Extra Fancy
Brooklyn’s newest raw bar and seafood place is the first restaurant from Mark Rancourt (Macao Trading Co.), partner David Brilliant, and beverage director Robert Krueger (Employees Only).
With their shared expertise, they combine a casual atmosphere with higher-end dining fare. With a premium raw bar and seafood menu and a broad drink list (a variety of cocktails, wines, beers, and ciders), they take their dining service quite seriously.
Yet, the atmosphere is casual and relaxed, not a pretentious one. In fact, the restaurant name came off a condiment bottle, reflecting the place’s extra fancy spread and casual surroundings.
Recommended are the grilled cherrystone clams. The eatery also uses fresh herbs that are growing out back, and they make their own oyster crackers. Nice touch.
Biáng!
A sit-down, full waiter-service offshoot of Xi‘an Famous Foods, Biáng! is one of a small chain of specialty Chinese fast food places that serves authentic Chinese cuisine from the western Chinese city of Xi’an.
The restaurant is named for the stretching and pounding sound that comes from making noodles as they are slammed on a table; so you can bet fresh noodles are definitely a strong talent at this place.
The noodles are served in many ways: dressed with spicy beef stew, spicy and sour diced pork belly or lamb and cumin, among others.
The eatery was even featured on Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” where he raved about their lamb burger served on homemade flatbread buns.
Easy on the wallet, and tasteful to the palate, be sure to give it a try.
Rosemary’s
Designed much like an Italian courtyard, the place is filled with greenery, wood tables, terracotta floors, and exposed brick walls. They not only want to give you a taste of Italy, but work hard at transporting you there visually too.
Food journalist Robert Sietsema notes that you can take advantage of what’s happening on the roof—a rooftop garden supplying vegetables and herbs— by ordering the minestra di stagione ($18), “a seasonal multi-vegetable casserole that demonstrates, once and for all, that a stew doesn’t have to include flesh to be great.”
Sietsema’s favorite? Chitarra alla carbonara, traditional Roman spaghetti richly sauced with cheese, pork cheek, and egg yolk.
Not a salumeria, yet they offer some excellent saluma.
Governor
From the same people who brought you Colonie and Gran Eléctrica, this eatery is just as good and touts a hardworking New American menu: ever changing, uses locally sourced items, has house-baked bread, and fresh churned butter, and so on.
Governor’s PR enthuses that Chef McDonald (Per Se), “showcases fresh, simple ingredients alongside creative culinary techniques.
“You might find cold lobster consommé with apple and fennel; grilled toast topped with chicken oysters (the succulent meat found on either side of a chicken’s lower spine); or sea robin fillet with Swiss chard, fish sauce, tapioca, and cilantro oil. You just never know.”
The place was named after the founder of a paper bag and carton empire who erected factory buildings in Dumbo in the late 19th century. Governor was his nickname.
One combination they flaunt as “familiar and esoteric” is the Beer Battered Blowfish Tails, and Roasted Pork Neck with Peaches, Elderflower, Nasturtium, and Pork Jus.
They also serve the latest foodie mixology trend, cocktails like the Cool Hunt Club, which is organic cucumber vodka, with gooseberries, fresh cucumber juice, agave thyme nectar, and lemon.
The bi-level restaurant has balcony seating that overlooks the first-floor dining room and large, arched windows. Its airy feel makes it a nice place for a group-dine outing.
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