Free Williamsburg

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

Bamonte’s

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If you’ve never been, a trip to Bamonte’s is a must. This classic Italian restaurant has been in operation on Withers St. since 1900. Founded by Pasquale Bamonte, the restaurant is now run by his grandson Anthony who has kept the look and traditions true to its history. Hey it’s even the place Gerry got wacked on The Sopranos. The old world American-Italian setting feels straight out of a movie, making the mediocre food worth the visit. Stick to tasty homemade pastas (ask which ones are made in-house, since they vary) and absorb the scenery.

Featured Reviews

  • Perverse perhaps to name an Italian restaurant with undeniably middling food as one of Williamsburg’s best, but to the extent that Bamonte’s captures something essential — and evaporating — about the neighborhood, to the extent that it serves both as a memento mori and a testament to longevity, it certainly belongs. To understand Carbone, one needs the 116-year-old Bamonte’s. To understand the refulgence, now dulled, of the Italian-American community centered on Graham Avenue, one needs Bamonte’s. So what if the food is strict red sauce and mid-century? Bamonte’s is among the best. Eat, if one must. Drink, if one can. But go at all costs.

  • Think white table cloths, waiters in tuxedos, and as much talk about family in Rome and Naples as Manhattan. And while its Williamsburg hood certainly changed over the last hundred-plus, the dining room at Bamonte’s has remained essentially the same.

  • Forgo the hipster stigma of Williamsburg eateries by heading to Bamonte’s, a classic red sauce joint that serves as a time capsule in both product and presentation. The waiters are tuxedoed, the dining room tables are draped in white cloth, and the menu features every item you’d expect an Italian grandmother to make. The price point is reasonable, so stock your table with the classics in a space that’s been around longer than most in this city.

  • It is the continuity from plate of pasta to plate of pasta, from generation to generation that makes Bamonte’s such a vital, quintessential part of the story of the city of New York. Eating there feels as much a ritual as a meal, and it’s a fuss-free taste of Italian-American cuisine that we rarely see these days. If you live in New York, or just want to understand the city better, you owe it yourself to eat at Bamonte’s, if only once. You won’t only be tasting history—you will become a part of it.

Getting There

Faro

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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

The Four Horseman

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The Four Horseman is a fantastic, minimally designed wine bar that gets attention for the wrong reasons. Sure, it’s partially owned by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, but the truly interesting thing about this bar in South Williamsburg is its great wine selection and charming atmosphere. The design is informed by Nordic and Japanese minimalism, with wood-lined walls and ceilings and (of course) amazing acoustics. The wine list is extensive, but the staff is friendly and helpful when it comes to selecting one that fits your mood. Charcuterie with house-made bread is available, as are a number of small plates — we recommend the Beef Tartare. If you’re having dinner, the menu leans Italian and New American with typical dishes including Potato Gnocchi ($20), St. Louis-Style Sweet Port Ribs ($20) and a Pork Ragu ($20).

Featured Reviews

  • Fear not if you know little to nothing about natural wine, the Four Horsemen is staffed with knowledgeable servers who will help you navigate the menu and let you taste anything. A focused food menu complements the wine, featuring small plates like cheese & charcuterie plus more dinner-satisfying options like flank steak and potato gnocchi. The Grand St space is small and minimal, with a bar upfront and small tables in the back.

  • Four Horsemen is a really cool little room. It’s the kind of place you walk into and immediately think to yourself, “I can definitely hang out here. Let’s drink.” It feels like a more comfortable version of Momofuku Noodle Bar, and is filled with a hip but unpretentious crowd. The attention to detail is impressive, from the colorful knives and wooden spoons to the subtle design details, like the slats on the ceiling going in different directions, and the super cool texture on the walls. Also, the natural wine list is well-priced and expertly curated.

  • A “killer wine list” filled with “quirky” finds is the headliner at this Williamsburg nook from musician James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem), but the seasonal American fare is “spot-on” too; “sleek” and “perfectly dimmed” with a front bar, it draws “hip, but mature” types who keep the mood “convivial.”

  • You’re sipping wine in Murphy’s house, and it certainly feels like home. Cedar ceiling slats and decorative burlap sacks double as acoustics-enhancing sound absorbers for a crowd-pleasing playlist of equal parts Van Morrison and Kate Bush. Warmly personalized touches—cutlery from Murphy and Topsøe’s wedding, eucalyptus-scented bath towels—invite you to stay for another glass. If this is what the apocalypse looks like, sign us up.

Getting There

Leuca

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Leuca is a Southern Italian restaurant serving house-made pastas and wood-fired pizzas, inside the William Vale hotel. This is the hotel’s signature restaurant headed by Chef Andrew Carmellini (of SoHo Hospitality, Dutch and Locanda Verde). Sadly, the food is only so-so, especially for the inflated price tag. If you decide to eat here, skip the pizza and opt for one of the pastas which are good but will not blow you away. Even better, have a drink at Westlight upstairs for the stunning views, then enjoy an appetizer in Leuca’s lovely and spacious bar.

Featured Reviews

  • Of course, there is more to Leuca than gelato, and the menu includes all kinds of things that people love: smoked beets with ricotta salata and hazelnuts, razor clams with salsa verde, and a selection of “southern Italian dips” like ricotta with hot honey. There are pastas, including sea-urchin spaghetti (always a favorite) and a raviolo filled with duck egg. Wood-baked pizza options include a classic margherita and the broccili-rabe-topped Goomah. There’s also hanger steak, a mixed grill of lamb, and even a roasted chicken, for two, if you want to see how dish-sharing goes before you move on to dessert.

  • Andrew Carmellini, the chef known for the Dutch and Locanda Verde, and his partners in NoHo Hospitality have established several spaces in the new William Vale Hotel in Brooklyn, and this is the main event. It’s Mr. Carmellini’s first trip to the south of Italy; he named the restaurant for a town in the Salento area of Puglia. Chickpea Pugliese with bottarga, black spaghetti with cuttlefish puttanesca, and Sicilian pistachio cake are some of the regional fare. The dining room is wood-paneled. And under the executive chef Anthony Ricco, a wood-burning oven and grill deliver a few pizzas, roasted cabbage with Caesar flavors, smoked beets, and lamb mixed grill with eggplant Calabrese.

  • Leuca is the restaurant in the bottom of Williamsburg’s William Vale Hotel, and it’s very easy to pretend you’re in Manhattan here. It isn’t incredibly expensive, but you’ll still find dressed-up young people and older folks going for a civilized meal in an area where it’s otherwise hard not being young. Here you can get pizza, pasta, small plates, or some Mediterranean dips referred to as “La Scarpett’s.” And the food is good. It might not change your life, but the atmosphere is lively, and it’s a good place to go if you find yourself in Williamsburg with some people who don’t usually cross bridges.

  • So, pass on the pizza. But nor is Leuca going to be your go-to for Southern Italian food, which fills the rest of the menu. It’s a perfectly acceptable option if you’re staying at the hotel, and it’s raining outside, and you don’t feel like exploring the rest of New York City for more inspired fare. That scenarios aside, it’s not where you want to be.

Getting There

Lilia

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You’ll need a reservation, but buzz restaurant Lilia, is not to be missed. Stand-out dishes include the Grilled Clams appetizer, Sheeps Milk Cheese Filled Agnolotti, Veal Steak with Long Peppers and Rigatoni Diavola but you really can’t go wrong. The dining room is elegant and large and the chef, Missy Robbins, is famous for being the Obama’s favorite restaurateur. When the food is this exquisite, it would be a shame to only enjoy Lilia on special occasions.

Featured Reviews

  • Missy Robbins’ “mind-blowing” housemade pastas and wood-fired entrees are declared “exactly what Italian food should be” at this “outstanding” arrival to the Williamsburg dining scene; the “spare-but-warm” space – complete with “lovely open kitchen”, “sweeping bar” and plenty of “buzz” – is overseen by an “excellent” staff, so the only real problem is “getting a reservation.”

  • …Pasta made by Ms. Robbins is a direct route to happiness that has been shut off to New Yorkers since she left the two A Voce restaurants in 2013. Slip a fork into the pappardelle with veal Bolognese. Shiny with just enough herb-flecked sauce that one noodle peels away from the rest as you lift, they are rolled so thin that they’re almost weightless. Taste them, and you notice their delicacy along with the naked simplicity of the chopped veal gently cooked into tenderness with dark and meaty dried porcini. There is no milk in this Bolognese and no tomatoes apart from some juice, but nothing is missing.

  • …New York culinary world might be running out of ideas. But then, at Lilia, Missy Robbins shows up and transforms the dish into a life-changing bite.With the fritters in one hand and your beer in the other, all of a sudden the 90-minute wait for a table (the quote on a Thursday) doesn’t seem so bad. A fire-breathing wood grill sears lamb steaks a stone’s throw away from the bar. Chefs toss rich pappardelle bolognese in the open kitchen. And in back, a soft serve machine waits to be called on as a first-aid tool to counter the restaurant’s markedly spicy rigatoni diavola.

  • Robbins’s cooking throughout is exceedingly smart, assured and refreshingly consistent. The chef holds court at a counter that separates the bustling open kitchen from the sprawling, skylit dining room, performing quality control on the tenderness of a lamb leg as it’s pulled from a roaring wood-fired grill and the spice level of the salsa verde that coats a dish of black bass and roasted Yukon Gold potatoes ($27). (It’s just right, FYI.) That attention to detail renders even the most straightforward preparations—like crimped mafaldine barely dressed in Parmigiano-Reggiano and pink peppercorn ($18)—stunning in their simplicity. Ingredients are sparsely listed on the menu, but not out of some coy Brooklyn minimalism—what you see is what you get at Lilia. And trust us, you’ll be happy with what you get.

Getting There

The Meatball Shop

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It’s just what it sounds like: a restaurant that serves a variety of meatballs. Spicy Pork, Chicken, Beef, and Veggie are all available with a variety of sauces including marina, meat and Parmesan cream. Four meatballs are served per order with foccacia on the side. The space is comfortable and unassuming and plenty of sides are available (spaghetti, steamed broccoli, and salads to name a few) to accompany your order. If you’re feeling hungry, heroes and sliders are also on the menu. The Meatball Shop is not the type of place you plan your night around, but if you’re craving meatballs head here immediately.

Featured Reviews

  • “Meatballs rule” at these sandwich shops slinging “reliable” “mix-and-match” balls (meat, chicken, veggie) paired with “lots” of sauces, plus “snappy cocktails”, “nice beers on tap” and “sinful” ice cream sandwiches; “millennials” and the stroller set keep things “boisterous”, but at least tabs are “gentle.”

  • counter-service operation with a build-your-own-meal menu, featuring five kinds of two-ounce, house-ground balls (plus a weekly special), various sauces, and a range of options (slider flights, heroes, pastas, and sides). As befits Holzman, a chef who’s worked at San Francisco’s Campton Place and SPQR (whose sister restaurant, A16, is known for its Meatball Mondays, incidentally), ingredients are well sourced, including beef from Creekstone Farms and prosciutto from La Quercia. The look is Old New York, with reclaimed wood and antique milk bottles. For dessert, Chernow’s wife makes ice cream sandwiches. The cumulative effect: a retro vibe for a thoroughly modern meatball.

Getting There