Bay Ridge

Say Goodbye to St. Clair Diner, Hinsch's

After 92 years of business, Greek diner St. Clair has closed in Brooklyn. Brownstoner reported that the dive on the corner of Smith Street and Atlantic Avenue closed last week, and now the windows are covered in paper -- never a good sign. According to Grub Street, developer Joe Sitt bought the bui ... More >>

Bay Ridge Fights Off Hipsterdom, Boos Beer Garden

Micro-brews. Fixie bikes. Plaid shirts. They're coming to Bay Ridge in the form of a beer garden, the Lockyard, and neighbors are not pleased. In fact, they're throwing a fit.

New Type of Pizza Appears on Christopher Street

A square of tomatoey goodness When a new type of pizza arrives in town, expanding the city's already far-flung pizza boundaries, it's an occasion to sit up and take notice, whatever the source might be. [See More Taste Tests: Checking Out the New Breakfast at Rosemary's in the Village | David's Ne ... More >>

5 Best Things to Eat at Hazar Turkish Kebab

Hazar's mixed grill is one hell of a deal at $16.95. [See More Photo Essays: 6 Favorite Dishes From Rosemary's | 5 Best Things To Eat at Food Gallery 32] This week, Counter Culture rides into Hazar, a new Turkish restaurant in Bay Ridge, and quite a wonderful one where grilled meats, whole fish, ... More >>

Tejal Rao at Reynards; Robert Sietsema at Yemen Café

See what NYC's restaurant critics have been up to this week: Tejal Rao goes to Reynards at the Wythe Hotel and advises patrons to look out for the specials: "A dish of whole fried sardines, layered like the petals of some awesome flower, came one afternoon with roasted potatoes, yogurt, and a gene ... More >>

Porchetta's Lebanese Chicken Sandwich

The sandwich was inspired by a Lebanese original. [ See More Taste Tests: Spring Garden: Brooklyn's Best Dim Sum? | The 6 Best Snacks on the High Line | The City's Weirdest Frozen Treat? Salted Licorice Pops ] Porchetta -- the East Village establishment specializing in a Tuscan roadside attracti ... More >>

Why Do Critics Seem To Get Stuck in Certain Neighborhoods?

Brigman asks: Is it just me or have there been a lot of Bay Ridge restaurants covered lately? Do the authors live there or something? There have got to be some value restaurants near the rest of us... Dear Brigman: Great question! Yes, it often seems like critics and bloggers get in a rut, and you' ... More >>

Wouldn't You Like a Slice of Plain Old NYC Pizza?

When was the last time you had a classic New York slice? Nowadays, it's getting harder to find the city's iconic slice. Neighborhood pizza parlors have been driven out of business by dollar slice places on one hand, and by effete, pinkie-in-the-air pie parlors on the other, where a pizza scarcely ... More >>

Free Food: One of the Greatest NYC Mulberry Harvests in Years Happening Now

Look hard enough, and you'll find rarer white mulberry trees. The five boroughs of New York are quite literally lined with mulberry trees, whose purple berries - something like blackberries in appearance - stain the city's sidewalks and streets every year around this season. But New Yorkers are ge ... More >>

Man Tries, Fails to Rob Bank in Bay Ridge

​A man with little of the je ne sais quoi possessed by the suited robber from yesterday tried and failed to rob a bank in Bay Ridge on Monday. The man, whose outfit of jeans and a sweatshirt simply doesn't cut it in comparison to the Midtown robber's natty suit, passed a note demanding money t ... More >>

Fork in the Road's Favorite Diners

Jayjay P / Flickr​It's time for Tuesday Toasts, our weekly feature highlighting the Fork in the Road team's favorite versions of popular dishes and favorite spots in the city for a given activity. They might not be the best or the coolest or the newest, but instead represent the things and pla ... More >>

Richard and Vinnie's Meat Market Closes After 43 Years in Bay Ridge

beerman/Bay Ridge Talk​Some sad news to report from Bay Ridge: after 43 years as a popular neighborhood butcher shop, Richard & Vinnie's Prime Meats is closing. A friend from the area tells us that the Third Avenue shop sold off the remainder of its inventory yesterday. Judging by the chatter ... More >>

Meat Prices Could Shoot Up 7 Percent This Year; Upscale Supermarkets Hit China

The floods, droughts, storms and tornadoes that hit the United States in April and May could mean a severe spike in food prices, including a 7 percent increase in the price of meat over the next year. [NPR] Deliverymen for Chinese restaurants are increasingly using electric bicycles--much to the ch ... More >>

Man'ouChe Brings a Little Lebanon to Bay Ridge

Do we smell cedar? Maybe not. But garlic—you bet.

Vestiges of Norway in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn: Kringler, Firklover, and Knackebrod

​Don't let all the trolls in the window scare you away from Nordic Delicacies. When the Norwegians - and later, other Scandinavians - arrived in Bay Ridge late in the 19th century, they loved its open countryside and expansive views of the ocean. The Narrows of the Lower Harbor, now spanned ... More >>

Will the Real Macarons...er, Macaroons or Maakarons, Please Stand Up!

​One of these pastries is also called "macaron," but which one? We've spilled lots of ink lately on the difference between macaroons and macarons -- the former being sticky, coconut-based cookies popular for Passover, the latter cheerless-but-colorful sandwich cookies that taste something l ... More >>

Video of Rapist on the Loose in Bay Ridge

Cops are looking for an alleged rapist who attacked two women, 20 minutes apart, on the night of February 25 in the area of 82nd Street in Bay Ridge. In the first attack, at about 11:20 p.m., a 44-year-old woman opened her building's front door, and he pointed a gun from her, forced her inside, too ... More >>

This Week in the Voice

​In this week's issue of the Voice, J. Hoberman helps us understand the year in film that was 2010. The Social Network is this year's top choice in the annual critic's poll. Hoberman also provides an amazing top 10 list of the year's best films.

The Best Thing I Ate Yesterday

Welcome to The Best Thing I Ate Yesterday, where we endeavor to remember the very best thing we stuffed down our gullets over the past 24 hours. Why? Because the only thing better than enjoying a meal is wallowing in the memory of one savored in the recent past. Today's fond reminiscences ... Rebe ... More >>

Where to Eat Along the Marathon Route; Grimaldi's Owner Sues Landlady

​In the kitchen with Adam Rapoport, the new editor-in-chief of Bon Appetit, who believes the magazine "can and should build on the massive interest in food in this country." [NY Times] Wondering where to eat as you cheer on this year's marathoners? Mile 2: Bay Ridge's Longbow Pub and Pantry, ... More >>

Tomorrow: My 10 Favorite Brooklyn Restaurants

The grilled octopus with beans at Bay Ridge's Athena Express is a contender​Everyone has their favorite restaurants--the ones that are dependable after a long day, where they make the fried eggplant exactly how you like it. These places might not be "the best" but they're the places you're dra ... More >>

Bay Ridge's Hom Provides Free Brunch for the Unemployed

​Well, this is sweet: The owner of Bay Ridge's Hom is giving out free meals to the unemployed. Per the Daily News, Salvatore Forte has since October been serving free brunch to anyone who calls ahead and asks, despite the fact that his business has been down two-thirds since the recession took ... More >>

Robert Sietsema at Casabel Taqueria; Sarah DiGregorio at Seersucker & Peaches HotHouse

This week in the Voice, Robert Sietsema squeezes into Casabel Taqueria, where "the tacos are happily similar to something you might get from a truck parked on Roosevelt Avenue." Sarah DiGregorio sees Brooklyn heating up with two new Southern-accented newcomers: Seersucker and Peaches HotHouse.​ ... More >>

Posts of the Week

As we head into a 48-hour period of relative oblivion, here's a look back at the best posts of the last five days: This week, g-u-t-b-o-m-b is spelled by the Galway Hooker's hooker burger. Paul Giannone, the man behind the new Paulie Gee's, talked about making the leap from IT manager to restauran ... More >>

Hop the Train Out to Tanoreen and Athena Express

Mideast fare—and some new Greek—in Bay Ridge

Eta Eckstein, 92-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor, Booted By Brooklyn Landlord

A survivor got kicked off the island — that's a real survivor we're talking about: Eta Eckstein, 92, was in a rehab facility when all her belongings from her rent-controlled Bay Ridge apartment were tossed into the street. Lost forever are the Holocaust survivor's heirlooms, family photos and ... More >>

Eta Eckstein, 92-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor, Booted By Brooklyn Landlord

A survivor got kicked off the island — that's a real survivor we're talking about: Eta Eckstein, 92, was in a rehab facility when all her belongings from her rent-controlled Bay Ridge apartment were tossed into the street. Lost forever are the Holocaust survivor's heirlooms, family photos and ... More >>

Where Am I Eating?

Where can you eat this burger?​ Welcome to Where Am I Eating? Last week's inaugural post featured food from Tanoreen in Bay Ridge; commenter Jenny won a copy of Judith Jones's Cooking For One for guessing the restaurant correctly. So where do you suppose this burger can be found? The first co ... More >>

Brooklyn D.A. Busts Drug Kingpin Who Posed As Used Car Dealer

​A Cuban national who supplied drugs to crack houses on the outreaches of Brooklyn was caught in Miami and indicted by the D.A.'s office today. The man, Yotuhel Montane, ostensibly ran a South Florida car dealership, but was actually supplying a kilogram of cocaine each month to a drug ring in ... More >>

Chong Qing Chicken Obsession

Grand Sichuan St. Mark's Chong Qing ChickenWhen Sietsema's review of Grand Sichuan House (8701 Fifth Avenue, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn) ran accompanied by a gorgeous shot of what looks like a plate mounded with dried red chiles and nothing else, I ran right down to Bay Ridge to try the dish. The preparati ... More >>

The Name Game

Like us, you're probably really tired of the boring names lately conferred on Manhattan's food producing establishments. It also seems like all the good names have been taken, as we witness places being named with such faceless monikers as Co., Earth, and Delicatessen, or totally cringewor ... More >>

Gibby, Gibby, Hey! -- Pix from Asmak Taama

My review this week is of a new Egyptian seafood spot in Bay Ridge, Asmak Taama, which brings the tally to three such places in the immediate vicinity. The best appetizer was an engaging dish of fried eggplant poached in tomato sauce with hot green chiles: Here are Butthole Surfers front ... More >>

The Early Word -- Samakmak

Sizzle sizzle goes the cast-iron vessel, as a pair of snails parades across the table, oblivious of the food drama transpiring inches away. We've ordered one of the oddball tajines at Samakmak, the euphonious name of a new Egyptian seafood cafe, recently joining Bahary and Asmak Taama in the ... More >>

Reasons to Be Ungrateful: Mumbai, Mall Violence, Parking Tickets

And That Little Boy Grew Up to Be George F. Will

GOP Star Marty Golden Doles Out Big Bucks to his Family Catering Hall

Our Man Throws Down Against Dr. John

Our Man Sietsema: 'Oh, Blessed Fusion!'

Moonlighting at the Hardware Store

Spaghetti Eastern

The Lordz, Brooklyn rap-rock's preeminent wiseguys, crank the bass and wax Soprano

Counting Sheep

Peanuts or pine nuts at new New Utrecht Turk Albanian boîte

Amazin' Meze

It's Dippity-Doo-Dah at Dyker Heights Greek Cypriot restaurant

Cheap Chow Now!

100 best and most inexpensive restaurants

Journey to Norwabia

A culinary trek through Bay Ridge

Letters

Studio in 1940s Building

Close-up on Bay Ridge

Two-Bedroom Apartment, Pre-War Building

Fish and Chips