Bensonhurst

Victor Calderone

Eleanor Friedberger

Cupola Samarkanda II Speeds the Plov

Take a toki without fear of arrest under the F tracks

Dish No. 53: Garlic Fries at Cupola Samarkanda II

​French fries and crushed garlic -- two of the world's greatest substances, together at last. Cupola Samarkanda II is a Uzbek restaurant in Bensonhurst. The fries are some of the best in town -- your choice of regular boxcar-shaped fries (above), done to a medium brown, or the so-called "hom ... More >>

Did You Really Want That Snickers Bar?

​7:15pm, Bensonhurst, Friday, August 12 This rather alarming and discouraging sign -- symbolic of a long hot summer -- sat in front of the Lotto machine at Avenue P Pizza Lotto Beer at the corner of Avenue P and McDonald Avenue in the shadow of the F tracks.

BIG BEATS

Hit the ultimate beach party

RIP Alex Tombrakos, Owner of Bensonhurst's Vegas Diner

whereweate.com​Bensonhurst's Vegas Diner may not be particularly flashy or particularly renowned outside of the neighborhood, but it's a place that's had a loyal clientele since it opened in 1982.

Bensonhurst's Dai Wah Yummy City Ain't So Itty-Bitty

Big and boxy—but pretty good Chinese

This Week in the Voice: Arturo O'Farrill's Journey for His Father

​This week in the Voice, Larry Blumenfeld chronicles Grammy-winning pianist Arturo O'Farrill's trip to Havana to, in his words, "complete a musical, spiritual, and cultural journey for my father." His father, Chico O'Farrill, was revered in the Jazz world, a "stone genius, on the level of Duke ... More >>

Robert Sietsema at Dai Wah Yummy City; Lauren Shockey at Breuckelen

This week in the Voice, Robert Sietsema heads to Bensonhurst's Dai Wah Yummy City: "The menu features exactly what the adults crave: Cantonese food with Hong Kong flourishes, plus dishes from other regions of China that have been popularized and added to the southern Chinese canon." Lauren Shockey i ... More >>

The Flagel Makes an Unexpected Appearance in Manhattan

​Damn it! Who sat on my bagel? The flagel is a bagel variation invented by Tasty Bagel in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn in 1994.

Suspect Arrested in Bensonhurst Fire That Killed 5

​On Saturday a horrible fire in Bensonhurst killed five people. Today police questioned and then arrested Daniel Ignacio, a resident of the building, who is thought to have set fire to a baby carriage in the stairwell, starting the blaze. He is reported to have been drunk at the time, and all ... More >>

Somebody Got Murdered: Drunk Driver Kills Brooklyn Pedestrian

View Larger Map DATE: Friday, Jan. 1, 2009, 6:45 p.m. LOCATION: Intersection of Avenue O and West 6 Street, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. The police have arrested a motorist after an unidentified man in his fifties was struck and killed while crossing the street at the above intersection. Sergey Osadchu ... More >>

Eating With Michael Musto: Eggs at Virage, Steak at the Knickerbocker, and Why He Won't Be Getting on a Train to Eat in Brooklyn Anytime Soon

​ Michael Musto has been the Voice's resident chronicler of New York's famous and profane since 1984, when he started penning his weekly La Dolce Musto column. He's also a sometime actor and TV commentator, year-round bicyclist, and the author of three books, including the forthcoming Fork on ... More >>

Little Fugitive

Strange Bedfellows: Bread, Madonna, Gravestones

​ High real-estate costs make for strange bedfellows: Pedestrians passing Grande Monuments, seller of gravestones and a longtime fixture on Graham Avenue, have been double-taking at the sight of hand-chalked-signs advertising bread. Just what is this bread made from, they wonder? Well, the br ... More >>

Raccoon Roundworm PANIC! Two Seriously Injured in Brooklyn

Swine flu hasn't killed anyone in New York yet -- but raccoon roundworm has left one teenager blind in one eye and brain-damaged an infant in Brooklyn. (The Daily News informs us "The disease had previously been incorrectly called Raccoon Ringworm.") This illness is transmitted by raccoon feces, ... More >>

Swine Flu PANIC Lessens Despite Level 5 Upgrade and Joe Biden

The World Health Organization upgraded the worldwide swine flu panic to Level 5, but out our way people are still walking around as if nothing much were happening, though another local school, Bishop Kearney in Bensonhurst, has been closed. Twitterers are getting sick, not from swine flu but of it: ... More >>

Revisiting the Original Grand Sichuan

   A dozen years back, the original Grand Sichuan on Canal Street opened just across from the triumphal entrance to the Manhattan Bridge. It was first out of the gate, gainsaying the Szechuan Empires, Szechwan Gardens, and all the other pallid evocations of Sichuan cuis ... More >>

Strange Snacks of the World--Freakish Sapor

Peanuts with a crunchy coating aren't so unusual, but this "natural foodstuff" advertises itself in a highly creative way: Freakish Sapor! I love that word, freakish. Anyway, it turns out that the world 'sapor' comes from the Latin sapere, to taste, and 'sapor' was used in Middle English to mean 't ... More >>

Pix from Bamboo Pavilion

Glistening with red chile oil, dan dan noodles need to be vigorously stirred before devouring (click to exaggerate). Located smack dab in the middle of a Sicilian neighborhood in Bensonhurst, Bamboo Pavilion (see our review here) is on the sharp cutting edge of Sichuan cuisine in New York. Whil ... More >>

The City's Finest Sichuan Is At Bensonhurst's Bamboo Pavilion

No kidding!

Under Review--Sietsema Finds the City's Best Sichuan

This week in the Voice, Robert Sietsema discovers unreconstructed Sichuan fare at Bensonhurst's Bamboo Pavilion, while Sarah DiGregorio visits the oddly addictive Wechsler's Currywurst & Bratwurst. Bruni drops in on Co., awarding it one star for its "fluffy, crunchy, supple, dense" pizza crust, al ... More >>

Follow Up: This Week in the Voice

We had a little trouble getting the Voice online this week, and we hope you didn't miss any of the great stuff in the issue. Like our former music editor Chuck Eddy's consideration of some contemporary male country singers and their new style of shit-kicking. Or J. Hoberman's review of Observe an ... More >>

Helen Levitt, 1913-2009

Helen Levitt has passed at the age of 95. Born in Bensonhurst, she dropped out of high school and went to work as a photographer's assistant. She sought out great artists like Cartier-Bresson and Luis Bunuel, and made friends with James Agee. Street scenes were her metier and she was especially cel ... More >>

Vegetarian Delights of NYC -- Sliced Pumpkin with Peppers

Demonstrating the facility of Sichuan cooks with vegetables, and their amazing ability to treat them in ways Westerners would never have imagined, we have the modestly named "sliced pumpkin with peppers" at Bamboo Pavilion. The orange vegetable, more like a calabaza than a jack-o-lantern, is shr ... More >>

Edgar Allan Pho: World of Taste in the Bronx

Southeast Asian nabe surrounds horror master's cottage

It's a Good One: What's Up, Home Bread?

Beef Unbound

Vietnamese on Grand revels in colonial Gallic underpinnings

Culture Clash

'86–'95: From Evangelicals to Trannies, the First Gulf War to Tupac Shakur

Kiddie-Contest Doc Dances Around Class, Gender Issues

Love Celery

Baby 'chokes and pea shoots at new Prospect Heights pizzeria

Ooh Wah Ooh Wah

Close-Up on Bensonhurst

Close-Up on Bath Beach, Brooklyn

Music

Fathered By Flagels

Savoring the Bensonhurst Octopus

Letters

Close-up on Bay Ridge

Hot Heroes

Listings

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Beatdowns in Bensonhurst

Boys in the 'Hood

Photographs By Regina Monfort

Royal Road