Sunny Lee of Ajjuma- credit Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times
The first half of the year saw lots of great openings in North Brooklyn including Little Neck, The Egg Shop, a speakeasy called Threesome Tollbooth, and our personal favorite Casa Publica.
There’s plenty happening this fall as well. Thaimee is slotted to open at McCarren Hotel & Pool . Mood Ring – an astrology-themed bar is coming to Bushwick sometime in September. And of course there’s Elsewhere, from the people formerly behind Glasslands. Here are a few other spots that are generating buzz.
The New York Times has the scoop on Korean restaurant Ajjuma which will open soon at 318 Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg:
Banchan are small side dishes that arrive unbidden with Korean meals, covering the table with different colors, ingredients and textures. Most banchan spreads include at least one type of kimchi, plus other pickles and salads, proteins like marinated tofu and salted fish, and steamed or stir-fried vegetables that change with the seasons. Most Korean restaurants in the United States use traditional ingredients to make banchan, and restaurants like Atoboy and Hanjan have incorporated their own spins on the dishes. When Ms. Lee’s restaurant, Ajjuma, opens this fall in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, she will put banchan at the center of the menu. Ms. Lee has worked at the Good Fork and Insa in Brooklyn, where the chef Sohui Kim put her in charge of banchan and let her stretch her wings, using nontraditional ingredients and holding pop-up all-banchan dinners.
Gothamist is excited about a Cider House and a new restaurant that specializes in Nicaraguan street food, both in Bushwick:
Brooklyn Cider House
Think of this as a restaurant that shares more in common with a brewery tasting room than a traditional sit-down spot eatery. Owner Peter Yi purchased a cidery, Twin Star Orchards, in New Paltz, NY to satisfy his lust for cider, which will be on full display at this forthcoming Bushwick spot. The former warehouse space will be divided into a restaurant and tasting room but also with space for cider production. Since Yi loves Basque ciders, the food will be slanted towards Spain and meant to pair with the line of five ciders they make. 1100 Flushing Avenue, Bushwick. Opening October/November…Chicha
Vanessa Palazio and her husband Adam Schneider began introducing Nicaraguan street food to DUMBO at their Little Muenster outpost in 2014. The couple are finally ready to open their first restaurant dedicated to Palazio’s heritage, opening up this restaurant and bar in Bushwick this fall. Nicaraguan street food will be the focus—rooting for the delicious quesillos pictured above—with a booze focus on rum, with offerings of the spirit on tap and in flights and cocktails. 198 Randolph Street, Bushwick. Opening October.
Grub Street has pizza and sichuan on its mind and has a few listings for North Brooklyn:
Paulie Gee’s Slice Shop
110 Franklin St., Greenpoint
Paul Giannone, everyone’s favorite disgruntled software engineer turned Neapolitan-pizza master, conjures up memories of his formative Brooklyn pie-chomping years to take on the old-school slice joint. Think Baker’s Pride gas ovens, recycled pizzeria seating, and vintage Cornelius JetSpray beverage dispensers. And the pizza? “Nothing fancy,” says Giannone. “Sicilian, maybe a grandma, lots of vegan pies.Di Fara Pizza at North 3rd Street Market
103 N. 3rd St., Williamsburg
Don’t count on Di Fara Pizza patriarch Dom DeMarco himself to serve up your Sicilian slice, but if this kiosk at the upcoming Williamsburg food hall is as good as the short-lived Di Fara spinoff, DeMarco’s, on Houston Street was, it’s going to be a contender. Says DeMarco’s daughter, Margaret, who will run the stand along with a few of her siblings, “My father’s like a mad-genius painter who needs his equipment to always be in the same position.” With that in mind, everything in the kitchen, down to the exact distance between pizza station and pizza oven, is being designed to replicate the Midwood shop. When the maestro shows up for a guest-pizzaiolo appearance, he’ll feel right at home.General Debs
24 Irving Ave., Bushwick
A Sichuan restaurant from the mom-and-pop team at locavore pasta mecca Faro? Why not, when chef-partner Kevin Adey turns out to be something of a secret ma la aficionado who has been practicing his dan dan mian technique at home for years? The Deb in General Debs is Adey’s business partner and wife, Debbie, and the name of the restaurant is presumably an acknowledgment of who really runs things around here.
Finally, Zagat tells us about Grand Republic Cocktail Club, a new 2,500-square-foot bar slotted to open in September at 19 Greenpoint Avenue by Transmitter Park:
Named as an homage to the historic wooden ship whose late 19th-century home port was the Greenpoint dock, The Grand Republic Cocktail Club will be opening up shop next to the new Greenpoint ferry dock. Co-owned by Johnny Swet (Jimmy at The James) and Benoit “Uncle Benny” Sutter (formerly of 718 Restaurant), the indoor/outdoor bar will focus on old-fashioned cocktails alongside new, playful creations designed by Swet.
