Free Williamsburg

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

Achilles Heel

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A cozy, gorgeous gastropub tucked away in north Greenpoint, just a stones-throw from the East River. There’s a wood-burning stove up front, a small bar and a handful of tables. The hardwood floors, original tin ceilings, old-timey cocktails, and a small seaside-inspired menu hearkens back to an earlier era when Greenpoint was a working port and the space was a pub frequented by dockworkers. Come for an inventive small plate and a fancy cocktail. Achilles Heel is one of many popular restaurants in North Brooklyn created by Andrew Tarlow who also founded Diner, Marlow & Sons, and Reynard.

Featured Reviews

  • In its more peaceful hours, Achilles Heel, a revived waterfront bar with a painted stone facade in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, reminds me of McSorley’s Old Ale House. At both places, you can rub the winter out of your hands near a hot stove (fueled by coal at McSorley’s, firewood at Achilles) whose feet are propped on beat-up floorboards. Neither spot is in any hurry, and time there moves at a pace that is decidedly prehashtag. Their light has a faraway, amber quality you could call cheerful gloom. They are among the most soothing places in the city to cradle a glass while the day shortens and slips into the night.

  • a café and bar meant to evoke the always-open grocery and drinking spot that once sustained Greenpoint dockworkers at its West Street address between 1900 and 1960. Details like the hardwood bar and mirrors are original, and once he had signed on the space, Tarlow took a solitary bar stool he’d found straight to his carpenter and asked him to make a few more. There’s a meat-slicer behind the counter for the domestic cured hams, wooden apple crates loaded with fresh produce for purchase, breads baked at Roman’s for sale, and several hundred pounds of new equipment for the baristas to make George Howell pour-over coffee and espresso drinks.

  • Brooklyn empire builder Andrew Tarlow (Reynard, Diner, Marlow and Sons) extends his reach to Greenpoint for this cute corner cafe that turns into a bar at night, offering a tightly curated drink list focused on beer and wine plus a small menu of snacky food; with its copper-topped bar, intricate wood details and funky little tables, the comfy space feels like it’s already been around for ages.

Getting There

Alameda

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A beautifully-designed cocktail bar with a small, New American menu. The space has a horseshoe-shaped bar and a few tables for dining. An intimate spot with great cocktails and one of our favorite burgers in the neighborhood. The menu is updated seasonally, but if they have it, the grilled octopus is fantastic.

Featured Reviews

  • An upmarket stand-in for your everyday hang. Alameda is the Jennifer Lawrence of bars—stunning yet instantly approachable, with a serious eye on the craft (namely, cocktails) but a daffy sense of humor (namely, those drink names). It’s a place where a tatted, T-shirt-sporting crowd can get a Guinness as readily as a biodynamic wine, where happy-hour specials include beer-and-shot combos and oysters with cucumber mignonette.

  • The knowledgeable bartenders can mix just about any cocktail with ten syllables from brand name spirits and their homemade vermouths and bitters: The Alameda Manhattan leaves an impression that all the Manhattans you drank before should have been called Newarks. The menu is limited, but each offering stands out for its inventive take on classic American fare. The cucumber mignonette sauce gives the oysters a balanced flavor that never overwhelms the natural brininess, and the frisée salad’s pork belly bits level-ups this French-American staple. And the foie gras breakfast sandwich is so deliciously decadent that you’ll dread eating your last bite.

  • A gorgeously grungy staff serves creative cocktails and high-end (yet affordable) takes on American snack fare at this Greenpoint hang; a U-shaped bar dominates the stylish space, which is decked out in white tile and handsome wood.

Getting There

Cape House

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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

Casino Clam Bar

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The most unique thing about Casino Clam Bar is the seating arrangement. There’s just one u-shaped bar with about 20 seats, and pretty much every person in the restaurant has a full view of everyone else at any given time. But that’s just part of the fun of this place, and if you enjoy shellfish, it’s worth checking out. Here, you can of course get clams casino – but they also have small menu of things like oysters, ceviche, and uni pasta.

Featured Reviews

  • The most unique thing about Casino Clam Bar is the seating arrangement. There’s just one u-shaped bar with about 20 seats, and pretty much every person in the restaurant has a full view of everyone else at any given time. But that’s just part of the fun of this place, and if you enjoy shellfish, it’s worth checking out. Here, you can of course get clams casino – but they also have small menu of things like oysters, ceviche, and uni pasta. 

  • When Williamsburg’s leading American-regional-food guru, Joe Carroll (of Fette Sau and St. Anselm fame), gets hold of a restaurant space he likes — especially one that comes with a relatively forgiving rent — he tends to hang on to it. So, where once stood Carroll’s Baltimore-style cheese-fish-sandwich shop, Lake Trout, and after that his vegetable-forward tasting room, Semilla, which closed in March, now there is Casino Clam Bar, an homage of sorts to the clam shacks and dive bars the Bergen County native and Jersey Shore aficionado has known. Think old-school meets new-school, or maybe Randazzo’s crossed with ZZ’s minus the $20 cocktails. There are raw littlenecks on the half-shell, shrimp cocktails, and chowder by the cup or bowl, but also bottarga crackers, uni pasta, hamachi collars, cod cheeks, white clam Grandma pizza, and Petrossian caviar.

Getting There

Chez Ma Tante

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A bistro in Greenpoint “inspired by unassuming eateries that dot the content – pubs, cafes, bistros and trattorias.” The decor and menu are simple and unassuming, which is precisely why we love this place. Nothing is overly-precious, but everything is done simply and with great care. Whether enjoying a few snacks like Chicken Liver Pate, Pig’s Head Terrine, or Steak Tartare with a glass of wine or a full meal — we love their Pork Shoulder and their Half Chicken with Romesco Sauce — you will assuredly be delighted. Brunch is offered on the weekends and if you go, be sure to try their amazing pancakes. The word is out about Chez Ma Tante which opened quietly in 2017, so definitely make a reservation.

Featured Reviews

  • The restaurant is the work of two Cafe Altro Paradiso alums, Aidan O’Neal and Jake Leiber, and the menu reflects some of the old Estela zaniness. In its emphasis on organ meat pates and terrines, it’s also reminiscent of Montreal’s Au Pied de Cochon. O’Neal once toiled at M. Wells Dinette in P.S. One, and that experience undoubtedly provided further inspiration. The chicken liver pate ($9) might be at home on any bistro menu in town, artfully smeared across the plate and accompanied by grilled toasts and pickled chiles.

    Other dishes are on another level, offal-wise, particularly with the pig head terrine. This patchwork comes in helter skelter slices, composed of ragged chunks of sinew, fat, and deeply red swatches of meat. It’s about the richest thing you’ve ever tasted and might remind you of the work of U.K. chef Fergus Henderson. I loved it, even though it came with the same toasts and chiles as the chicken liver pate.

  • It is hard to say exactly what kind of food Chez Ma Tante serves, apart from the consistently good kind. The website calls it “food that can only be described as European.” This isn’t particularly helpful or specific; I’ve never eaten anything there that seemed Finnish, say, or Bulgarian. If the menu has a theme, you won’t guess it from the dining room. A collection of brown chairs and black tables on a black floor in an undecorated white room, it is as austere as a Shaker chapel, although one with a long, well-populated bar against the wall.

    No hints are forthcoming from the cocktail list, either, which plays it close to the vest with daiquiris, Negronis, Cosmopolitans and so on. It is the first cocktail list I’ve seen in a long time on which I recognized every drink. Other writers have described Chez Ma Tante as a neighborhood spot, a homage to certain well-known London restaurants, a gastro pub and a “French-Canadian bistro.” 

    The name Chez Ma Tante was borrowed from a stainless-steel slot of a place in Montreal known for its steamé, a steamed hot dog in a steamed bun. An “all dressed” steamé, meaning it’s loaded up with mustard and coleslaw, is a new feature on the brunch menu in Greenpoint. Apart from that and a recurring maple motif — the jugs of syrup on a shelf outside the kitchen are not just for show — the Québécois influence is minimal.

     

  • Boasting a strong Canadian influence, this American bistro (named for a Montreal hot dog joint) in Greenpoint offers raw-bar items, charcuterie and seasonal veggies and mains by alums of Café Altro Paradiso. Dark woods and white walls lend a simple, unassuming feel to the dining room and bar.

  • Restaurateur, Josh Cohen (who previously owned the hit spot, Jimmy’s Diner) has enlisted the help of Aidan O’Neal and Jake Leiber, who have both served significant time at the celebrated, Café Altro Paradiso, to head up this new addition to the area… A native of Vancouver, O’Neal spent five years in Montreal before moving to NYC and pays homage to a restaurant he loved there, which also inspired the name, Chez Ma Tante (‘at my aunt’s’)…  The menu is broken into categories for raw & cooked selfish, charcuterie, salads & vegetables and mains. There’s dishes like marinated mussels and clams, country pâté and skate wing. Dessert offers up items like rhubarb custard tart and a sorbet with Polish vodka.

  • “There’s a little bit of maple syrup everywhere,” says Chef Aidan O’Neal, whose new restaurant Chez Ma Tante opened in the former Jimmy’s space on Greenpoint’s Calyer Street… That a Vancouver native who spent five years in Montreal prior to moving to NYC would employ Canada’s sweet liquid gold wherever possible is not surprising, but O’Neal’s employing a nuanced, measured hand. He and chef de cuisine Jake Leiber—who met working at Cafe Altro Paradiso—lacquer salmon gravlax with gin and maple syrup while it’s drying to build up its texture, combine it with chardonnay vinegar to finish a falafel dish, and there’s a little bit of it on the rhubarb custard tart, too.

  • Considering the moniker means “At My Aunt’s,” the atmosphere is suitably non-pretentious, though the fare in no way could be considered especially homespun. Well befitting a French boite, you’ll find pebbled salmon tartare cured with maple syrup and gin, grilled veal steaks paired with creamy, corpulent butter beans, fans of skate wing over sabayon and leeks, and wagyu short rib steak, teamed with wedge-style frites and prune-anchovy ketchup.

Getting There

Extra Fancy

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A New England-style seafood pub that’s more of a laid-back dive than its Extra Fancy moniker would suggest. The bar up front is spacious and isn’t usually too crowded. It’s a nice place to have a Narragansett Lager and some Littleneck Clams. Salt Cod Fritters, Lobster Roll and the Steamed Mussels are standouts on a menu that’s mainly from the sea but also features a few Southern classics like Deviled Eggs and Cornbread. In the warmer months they have a patio with frosty frozen drinks and snacks.

Featured Reviews

  • Williamsburg’s Extra Fancy serves fried, grilled, and raw seafood, like fish & chips and lobster bisque fries, plus a notable secret sauce-topped burger. It’s open late — until 2am every night — and its special late-night menu will have you covered should you ever get a midnight lobster roll craving. The brick-and-wood interior is reminiscent of a New England seafood shack, albeit a hipster one.

  • lthough pedigreed chef Ross Florence, late of Le Bernardin, recently parted ways with Extra Fancy, the spot still turns out some seriously tasty seafood snacks. The Cape Cod clam fritters ($9) arrive at the table piping hot and golden brown, accompanied by a tangy chive-buttermilk sauce. Each fried nugget is studded with meaty littlenecks, sweet corn kernels and spicy bits of chili. Landlubbers can chow down on a juicy, grilled kielbasa ($12) served with tangy red-cabbage sauerkraut and swipes of caraway-mustard butter on a hot-dog roll.

  • Williamsburg “meets New England” at this “swinging” seafood joint whose clam shack–inspired menu features “fine oysters” and “fun comfort food” backed by “expertly made” cocktails; the “lovely” garden makes it a “perfect day-drinking” destination, but it’s also “great for late-night nosh.”

Getting There

Grand Ferry Tavern

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Grand Ferry Tavern is a cozy, under-the-radar Gastropub specializing in great cocktails and fresh seafood. Come for a snack and a refined, old-timey spirit; linger for an entree if you’re feeling hungry. We love their Fried Oysters and Littleneck Steamers. Landlubbers will be happy too with their Wild Mushroom Sheppard’s Pie, Burger and Mac & Cheese dishes. Grand Ferry Tavern, which is a stone’s throw from the East River hearkens back to another era, but without ever feeling too self-conscious about its maritime inspirations.

Featured Reviews

  • Paisley wallpaper, a mirrored back bar, and ornate chandeliers give the space (from the owners of the Richardson in Greenpoint) an antique feel; while windows overlooking Kent Avenue and the open courtyard in the rear keep the bar well-lit and airy. Come just for drinks or make a meal out of dishes like an Ipswich-clam roll and beer-braised brisket.

  • Outfitted with wood banquettes, damask wallpaper and vintage Harper’s Weekly prints depicting East River life, the bar features 20 Old World European wines and 14 draft beers from all-American harbor towns: Hood River, OR’s Full Sail IPA, Cisco Whale’s Tale Pale of Nantucket and Baltimore’s Heavy Seas Loose Cannon. The seafaring-themed cocktail program includes quaffs like the Hey Sailor, which features navy-strength English gin, Salers aperitif, Aperol and lemon juice; while the Seven Seas Cooler mixes Amaro Braulio, honey, Lapsang souchong tea and 100-proof rhum agricole. Brett Ackerman (Diner, Marlow & Sons) captains the pub-grub menu, lining out a full raw bar (Ipswich clams, East Coast littlenecks), saffron-flecked clam chowder, beer-braised brisket and wild-mushroom shepherd’s pie.

Getting There

Maison Premiere

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Maison Premiere has long been one of our favorite places in Williamsburg. We first fell in love with their 1/2 price oyster special, which they offer Monday-Friday 4pm-7pm. Their raw bar is unmatched in the city, irrespective of borough. We’ve also always appreciated the lovely design, that’s reminiscent of a New Orleans-style, classic cocktail bar with a touch of old-timey Parisian flare. In recent years, they’ve expanded their menu to include more entrees as well such as Swordfish and a Lobster Roll. It’s all a bit pricey but worth the splurge.

Featured Reviews

  • Maison Premiere is both exactly the same and very different than it was when it first opened. It’s still an adult fun house of raw seafood and absinthe, but it’s added other elements as well. There’s now a full menu of cooked food, a sleeper brunch situation, and an amazing patio out back.

  • This ultra-retro tavern may feel dark and old-timey, like a watering hole where the Founding Fathers would have stopped for fortification before fending off the British. But, the massive, U-shaped bar is particularly coveted, so arrive early or prepare to wait for your absinthe drip. To accompany the stellar sips, a vast selection of oysters, clams, and group-friendly seafood plateaux seem to pop up on every table. The kitchen’s talent is equally clear in such preparations as luscious sea urchin served in a chilled shellfish consommé with fragrant lemongrass and thin slices of sweet grapes.

  • The food is impressionistic, best appreciated as a series of lovely, fleeting moments rather than the sustained arc that typically constitutes a meal. From the raw bar come thin slices of sea scallop with rosy pickled rhubarb and a drift of shaved horseradish ice, hot and cold at once. Razor clam, sweet and almost squidlike in texture, is punctuated by crisp, clean radish. A spoonful of lobster dressed with mayonnaise, celery and tarragon, anchoring a cracked tail shell, suggests a stolen bite from a New England lobster roll, with buttered bread crumbs in lieu of the roll.

Getting There

Sauvage

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Sauvage is the second restaurant from the people behind Maison Premiere. Where Maison Premiere’s focus is on seafood, Sauvage focuses more on dishes like Heritage Pork with celery root and persimmon or Rabbit with roasted turnips. There’s an abundance of small plates, many vegetarian, and a smaller raw bar. Come for a snack and a fancy cocktail or splurge on a dinner. If you’re a fan of Maison Premiere, you will be very happy.

Featured Reviews

  • But Ms. Giffen’s talents are best used when she abandons the miniaturist mode. There’s a full-throttle thrill to breaking open chilled snow crab legs and dunking their briny flesh in brown butter that’s reinforced with mashed crab liver. There’s undeniable pleasure in slicing open the malakoff, dough mixed with alpine-style cheese that’s lumped on a slice of sourdough and then deep fried. This bonanza of starch, cheese and oil comes with pickled vegetables. It should also come with a small mountain for you to you climb after you finish it…. Like a classic sidewalk cafe in Paris that’s been taken over by young upstarts. Servers are extroverted and able to convey enthusiasm that seems genuine.

  • Sauvage (“wild” in French), the second restaurant from the team of Joshua Boissy and Krystof Zizka, with Lisa Giffen once again serving as chef, set down on the Greenpoint frontier a few months ago. Though sporting a formidable French wine list, it focused more on food than drink. Sauvage spread itself along Nassau Street like homemade butter on the cumin-scented warm roll that is one of the restaurant’s most delicious apps ($2.50). Across the intersection lies McCarren Park, where the crack of the baseball bat punctuates a leisurely meal, at least for those who choose to perch at the outdoor tables. 

Getting There

Walter Foods

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A reliable gastropub with a solid raw bar and a loyal following. We love the French Dip, a throwback dish which is actually hard to find these days. The staff is always friendly and since Walter Foods has been around too long to have “buzz” the waits are never too long. A solid choice if you’re looking for a hearty meal and a fancy cocktail in a quintessential “new Brooklyn” establishment.

Featured Reviews

  • The space immediately announces itself as one you’d like to settle into: A dark wooden bar, with stools to match, is a prominent fixture, as are floor-to-ceiling windows and antique-style lighting that lend a warm glow and understated old-timey vibe. That aesthetic carries over to the food and drink, which, like the space, seems to give you exactly what you are in the mood for: Well-mixed cocktails, executed with seriousness by bow-tie–clad barkeeps, include classics such as the Tom Collins, a frothy refreshment of gin, lemonade and soda, and respectful innovations, like the fig sidecar, a soothing blend of fig syrup, aged rum and more lemonade. The dinner menu, meanwhile, is populated with hit-the-spot standbys: There’s a formidable French-dip sandwich—moist slices of filet mignon in a crackling baguette—and a heaping plate of juicy fried chicken, with a greaseless, well-seasoned crust. It’s no wonder that the formula seems to be working so beautifully right out of the gate.

  • Embodying Brooklyn’s “Socratic ideal of a neighborhood place”, these “pub-ish” spots supply “solid”, spiffed-up American comfort fare and “killer” cocktails; “reasonable” prices and “comfortable” interiors seal the deal – they “care about the details and it shows.”

  • The cocktails are all very good, and they will be served to you by guy who calls his vest a waistcoat. Second, this place has one of the best French dip sandwiches we’ve had. People talk all about the lobster roll and the fried chicken, but that French dip is where it’s at. Order that and a dozen oysters and you’re gonna be in good shape.

Getting There