys… they have made the hamburger as great as it can possibly be, and it’s right up there with the best of culinary experiences. No doubt about it.”

Our attempts to temper our enthusiasm falter as another of our guests interjects “It’s a PERFECT burger.”

“I like that they went with american cheese. A classic. It lets the meat do the talking.”

I exclaim almost drunk with newfound appreciation for the humble burger: “I can’t find ANY other place in the immediate neighborhood that does aged beef, and this place is using it as hamburger meat!”

I’m halfway finished with the burger as I speak, and I find myself already starting to miss it.

We finish up our meals, and spend the rest of the afternoon in contented bliss, listening to a live bluegrass jam band play in the backyard of Red Hook’s famous Sunny’s Bar. The burgers made our day.

A week later I’m looking for excuses to go back. I schedule another trip to the Tavern for early fall, so I can gauge my parents’ reactions to the perfect hamburger.

Even as I write this article, I am looking forward to returning in cooler weather, with more friends, perhaps to spend more time admiring the tavern’s impeccable interior. Like a converted religious zealot, I want to bring more fine-dining converts to worship at the altar of this humble burger.

As I wrap up, putting the finishing touches on the piece, my friend texts me a link to an instagram post by legendary comedian and established gourmand Eric Warheim. It’s a big photo of a perfect cross section of the Red Hook Tavern burger. The caption is profanity laced bliss. Another convert.

In the heart of Red Hook, where the past collides with the present, the Red Hook Tavern and its Dry Aged Burger are a culinary pilgrimage that transcends the ordinary. This burger is more than just a dish; it’s a love letter to meat lovers, a narrowly focused kind of perfection, and a testament to the endless pursuit of gastronomic excellence in all things.

Filed Under: The Reader On Food

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