Free Williamsburg

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

Achilles Heel

By

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

By

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

Allswell

By

A true neighborhood spot with an amazing chicken sandwich and a cozy dining room. The menu changes daily with an emphasis on farm-to-table, Southern-influenced cuisine. Allswell is one of those places you bypass when you’re trying to impress someone with the new buzz restaurant, but nonetheless frequent for good, honest food.

Featured Reviews

  • This corner restaurant on a busy stretch of Bedford Avenue has a relaxed, welcoming feel, as though it’s been around a long time. Country inn touches abound, like the large rectangle-paned windows, swatches of mismatched calico wallpaper, and, in the center, a candelabra light fixture that wouldn’t look out of place at Hogwarts. … Chicken proved nicely moist, with delicious browned skin, served in a plate of its own juice. And the winner of the night was mussels in tarragon-beer broth with a side of olive-oiled grilled bread; with tender mollusks and a nice hearty bitterness to the broth.

  • “Very Brooklyn”, this rustic Williamsburg pub serves up a “rotating menu” of “flavorful” American grub with “complex” farm-to-table ingredients; occupying “cozy, ski-chalet” quarters with an “appropriately hipsterized” staff and clientele, it’s especially “popular at brunch.”

  • this place is very good [but] subsequent visits have demonstrated that we might have gotten a bit carried away. The restaurant hasn’t necessarily declined in overall quality -Allswell is still putting out very good food – but the problem is that they change the menu daily, and things therefore become somewhat inconsistent. And when you’re talking about what sets a great restaurant apart from a legendary restaurant, consistency usually has a lot to do with it.

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

Brooklyn Star (Closed)

By

Brooklyn Star specializes in comfort food with a N’awlins twist. Must have dishes include the Molasses Brined Pork Chop and their fantastic fried chicken. Their brunch is very popular and offers up a mean bloody mary. On Sundays and Mondays, they serve fried chicken family-style. A Williamsburg gem. One warning: vegetarians will not have any options here.

Featured Reviews

  • A supremely juicy half roasted chicken offered flavors both delicate (lemons, sage and thyme; a side of verdant pea-shoots) and robust (rice, with curls of—you guessed it—bacon). What a good bourbon could do for this food we’ll never know; a liquor license is forthcoming for beer and wine only. Also in development: dessert. When we visited, the sole sweet was a seemingly improvised dish of strawberries dipped in corn-bread batter, tossed (why not?) into the deep fryer and served with a scoop of vanilla Hagen-Dazs.

  • “Come hungry” to this “excellent” Williamsburg Southerner where “interesting takes” on “good ol’” American food are served up in “plentiful” portions; though it’s “perennially packed” for brunch, the “reasonable” bills, “jovial” staff and “homey” vibe all add up to one “lucky find.”

  • Fools gold, that’s what Brooklyn Star is. The menu reads like an Infatuation wet dream, listing all kinds of unhealthy hotness like fried steak and a molasses pork chop.

     

  • Chef Joaquin Baca’s handiwork at Brooklyn Star displays a fun and creative streak that yields admirable results. Pork chops are brined with molasses, striped bass is poached in duck fat, and roasted chicken is glazed with sweet tea and plated with dirty rice. Gluttony will convince you to bolster a meal here with bacon-jalapeño cornbread or buttermilk biscuits… Though the focus is on the eats, the room is comfortably outfitted with brick red terrazzo floors and grey-trimmed walls. 

Getting There

Chez Ma Tante

By

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

The Commodore

By

The Commodore is the place to go when you’re itching for a campy frozen drink, in a retro setting, with some damn good food to boot. The dive feels like a bar you’d find in Milwaukee in the 70s and once you order a Frozen Pina Colada with Ameretto Float you’ll be transported to that very era. People love The Commodore for its Chicken Sandwich – and with good reason since its made by the same people responsible for Pies n’ Thighs. The menu also features nachos, a burger, and many more artery-clogging delicacies. It’s a great bar so, sure, it gets crowded, but don’t let that keep you away.

Featured Reviews

  • It “looks and acts like a dive bar”, but this Williamsburg standby houses “some of the finest fried chicken and biscuits” going, along with other “revisited” Southern fare and “fabulous cocktails”; its “’70s den” look-alike digs are predictably “packed on weekends”, and the “order-your-food-at-the-bar system isn’t ideal”, but “super-cheap” tabs and an overall “chill vibe” go a long way.

  • First came the gastropub, an import from Britain featuring upmarket pub grub in an ale-drinking setting. Now, welcome the gastrodive, which further blurs the lines between restaurant and bar. The Commodore in Williamsburg, with its old arcade games, Schlitz in a can and stereo pumping out the Knight Rider theme song, offers the city’s best cheap-ass bar eats, served in a seedy venue where folks come to get blotto. The short menu—with descriptions as curt as the service you’ll encounter while ordering your food from the bartender—reads like a classic collection of fryolator junk. But the “hot fish” sandwich, for one, is a fresh, flaky, cayenne-rubbed catfish fillet poking out of both sides of a butter-griddled sesame-seed roll

  • The food is the work of Stephen Tanner, a native of Albany, Ga., who spent much of the last decade working in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, restaurants known for straightforward fare and strong flavors: Diner, Egg, Pies ‘n’ Thighs. Mr. Tanner is talented, but the food at the Commodore shouldn’t be cross-examined too closely. It’s mostly fried, or in a bun, or both. Ingredients are repeated. So are seasonings. So what? The Dead Kennedys never needed more than three chords.

  • In case you aren’t already familiar, The Commodore is a Williamsburg restaurant by Pies ‘n’ Thighs alum Stephen Tanner, and it’s bad for you. Bad because merely looking at the food here will jack up your cholesterol thirty points, and worse because everything is so good that you’ll crave it all the time. Eventually you too will be cutting imaginary deals with your organs to justify frequent visits.

Getting There

Five Leaves

By

Five Leaves sits on the border of Greenpoint and Williamsburg and serves eclectic food at all hours of the day. Fresh flowers are everywhere you look, and the décor is nautically-themed which is always a plus in our books. Though seasonal entrees are sublime don’t miss the burger. Our favorite pancakes are from here on the weekend brunch menu, but we also love the truffle fries. The place has a well-deserved reputation for attracting douchey scenesters and the nouveau riche, making Five Leaves a fun (if a bit irritating) spot to people watch. On the downside, prepare to wait.

Featured Reviews

  • This all-day Greenpoint “staple” “remains a favorite” in “hipsterville” for “out-of-this-world” burgers, “incredible pancakes” and other “reliable” New American eats; despite often-“crowded” digs and occasional “attitude”, it’s pretty “perfect for brunch” – with the “long lines” to prove it.

  • We still don’t love the food as much as some people seem to, and it can still be very cramped and crowded. But we will say that the consistency has improved – a lot. Brunch is and always has been the best time of day to eat here, but dinner can be a good move too, assuming you know what to order and most importantly – that you can be patient with the scene around you. Then again, I’m writing this from the perspective of someone who is more interested in the eating that goes at Five Points than in the hanging out that goes on at Five Points. If you’re 23, just got a job at Condé Nast, and have yet to taste a truffle fry, bump up this rating considerably. You’re gonna love it here.

Getting There

Freehold

By

Freehold has an unusual theme — it’s a hotel bar, lobby, and restaurant, without the hotel. It’s certainly a bit gimmicky, but somehow it all coalesces without feeling like a theme restaurant. First of all, the space is enormous, which makes it a comfortable place to grab a fancy cocktail or have a low-key dinner. Outside, there’s a large, grassy courtyard with tables and ping pong which becomes crowded with a very “New Williamsburg” set during the warmer months. The food won’t blow you away, but is always pretty darn good with standouts including the Chicken Sandwich, a Lobster Roll, and Whiskey Peppercorn Mussels. We especially like mornings and afternoons at Freehold Monday-Friday when it transforms into a comfortable workspace with a clientele that’s largely on their laptops. Breakfast is served daily and there is a weekend brunch.

Featured Reviews

  • Just as the Ace Hotel lobby did for Flatiron start-up bros, the Freehold offers a community space for Williamsburg’s upwardly mobile set (but with no rooms upstairs). The reception desk is actually a coat check, while the hostess, who lends out Monopoly and Risk, goes by “concierge.” Beneath 16-foot-high ceilings, the freelancing afternoon crowd logs onto free Wi-Fi and takes meetings on mid-century-modern couches. But come sundown, social-media managers let loose with $3 pint specials, outdoor Ping-Pong, and standup- comedy shows.

  • The grassy, spacious outdoor area of this bumping Williamsburg hangout is an apt setting for a cold Bud and a house burger, finished with pickled onions, American cheese and special sauce. Once you’ve had your fill, you can challenge your bargoing buds to a match of outdoor Ping-Pong.

  • The entire space is designed to mimic a hotel lobby, from the front desk/concierge area to the flexible seating design that offers both couches and comfy chairs as well as larger tables for groups to set up. During the day, the large bar offers breakfast and a place to perch while plugging away on a laptop (they offer free WiFi). In the evening, TVs might emerge from their hiding spots and show a local sports game. At night, the music is louder, the lights are dimmed and dancing on all the surfaces is encouraged.

Getting There

Grand Ferry Tavern

By

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