Lucali''s: The Mysterious Pizzeria in Carroll Gardens

12th Nov 2006

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Mark Iacono, chef and owner of Lucali's, began making pizza publicly 4 weeks ago.  "I didn't even tell my family that I was opening this place," he claims.  When he pulled the brown paper down off the windows on Day 1, he was hoping a few neighbors might be curious, and he'd have a few weeks of experimenting and tinkering with the pizza formula before he officially opened.

Literally 30 minu...

Atlantic Antic: Sardines, Whole Pigs, and Too Many People

19th Sep 2006

Atlantic_antic_12_1 This wasn't one of those Manhattan street fairs that blocked traffic on random weekends and offered the same tired stand of roasted corn, corn dogs, and grease laden elephant ears, block after block.  Brooklyn's Atlantic Antic (rated number one street festival by Time Out!) was as hodge podge as Atlantic Avenue always is, except now the music spilled onto the streets and so could the beer (...

Patois: Best Brunch in Brooklyn?

24th Aug 2006

By Blake Royer Library_5693 It's difficult, sometimes, to make Brunch plans.  They usually happen in a haze at 1:30 in the morning, when everyone's hungry, a bit tired, and getting very sentimental.  "Oh, let's all wake up and have a big intimate meal together tomorrow!"  It's a way of ensuring, in hopeful and vague way, that the night never has to end--just after a short nap, we'll all get togeth...

The Good Fork

22nd Aug 2006

P1010041_3 I was out for a "guys night," which is what happens when your girlfriend goes out with her friends and you're expected to go out with exact same people you always do.  But when your friends are a fellow paupered chef and Jason, guys night doesn't quite mean poker and beer.  Instead, we all met at the little restaurant that was getting some big press: the Good Fork. There is a top-hatted fello...

A Surf and Turf Story

18th Aug 2006

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We christened him Kurt and set about trying in vain to keep him alive.  The ride back from Fairway was not long, but we needed some wine, and the car was quite stuffy and hot.  Blake, strangely, began developing an affection for the creature, and cared for him so deeply he wouldn't leave him in the car alone. So we carried him into our liquor store, LeNell's , and asked the owners what win...

The Red Hook Ballfields

2nd Aug 2006

P1010003_6 On Saturday morning, at the bright and early hour of noon, my phone began ringing.  I vaguely remembered excited pronouncements the evening before about going for a bike ride out to Red Hook to visit the infamous ballfields , where soccer and baseball games unfold throughout the weekend, and outdoor food vendors set up shop on Bay St. to serve cheap, fresh food from south of the border (all...

Schnack: Tiny Burgers, CNN

6th Jul 2006

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It saddens me to point out that Schnack has closed.  What is detailed below is a great restaurant.  Hopefully they will reopen someday.

Like many, many people this week, Blake and I had better things to do.  He's living the good life traveling around Northern Europe right now, eating voisilmapulla and trying to get around in Estonia with only a passable pronunciation of three words.  A...