Free Williamsburg

The Williamsburg Brooklyn-based culture guide to New York and beyond.

Arepera Guacuco

By

The arepas are divine in this family-run restaurant. We like the pork, but vegetarians will be happy too. The Vegetariana is a corn arepa filled with cheeses, plantains, avocado, and tomato.

Featured Reviews

  • It’s easy to forget Bushwick’s Latin American influence when surrounded by yoga studios and artisanal coffee shops. But if you want food that speaks to the neighborhood’s history, head to Arepera Guacuco, a lively, family-run Venezuelan restaurant serving food so fresh and flavorful you’ll think you’ve just traveled to South America — all without leaving Brooklyn. You’re here for the arepas, of course, which are small patties made from ground corn and stuffed with fillings like sweet plantains, black beans, and different kinds of meat. The dish dates back to the indigenous people of Venezuela, and even though Arepera Guacuco hasn’t been around for decades, the arepas don’t taste like some Bushwick-ified, ready-for-Instagram take on the traditional — these are real arepas.

  • Like Le Garage, Arepera Guacuco is an intergenerational affair. This time it was the son, Leonard Molina, who convinced his mother, Carmen, to move from Margarita Island, off the coast of Venezuela, to New York and to bring her traditional recipes along. Among them is the arepa pabellón, an old chestnut of Venezuelan cooking; here the pabellón has reached ideal form, the crust crunchy, the beef inside soft, the plantains sweet, and the beans touched by vinegar. The arepas are served fast and fresh at the crowded and slightly chaotic restaurant, but the rest of the menu – including B-sides like pabellón oriental, in which fish stands for beef, and a grilled garlicky king fish — is worth exploration too.

Getting There

Brooklyn Cider House

By

The food will, unsurprisingly, be inspired by the Basque region. “It’s where I saw the light, and the reason why I was at a cidery there is the fact that I am often in that area because the food is so spectacular,” he says. For the dining room, there will be a five-course set menu for $37, the food inspired by those cider houses, which will include classic dishes like cider-braised chorizo and a bacalao omelette. (There will also be a vegetarian menu.) At the bar, you’ll be able to eat anchovies, jamón, and other snack

Featured Reviews

  • The food will, unsurprisingly, be inspired by the Basque region. “It’s where I saw the light, and the reason why I was at a cidery there is the fact that I am often in that area because the food is so spectacular,” he says. For the dining room, there will be a five-course set menu for $37, the food inspired by those cider houses, which will include classic dishes like cider-braised chorizo and a bacalao omelette. (There will also be a vegetarian menu.) At the bar, you’ll be able to eat anchovies, jamón, and other snack food.

    Brooklyn Cider House is, also, just a big place. It occupies 12,000 square feet, and along with the bar and the three dining rooms, has two cidery rooms. One features old chestnut barrels, the other stainless-steel tanks; some cider will be poured out of those tanks. It’s a big bar, but it speaks to Yi’s outsize obsession with Basque cider.

Getting There

Bunker

By

In Queens you have Sripraphai. In Cobble Hill there’s Andy Ricker’s Pok Pok. Bushwick now has Bunker Vietnamese — they outgrew their smaller space in Ridgewood — and they’re cooking up some of the tastiest, most authentic Thai food in the city. It’s a tad pricier than your standard Vietnamese restaurant with entrees in the $20 range, but feel confident that the ingredients are all freshly sourced and that you’ll leave delighted. Highly recommended.

Featured Reviews

  • Because the place has only been around a few years, is run by relatively young people, and is in a quickly gentrifying area, you might expect Bun-Ker to be what print magazines would call a “hipster” take on Vietnamese food. But in reality, there’s very little fusion or even much “modernizing” going on here. Instead, it’s simply versions of the classics, with fresher ingredients and richer, deeper flavors, that are way better than what we’ve had elsewhere. Just have a sip of their pho broth, and you’ll get it.

Getting There

Bunna

By

Located in Bushwick, beween the Jefferson and Morgan stops is one of the city’s best Ethiopian restaurants, Bunna. The menu is vegan but even the strictest carnivores will be won over by their Lentil Sambusas and Shiro (Chickpeas simmered with garlic, ginger and herbs). We recommend the Feast for Two — a shareable sampler of nine dishes that really is a feast. (There will be leftovers.) All entrees are served with their homemade Injera – a spongy, sourdough-risen flatbread. Check their calendar for live music events.

Featured Reviews

  • Theere are some New York restaurants that you can mention in any social setting and someone will invariably nod and intone, sagely, “Oh, yes, I go there all the time.” Somewhat remarkably for a vegan Ethiopian spot—in Bushwick, no less—Bunna Café is one of them. What’s more, Bunna is well, and rightly, loved. It’s one of those vegan restaurants where the absence of meat and dairy isn’t obvious while you’re there, but when you venture out the door your step has a new spring in it.

  • Soulful, vibrant, surprising vegan Ethiopian fare… There’s a pronounced emphasis on freshness in Bunna’s stews and salads: raw vegetables are mixed with cooked, bringing lightness to the meal, and sharp notes of garlic, ginger and onion punctuate the softer flavors of curry powder and sunflower-seed milk. Bunna has a focused menu of three appetizers and nine mains. In the Feast for Two ($28), you can sample all nine mains arranged on one heaping platter lined with injera, that spongy teff-flour flatbread that acts as your serving utensil throughout the meal. Bunna’s version is soft, nicely seasoned and tangy but not too tangy, a flavor that can sometimes turn people off of injera.

  • The brick-walled joint honors Ethiopia—widely hailed as the birthplace of coffee—with traditional coffee ceremonies and live Abyssinian music. Java is made in a jebena pot and infused with cloves and cardamom, served with snacks like ambasha bread or cooked barley. Those looking for heartier options can dig into vegetarian plates, served on a bed of injera bread, like misir wot (red lentils in berbere sauce), keysir selata (sautéed and chilled beets) and shiro (garlicky ground chickpeas). Along with pureed juices (mango-avocado-papaya), beverages include Ethiopian beers (Castel, Harar), tej (honey wine) and cocktails, such as a whiskey-spiked Shai spiced tea.

Getting There

Cape House

By

A New England-style clam shack smack dab in the middle of Bushwick/East Williamsburg. The space, situated at a busy intersection, will nonetheless transport you to Cape Cod. We recommend anything from the sea (of course) but the Chicken Sandwich and Burger are also pretty solid. Recommended dishes include Clam Fritters and the Haddock and Fries. The outdoor courtyard has ample seating and is the perfect spot to down a Cape House Lager while you munch on some Whole Belly Clams.

Featured Reviews

  • New England transplants will be happy to know they don’t have to go any further than Bushwick to get authentic chowder. Cape House, a clam shack and bar, offers all the classics and a few new options. Traditionalists might go for the whole belly clams, scallops or clam strips, available on a roll or as a platter ($8–$25), or the creamy chowder ($5 for a small, $9 for a large). Not a seafood person? Try a Worcester-style hot dog with chili ($5) or the fried chicken sandwich ($11). If you’re in the mood for a more formal meal, order the negroni-braised octopus with herb salad ($20) or the baked haddock with dill cream sauce ($23).

  • Styled after a New England clam shack, this Bushwick eatery offers raw, fried and grilled seafood, along with mai tais, frozen drinks and canned and draft beers. There are high-tops as well as regular tables, plus a lively outdoor counter facing the windows.

  • Cape House delivers on its most important promise: terrific clams in a pleasant, casual, boozy-if-you-want-it environment. Get here soon though, while the patio’s still an option, for a final taste of summer before we all have to huddle inside.

Getting There

Carthage Must Be Destroyed

By

Tucked away down an alley, hidden from view in East Williamsburg is a gorgeous, pink Australian cafe that’s destined to become the neighborhood’s next buzz restaurant. As lovely as a Thiebaud painting, the curiously named Carthage Must Be Destroyed, is situated in an old industrial warehouse which has been transformed into an enchanting homage to the color pink. The espresso machine is pink. The dishes, saucers and and cups are pink. Even the pipes and exhaust system have been painted pink.

Getting There

Falansai

By

Street-food Hanoi and Saigon style, with a subtle french twist. An eclectic blend of dishes with just enough French influence to make them decadent. We recommend the Clay Pot Catfish and the Lemongrass Pork Chop.

Featured Reviews

  • In a dark, industrial corner of Bushwick, the son of a Chinese refugee has opened a Vietnamese eatery and cheekily named it after his father’s mispronunciation of “français.” As you enter, you’ll see a lightbulb hanging in a pagoda-shaped birdcage and hear loungey French music that quietly fills the sparsely decorated interior. At lunch, you can slurp up beef-noodle pho and munch on Dad’s shrimp roll, which tastes like a crab cake and has a crispy tofu skin wrapping. At dinner, tender little cubes of filet mignon come to your table fresh from the wok.

  • New York’s roster of fancified Vietnamese restaurants is growing, from Nightingale 9 in Carroll Gardens to Bún-Ker in Ridgewood and Falansai in North Brooklyn. They’re a change-up—if not always successful—from the city’s more casual restaurants, many of which in Chinatown, that hunker down with classic dishes like banh mi or pho. Falansai offers both of those things, but plenty more with a sophisticated edge, and they do so in an equally classed-up setting that has plenty for vegetarians.

Getting There

Faro

By

If you miss Northeast Kingdom — a trendsetting restaurant that helped originate Brooklyn’s farm-to-table food craze in the aughts — take solace in Faro which was founded by the same restaurateurs. Faro’s use of fresh, seasonal ingredients paired with their delicious homemade pastas is a winning combination. The atmosphere is without frills, but you will not be disappointed with the menu. We recommend any of their homemade pastas, the roasted beets, the wood-fired octopus, or the steak. Make a reservation since Faro recently received a Michelin star.

Featured Reviews

  • If you spend a lot of time in Bushwick, you’ll want Faro on your hit list. It’s a good place for a date, and probably the best place around here to take parents or a group of out of towners, largely owing to the fact that they actually take reservations. It’s not the destination that Roberta’s is, but Faro serves a different purpose: it feels like a restaurant for grown ups.

  • “Hyper-local ingredients” are the basis for the “beautiful” Italian offerings – “excellent” pastas, “fabulous wood-fired” dishes – at this “cool” Bushwick eatery with an “innovative” tasting menu and “good wine program”; “warm” service and a “hip but homey” space are other pluses.

  • On to the eight pastas, which are the heart and soul of Faro. While many of them evoke Italian models, they are unique things onto themselves. The squid ink calamarati ($17) sees the chef playing a little joke. The recipe deploys a pasta shaped like squid rings, and actual squid ink generates its glossy midnight hue. But it uses no actual squid. The ink makes the pasta richer, an effect that’s goosed up by a sauce of curried coconut milk. We are already in nutsy pasta territory here, but a half lobster tail and claw flopped on top makes the dish even more surreal — it’s a pasta Salvatore Dali might have invented.

Getting There

General Debs

By

General Debs is a Sichuan restaurant from the same people behind Faro and formerly Northeast Kingdom. The menu is a huge departure from their other ventures, but don’t let this deter you. Expect traditional Sichuan dishes at General Deb’s — hot sesame noodles, bang bang rabbit, twice cooked pork — even though the owners aren’t Chinese. As with their other ventures, ingredients are always fresh and dishes are all made with care. General Debs offers some of our favorite Chinese food in Brooklyn.

Featured Reviews

  • The menu at General Deb’s pays tribute to the provincial cuisine using sustainably raised meats from Autumn’s Harvest Farm in upstate New York, like rabbit that’s roasted whole and slicked with a chile-and-fermented-bean-paste sauce. The bean curd for mapo tofu will be made in-house, and “fish slices in fiery sauce” will employ local seafood like black bass rather than the ubiquitous tilapia. There will also be wontons in red oil, dan dan mian, twice-cooked pork, cumin beef, and gong bao ji ding (a.k.a. kung pao chicken), plus a full bar serving beer, wine, and cocktails.

    Adey is known for his pastas at Faro, which he makes from house-milled flours, and plans to eventually do the same for all his noodles at General Deb’s. But to start, he’ll outsource some from ramen kingpin Sun Noodle for iconic dishes like niu rou mian, the Taiwanese beef-noodle soup said to have originated with the influence of the Sichuan military families who migrated to the island after the Chinese civil war. Instead of the shank and tendon that usually populate that bowl, Adey is garnishing his anise-infused broth with red-cooked cow’s-head meat, in keeping with his whole-animal-utilization philosophy. “Cows have heads, too, and they’re excellent for soup,” he says. “At Faro, we fill the tortellini en brodo with meat from the head, and the consommé we make out of it is insane.”

  • General Deb’s is a Sichuan restaurant in Bushwick from the same people behind Faro, an Italian spot nearby. But unlike that place, General Deb’s is small, dimly-lit, and crowded with maybe one more table than there should be, as well as people sharing wontons in chili oil, pickled vegetables, and noodles. Most things on the menu are both very good and pretty spicy (although the wontons could have used a little more chili oil), so if you enjoy the slow burn of Sichuan peppercorn that sometimes makes your glass of water taste like it’s vibrating, you’ll like the food here. Overall, it’s a great addition to the neighborhood.

  • The “fish slices in fiery sauce” ($18) was a perfect evocation of what is often my favorite dish in the Sichuan restaurants of Flushing, Chinatown, and the East Village: a bowl of red chile oil swimming with fish filets and seething with Sichuan peppercorns. Take drink of cold water after a bite and your mouth feels like stainless steel. Wonton in red oil ($10) was another example of a dish true to its antecedents, requiring only a quick stir to be fully enjoyed.

    Other dishes represent a reworking of traditional Sichuan fare. The rabbit appetizer on most menus is a bony but delicious plate of rabbit slicked with oil and dotted with peppercorns. Here, the bunny is boneless, and a dark sesame sauce has been added. Improvement or unwarranted meddling? You decide….

    Beverages include wine, beer on draft and in cans, spirits, and invented cocktails. As far as Sichuan restaurants go, this one is likely to make you very happy: reverent toward its models, with a few interesting tweaks

Getting There

Guadalupe Inn

By

A Mexican restaurant, cocktail bar and supper club from the same people behind Mesa Coyoacan. The menu is gluten-free with shareable dishes including Veal Meatballs, Tacos Estilo Baja (beer-battered fish tacos) and Grilled Octopus. Larger dishes include a fantastic Whole Fish Wrapped in Plantain Leaves ($28) and Roast Spring chicken with Mango and Jalapeno salsa ($36). Be sure to order one of their Mezcal or Tequila cocktails. Check their calendar for live music and burlesque.

Featured Reviews

  • The folks behind Williamsburg’s Zona Rosa and Mesa Coyoacan are putting their Mexican credentials to the test in Bushwick with swanky restaurant and cocktail bar Guadalupe Inn… this 80-seater distinguishes itself by pairing delicious food (veal meatballs and green rice, grilled fish wrapped in plantain leaves) with Manhattan-esque aesthetics (brown leather booths and disco balls hanging next to chandeliers).

  • It’s a surprising scene: a burlesque dancer—clad in sequins, tassels and not much else—lifts her leg until a stiletto heel grazes the top of her ear to the sounds of a live jazz trio. No more than a foot away, groups of men in Buddy Holly glasses and women in Stevie Nicks shawls feast on corn-masa tamales fitted with bone marrow ($11), and dark-plum mole studded with grilled octopus ($18).

  • Guadalupe Inn is a grown-up, fancy-ish Mexican place in a part of Bushwick where you mostly just find bars with beer/shot specials. Up front there’s a bar area, and all the way in the back there’s a dining room with a stage. That’s where host live music – so if you’re looking for a more interesting dinner-date spot in the area, grab a table back there. The food is modern Mexican, and their large-format al Pastor platter is fun to share.

Getting There