Blogs : Outer Boroughs Digest

Chicken for Dinner, Cheese for Dessert

In a Brooklyn neighborhood full of Middle Eastern chow, Al Safa stands out. Its roasted chicken is superb, the equal of the fine version at Al Safa’s predecessor, the departed Mazza Plaza, Wet Towel promises. Other winners are foul mudammas (fava beans), chicken shawarma, spinach mini-pies, and kibbeh (meat-and-cracked-wheat bites).

For dessert, Wet Towel recommends Nablus Sweets a few blocks away, especially for its Palestinian cheese pastry, kenafa (Nablus Sweets spells it k’nafee on its menu): “it was outstanding. Really stellar. Get that with an espresso.”

Al Safa [Bay Ridge]
8002 Fifth Avenue (at 80th Street), Brooklyn
718-238-9576

Nablus Sweets [Bay Ridge]
6812 Fifth Avenue (between 68th Street and Bay Ridge Avenue), Brooklyn
718-748-1214

Board Links: Need Bay Ridge Help…80th St and 5th Ave?
Karam in Bay Ridge
Kenafa in Bay Ridge

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Tagged with: outer boroughs, restaurants and bars, al safa, nablus sweets, k'nafee, kenafa, kenafeh, bay ridge, middle eastern, palestinian

Street-Smart Mexican in Queens

The Cuatro Vientos taco truck, a newish entry in the Queens street-food derby, has bolted to an impressive lead over its Roosevelt Avenue rivals.

Standard meat fillings like lengua (beef tongue) and carnitas (slow-roasted pork) are well above average, E Eto reports, but this truck really breaks out of the pack by offering choices rarely found at New York taquerias. Sobrebarriga is superb: crispy, slightly stringy meat that E Eto calls “the beefy version of good carnitas.” Suadero, cut from just behind the flank, is delicious as well. Campechano is a blend of beef and chorizo, “and, well, who wouldn’t like that combination?”

Cuatro Vientos shouldn’t be confused with a far inferior taco truck that once worked this spot on Roosevelt near 65th. “I was thrown off for a while to the great tacos being served here,” E Eto says, “since the truck that was there for years was pretty horrible.”

La Copeñita, a few blocks west, isn’t a truck, but it’s got plenty of street-food smarts. Its owners run the popular Super Tacos trucks in uptown and downtown Manhattan. Taco fillings are exceptionally good—hounds recommend lengua, chivo (goat), and al pastor (spit-roasted marinated pork), among others—and salsas are fresh and lively. Beyond tacos, Joe MacBu has enjoyed pork mole tamales and daily specials like Wednesday’s chileajo, chunks of tender pork rib in a delicious sauce of tomato and roasted chile.

The décor is unfortunate: cartoonish Italian chef mannequin out front; enhanced-interrogation-level lighting inside; leftover signage from the previous tenant, the hapless EcuaMex. Best ignore all that. “Despite the vibe, I am digging the food,” Joe says.

Cuatro Vientos taco truck [Woodside]
Roosevelt Avenue near 65th Street, Woodside, Queens
No phone available

La Copeñita [Woodside]
54-25 Roosevelt Avenue (at 55th Street), Woodside, Queens
718-205-1606

Board Links: Cuatro Vientos taco truck @ Roosevelt/65th, Woodside
Guide to Woodside
In the old Ecuamex spot in Woodside

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Tagged with: outer boroughs, restaurants and bars, la copenita, cuatro vientos, mexican, tacos, street food, nonstaurant

A Promising Italian Makeover

Marco Polo, a Court Street veteran, just upgraded its next-door takeout space into an inviting wine bar called Enoteca on Court. Carroll Gardens Chowhounds approve of the makeover, and you’ll probably find many of them chilling in the backyard garden.

“What a great addition to the neighborhood,” writes Nehna, who loves the gnocchi with Gorgonzola and veal meatballs in tomato ragu, both finished in the wood-fired oven from the room’s previous incarnation. That oven also turns out first-rate pizzas with happy combinations of toppings. Early favorites include the valtellina (bresaola, mushroom, Taleggio, mozzarella) and the lucana (sausage, mushroom, mozzarella, spicy caciotta cheese). Salads, cheeses, and cured meats round out the menu, and Nehna suggests finishing with excellent gelati cranked out by an Italian-trained chef.

The wine list—put together by a veteran of the well-regarded I Trulli—is well priced but limited, oolah writes. She found it mostly “ho-hum,” short on interesting small producers, but adds, “This really only matters to wine geeks — everyone else should find the list more than adequate.”

Enoteca on Court [Carroll Gardens]
347 Court Street (between President and Union streets), Brooklyn
718-243-1000

Board Links: Marco Polo Take-Out…Delicious
Enoteca on Court St

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Tagged with: outer boroughs, restaurants and bars, marco polo, i trulli, enoteca on court, italian, pizza

Sweet Deal at Mama's Empanadas

At Mama’s Empanadas, save room for dessert: “the sweet ones are no joke,” bigjeff promises. The one with fig, caramel, and cheese is “so goddamn good and a steal at around $1.50,” he says; it even “rivals the finest desserts in any fancy restaurant.”

Mama’s Empanadas [Sunnyside]
42-18 Greenpoint Avenue (between 42nd and 43rd streets), Sunnyside, Queens
718-729-1303

Board Link: Mama’s Empanadas

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Tagged with: outer boroughs, restaurants and bars, mama's empanadas, mamas empanadas, dessert, pastry, turnover, spanish, mexican, latin american

Brooklyn's Two Freshest Pizza Joints

The opening of Ignazio’s Pizza in DUMBO marks a homecoming of sorts, as chef-owner Louis Termini is a Brooklyn guy who made his name in Hartford, Connecticut, at Luna Pizza. Fans of his Sicilian pie wonder what took him so long to come back. lambretta76 was blown away by this pizza, which is assembled “grandma” style (or upside down, with fresh mozzarella under plum tomato sauce), and judges it far better than comparable pies at Pipitone or House of Pizza and Calzone.

Others enjoy the white pie (fresh mozzarella, Pecorino Romano, parsley, garlic, oregano) and two unusual specialty pizzas: one with bacon, avocado, and tomato; and another with fried shrimp, bacon, roasted peppers, and garlic. yummymonkey loves the meatball appetizer (with tomato sauce, basil, and pecorino) but is sticking with nearby Fascati for pizza.

Chowhounds are split over this place, as they tend to be over every pizzeria in New York. NYJewboy complains of rubbery, flavorless cheese, an uninspiring crust that is soggy at the middle, and sauce that lacked “cultivation.” In all, he sniffs, it’s “pretty forgettable.” Nearly all agree, though, that Ignazio’s mops the floor with the tourist-choked Grimaldi’s around the corner.

Brooklyn pizza trackers couldn’t be blamed if they’d forgotten all about Anselmo’s in Red Hook, which originally announced it would open last July. Construction delays scotched those plans, but the place finally opened in late March.

“It was absolutely, positively worth waiting for! Simple, straightforward and delicious,” declares peacenow17, who recommends the classic with only tomato sauce, as well as the pizza bianco with pesto.

One selling point here is a coal-fired oven, a relative rarity prized by pizza cognoscenti for the crispness and smokiness it can impart (clean-air rules ban new ones, but old ones are grandfathered in). At Anselmo’s, shindiganna reports, the result is a crisp, thin, slightly chewy crust with just the right amount of char. She also loves the creamy, fresh mozzarella and bright, almost lemony tomato sauce.

In dissent (and you knew it was coming), some have complained of unevenly baked crusts—sometimes soggy, other times burned black—though more recent reports don’t mention this. oolah rates Anselmo’s quite good overall, “MUCH better than your average corner joint,” but prefers Lucali in Carroll Gardens, which is a real hound darling. “I’ll go back,” she adds, “but only because it’s so hard to get into Lucali’s these days.”

Ignazio’s Pizza [DUMBO]
4 Water Street (near Old Fulton Street), Brooklyn
718-522-2100

Anselmo’s [Red Hook]
354 Van Brunt Street (at Sullivan Street), Brooklyn
718-313-0169

Board Links: Ignazio’s Pizza
Anselmo’s Pizza in Red Hook
Anselmo’s Red Hook: Perfect, Simple, Fresh Pizza…

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Tagged with: outer boroughs, restaurants and bars, ignazio's pizza, anselmo's, lucali, pizza, pizzeria, italian, brooklyn