Bricolage
162 5th Ave., Park Slope

When Charles Phan first opened San Francisco’s Slanted Door in 1995, his goal was to expose the city to the sweet-sour-salty-spicy wonders of Vietnamese food, popularizing dishes like clay pot catfish and shaking beef by making them with quality, California-approved ingredients, such as farm-grown vegetables, Niman Ranch meat, and Dungeness crab. His mission proved wildly successful: Not only did he increase local interest in Vietnamese fare tenfold, but he made Slanted Door one of the most iconic, consistently profitable restaurants in the United States.

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Semilla
No. 5, 160 Havemeyer Street, Williamsburg

$75 can seem an awfully steep price to pay for a meal comprised almost entirely of vegetables; especially if you shop, as we often do, at Chinese supermarkets and are used to spending $2.49 for a bundle of oyster mushrooms and 99 cents for three pounds of bok choy. But when’s the last time you patterned your produce aisle stash into translucent strands of celery tagliatelle or buoyant orbs of burdock arancini slicked with nutty miso?
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As many new establishments in Bushwick are intended to be, the bar and restaurant Forrest Point is painfully cool. Located on a triangle-shaped parcel along a desolate stretch of Flushing Avenue, the space hums with activity of the young, good-looking, and buzzed. It’s all the work of Mark Trzupek, Darin Rubell, and chef David Rotter, who came over from the nearby eatery 983 Bushwick’s Living Room. These guys know their audience, and smartly deliver strong drinks and a fun menu in a location that draws you right in.

Forrest Point’s sprawling outdoor patio, decked with twinkling lights, is prominently on display along Flushing Avenue, and it’s the place to be if the weather permits. Inside, scruffy bartenders will take your order after throwing back a shot of whiskey, but the space is anything but a dive. Welldecorated, with exposed ceilings, it’s a less gritty, more refined version of Bushwick. The drink and food menu reflects that, too. There’s a long, impressive list of cocktails that pack a punch. The milk punch (my waitress recommended the “Fancy Pants” version) is a slightly milky, mostly light concoction with a flavor profile that defies exact description. My recommendation: Don’t miss it.

The menu goes way beyond bar food, although the somewhat haphazard mix of dishes and flavor profiles suits the bar-like setting. There’s a medley of Mediterranean, Japanese, Chinese, and American flavors. In short, something for everyone. The crispy cauliflower, deeply marinated in Sriracha and yogurt and lightened with parsley and lemon, had notes of Chinese influences. So did the porchetta sandwich, which was sweetened with caramelized onions, fig, and apricot relish. As for a Mediterranean option, be sure to try the shawarma-style flatbread. It’s grilled pita packed with chicken, Israeli salad, olives, and tzatziki sauce. Not the easiest thing to eat, but you’ll happily stuff it in your mouth anyway. An order of the tempura rock shrimp lettuce wraps got lost somewhere in the bustle of the bar, but when it finally came, it did not disappoint. Perfectly-cooked shrimp and pickled veggies nestled into a delicate piece of Bibb lettuce? Yes, please.

A word of warning: At 10 pm, that awesome outdoor patio closes up. Our waitress closed our tab without inquiring about dessert, and the bar, completely packed on a Thursday night, offered no open tables. My dining companion and I missed out on the cast-iron s’mores, which I had been dreaming of throughout the meal. Sure, it was a disappointment, but a few drinks in on a full stomach and under twinkling lights, it’s hard to stay mad at this Bushwick newcomer.



Despite the unending list of restaurants and bars opening in Prospect and Crown Heights, the neighborhood retains a few sleepy spots, like the stretch of Washington Avenue just south of Atlantic Avenue, where there are plenty of apartments but a dearth of restaurants, bars, or cafes. So it was welcome news when King’s Clam Bar quietly opened at 622 Washington Avenue, between Pacific and Dean streets. A few restaurants have called the space home in the not-so-distant past, including Ortine, a French café, and Atlantic Co., which served booze and pizza. Is this under-the-radar location cursed? Let’s hope not, because I hope King’s sticks around.

As the name would suggest, this restaurant specializes in seafood. Chef Bill Seleno is giving off the vibe of an East Coast seafood shack, where you can mark your order on paper menus and food comes in paper containers. There’s a raw bar, a selection of sandwich rolls, sautéed and baked fish, and, finally, soups, salads, sides, and slaws. The server will recommended that you order a side condiment with your baked fish, and options are as creative as ginger cilantro, garlic dill, and jalapeño tartar.

The fish, to put it simply, is good. It all tastes fresh, which made dishes like the shrimp cocktail and lobster roll shine in their simplicity. The sautéed mussels sat in a pool of sauce that I can only describe as heavenly—black garlic, burnt rosemary, and double cream, oh my. The boiled clams came bathed in something simpler, and lighter, with a sprig of thyme. None of the fish dishes needed the extra ginger cilantro sauce ordered. The big disappointment of the night was the majorly stale baguette bread, which came with the mussels and clams. With sauces this good, give us something solid to soak it up with!

A side of the clam dip didn’t look like much, in its paper container brimming with chips, but it was the perfect seafood guilty pleasure. (If you’re like me and have a weakness for creamy, fattening dips mixed with salty chips, just go ahead and order it.) The potato salad with bacon and egg was solid but nothing special; it would have stood out with a more significant portion of bacon.

After so much goodness from the sea, an apple crisp dessert fell way short. It wasn’t warm, wasn’t served with ice cream, and tasted a few days old. King’s Clam Bar: Stick steadfast and true to fish. In that respect, you know what you’re doing.

Fourth Avenue, as it runs through Park Slope and Gowanus, isn’t known for its bustling restaurant scene—rather, this stretch of new housing developments is criticized for its lack thereof. That’s why 2 Duck Goose, located on the corner of Fourth Avenue and 6th Street, is a welcome addition to the neighborhood. Chinese takeout this is not: 2 Duck Goose specializes in “Classic Cantonese with a twist,” according to its website. It’s the brainchild of Kay Ch’ien and chef Ben Pope, who both grew up in Hong Kong and missed the food from their youth. The goal was to bring NYC a better option for Cantonese cuisine. They definitely succeeded in unexpected flavor combinations, modern additions to old-school Cantonese, and generally a fun meal to be had.

The restaurant interior is sparsely and modernly decorated, almost echoing those shiny glass developments that loom outside. Dinner starts with a small dish of candied walnuts, salty, sweet, and crunchy in all the right ways. The menu offers two dinner specials—a roast duck feast, offered to parties of 4 to 5 for $120, and “char siu” roast pork served three different ways. Regular entrées include paper bag fish, Cantonese borscht stew, and stir-fried smoked tofu. There’s also a selection of “bites and apps,” from which I selected a dish of silken tofu. “Silken” is the right word, as the tofu gracefully falls apart as you tear at it with chopsticks; it sits in a soy sauce broth with hints of fish and ginger. The plate was massive for an appetizer, and my dining companion and I barely made a dent before the entrées came out.

Don’t leave 2 Duck Goose without trying one of the “char siu” roast pork dishes. The chef takes a seasonal, modern, and classic take on the dish. The seasonal dish includes rotating ingredients and the modern dish incorporates apple, a beet and ginger purée, and pickled fennel. The modern dish, with crispy slices of pork in a brilliantly bright pink purée, is phenomenal. The fresh, sweet beet purée uniquely compliments the fattiness of the pork; I could not get enough. Another highlight was the paper bag fish, a branzino that, yes, is served in a paper bag. Tearing open the bag to find a steaming fish, tomatoes, and mushrooms felt like a foodie’s Christmas. The duck fried rice fell a little flat after those two bold dishes; it is served traditionally with carrots, peas, eggs, and scallions. The next day, it tasted like a classic Chinese leftover dish.

The meal ended with a small bowl of black sticky rice pudding. The black rice was thick with coconut milk and accompanied by toasted sesame seeds and coconut flakes. This final dish seemed to summarize the meal—traditional elements done well, with enough creative notes to leave you surprised, satisfied, and eager for more.