NYC 72-hour Plan, pt. 3

fig. a: Jacob Riis beach

Fort Tilden + Coney Island + Totonno’s + Franny’s

All the way down at the end of Flatbush Avenue, on a spit of land that also includes Rockaway Beach, you'll find Jacob Riis Park and, further west, Fort Tilden. Rockaway Beach you already know about (or, rather, I should say, "Rockaway Beach" you already know about). Jacob Riis Park has a big parking lot, a lovably ramshackle 18-hole golf course, a boardwalk, and some crazy, derelict architecture that reminded us more of Ostend and the North Sea than of any other beach we'd seen in North America. Fort Tilden's beaches are a bit of a walk, but things get more overgrown, a little wilder, even a little haunted, the lifeguards and the raked sand disappear, and the crowds thin out. It's a great place to commune with the mighty Atlantic, take in some sun, splash around in the waves, and share a Middle Eastern picnic from Sahadi's.

It's also just a few short miles from Coney Island.

fig. b: the original 1

Which means that when you're done splashing, it's a jump, skip, walk, and a drive to get a frankfurter or an order of clams...

fig. c: the original 2

...or, better yet, pay a visit to Totonno's, one of New York's great pizza shrines ("family owned since 1924"!), and you can sample what is perhaps the quintessential coal-oven pie and an leading exemplar of the "New York-Neapolitan" style.

fig. d: Totonno's cheese pie

I mean, just look at that thing. Two words: simple elegance. And a crust that's just phenomenal. Totonno's now has two locations in Manhattan, but the Neptune Ave. joint is the original and it doesn't get any more classic.

What better way to close out the day than with return visit to our friends at Franny's to have some more pizza? This was visit #4 for me, and every time has been rock-solid. These guys are just so good, in every category. Check it out:

1. utterly perfect crostini topped with fava beans, cranberry beans, and mullet bottarga
2. house-made maccheroni with smoked fontina, spicy sausage, a sauteed cabbage, that only read "okay" to me when I saw it on the menu, but which tasted like one of the top 5 (top 3?) pasta dishes I've ever had in my life--who knew?
3. three truly superb pizzas: tomato, anchovies, chilies, capers, and pecorino sardo; that legendary clam pie; and a cherry tomatoes, ricotta, and salami number
4. and if that wasn't enough, two truly outstanding desserts: a panna cotta with strawberries that someone two night earlier at Beer Table had told us had to be tasted to be believed (he was right: we've tasted and now we believe!) and a chocolate sorbetto that was a chocolate lovers' greatest summertime fantasy come true.
5. oh, yeah: and don't forget about their Negronis...

See what I mean?

fig. e: coffee cake, Bklyn Larder

Bklyn Larder + Pulino’s + Milk Bar

We had such a good time at Franny's on Sunday night that we decided to visit their newest addition to the family, Bklyn Larder, the very next morning. Their ricotta & wilted greens sandwich, I've already told you about, but their peach coffee cake was something new to us, and it was a thing of beauty: moist, delicious, and bursting with peach flavor. In an earlier post, I mentioned a cross-section of the offerings at Bklyn Larder, but did I mention their beer selection? Well, it's excellent, and you know that Popperings Hommel ale I mentioned the other day? You can find it here (for a fraction of the price it cost at Beer Table), along with dozens of other fine brews, both European and North American.

fig. f: Pulino's, street-side

The next day we had to leave by midday. Just enough time for one last breakfast, brunch, or lunch. How about a breakfast pizza? Seriously. Nate Appleman's Pulino's opens its doors early (8:30 am) so they can start serving their breakfast pizzas. We had the idea that this might be the right way to finish yet another one of our frenzied pizza tours of New York, but by the time we got there they'd already switched over to their lunch menu. Too bad, really, because we were looking forward to that salsiccia (eggs, sausage, bacon, mozzarella, and white cheddar). Oh, well. We soldiered on, ordering a mixed greens salad with a tangy red wine vinegar & crème fraîche dressing and a smoked ricotta, cherry tomatoes, and basil pie.

Appleman has definitely taken some lumps from New York's pizzarati for his "bar pizza," with its exceedingly thin, cracker-like crust,* and for his unconventional slicing. We had to agree about the slicing. When you slice up your pie in that tic-tac-toe grid style, what are you supposed to do with that square middle slice? But, as for the pie itself, we found the crust had a surprising amount of chew and flavor, considering how thin it was, and the toppings and the outer crust were both choice. At the very least: we'd had pizzas from three different New York pizzerias in the space of 18 hours, all of them in widely divergent styles, all of them well worth a visit.

Remember to take into consideration that while Nate Appleman is in charge of the kitchen, Pulino's is very much a Keith McNally establishment, with all that entails. This means the interior design is emphatic, to say the least (check out the sheer number of liquor bottles that line the south wall). And nights at Pulino's are said to be a mob scene. Lunch on a Monday was downright mellow, by comparison, so if you're pie-curious, that might be the time to go.

One last stop: Milk Bar, to pick up some fuel for the trip.

FIN

Totonno's, 1524 Neptune Ave., Brooklyn (Coney Island), (718) 372-8606

Franny's, 295 Flatbush Ave., Brooklyn (Park Slope), (718) 230-0221

Bklyn Larder, 228 Flatbush Ave., Brooklyn (Park Slope), (718) 783-1250

Pulino's, 282 Bowery, New York, (212) 226-1966

aj

p.s.--TY, HR!

* Some have said matzo-like. Either they're being mean or they've got a line on some exceedingly good matzo, the likes of which we've never tasted.

NYC 72-hour Plan, pt. 1, rev. ed.

Any excuse is a good excuse to slip down to New York City, but a wedding’s a pretty great one. Especially when you’re really, really excited about the couple that’s getting married (!), you’re going to get a chance to hang out with old friends, and the weather is slated to be perfection. And if the wedding’s in Bushwick and Roberta’s is literally half a block away, well, all the better!



figs. a & b: The High Line, before and after

The High Line

The High Line was already a thing of beauty. Now, fully redeveloped, fully landscaped by our good friend Piet Oudolf,* and pedestrian-friendly, it's just a different kind of thing of beauty.

fig. c: The Standard, as seen from The High Line

It's a great place to take some sun, do some people-watching, get some amazing views of the city and the river, check out some of the city's most daring new architecture, even take in an art installation.

fig. d: an-ti-ci-pa-a-tion

It's also a great place to grab a popsicle or a shave ice, now that People's Pops are on the scene. We didn't realize it at the time, but it turns it out it was People's Pops' Day 2 on the High Line. What we did realize, instantly, is that we're definitely some People's Pops people.

fig. e: People's Pops people

We loved their bright, beautiful, refreshing watermelon shave ice. We were totally ecstatic about their golden plum & mint pop. They were reasonably priced too. Power to the people!

fig. f: outside Momofuku Ssäm Bar + Milk Bar

Momofuku Ssäm Bar + Milk Bar + Beer Table

They said it couldn't be done, but we showed up for our glorious return to Momofuku Ssäm Bar at 8:05 pm on a Friday night--a beautiful Friday night--and we got seated in under 3 minutes! A party of four, too. We were fully prepared to wait a good 60-90 minutes, too. It was almost too easy.

And, god, was it good.

Vermont quail with sticky rice, shiitake mushrooms, and mustard greens sounded awesome--little did we know that that plump, beautiful roasted quail would come stuffed with the sticky rice and mushrooms and that it would be the quail of our dreams.

But the dish that blew our minds was one that sounded vaguely mysterious. When Michelle saw the buttermilk dish under the list of seasonal specialties she knew she had to have it. I asked her why and she told me she was convinced that the buttermilk would be served lightly set, like silken tofu, and she just had a feeling that it was going to transcend. Transcend, it did. What arrived was lightly set buttermilk (!) surrounded by a Fuji apple dashi, with toasted pine nuts and a mixed-herb salad as a garnish, and the combination was otherworldly.

Everything we had was stellar--including the simple pleasures of our Kentucky country ham plate--but that quail plate and that buttermilk bowl were the work of a team that's at the top of its game.

Afterwards we paid the mandatory visit to Ssäm Bar's little sister, Milk Bar. 1 Cereal Milk soft serve and a few cookies later, we were ready to roll. Literally.

fig. g: the menu at Beer Table

We had our car with us, and this being a Bushwick wedding, we were staying with friends in Brooklyn. So after dinner, we made our way across the bridge and had a drink at Beer Table. What exactly is Beer Table? Well, have you ever been to an intimate little wine bar? One that has a good kitchen? How about one that has a good kitchen that serves 3-course meals for $25? Well, get rid of the wines** and replace them with a well-curated selection of beers--bottled, draft, and casked, European and North American.

I'm not sure I want to pay wine bar prices for my beer (at least not regularly)--I lean towards the model of countries like Germany, Belgium, and the Czech Republic, where drinking the finest beers is a popular pastime--but the selection was definitely highly impressive. Just look at that menu. Just look at those write-ups. And I loved the honey notes of my Popperings Hommel ale.

People's Pops, various locations, including The High Line

Momofuku Ssäm Bar + Milk Bar, 207 2nd Avenue, New York, (212) 254-3500

Beer Table, 427B 7th Avenue, Brooklyn (Park Slope), (718) 965-1196

aj

p.s. Many thanks to L & T for the occasion and the inspiration.

* We wish.

** Yes, you can go ahead and drink them.

new york snapshots

Just a few weeks after our rendez-vous with the Colonel, we were back in New York. This time we drove back and forth through Upstate, but, unfortunately, we didn't really have the time to stop. We were heading to the Big Apple, and we only had about 48 hours to play with.

fig. a: fakin' the A Train

fig. b: Canarsie-bound

We were a little rusty when it came to riding the Metropolitan Transit Authority's subway system, so we paid a visit to the MTA's Transit Museum to get a little practice on some vintage subway cars before moving on to the real thing--you know, with movement, crowds, graffiti, debris, etc. As you can tell, it didn't take us long to get back in the swing of things.

fig. c: oysterettes!

fig. d: yes! it's...

fig. e: strictly vegetable

What we hadn't anticipated was that the Transit Museum is a fantastic repository for vintage advertisements, including plenty of food ads. We especially liked the ones for Oysterettes and for Schmulka Bernstein's kosher cold cuts. Too bad we couldn't find one for Bernstein's kosher Chinese.

fig. f: trains, trains

It's also a great place to take kids. Every kid we saw was having a blast.

fig. g: A & A

Now that we had our NYC legs, it was time to make use of them. One of our very first stops was A & A Bake & Doubles Shop in Bed-Stuy. We'd heard raves about A & A's authentic Trini chick pea doubles with hot sauce, and doubles are quite simply one of our favorite delicacies. A & A's doubles were rather different than the ones we're accustomed to up here (Mister Spicee), but we loved them just the same. Their fried dough was thin but tasty, and their chickpeas were heavenly--sweeter and more fragrant than we'd ever had, with lots of herbs and spices (allspice, nutmeg, etc.). Great hot sauce and tamarind sauce too. A & A is take-out only, but those doubles barely lasted the trip out the door.

fig. h: "it melts in your mouth"

I bought Michelle this Sahadi's halwah tin years ago thinking that we had been there together on one of our visits to New York and that she loved Sahadi's as much as I do. Turns out Michelle had never been there and that she didn't know Sahadi's from Bebe Rebozo. Oops.

fig. i: Sahadi's dried fruit

Well, I finally took her there this time around. Michelle was looking for dried fruit for this year's batches of fruitcake, and though Sahadi's prices could barely compete with the brand spanking new Trader Joe's that's opened across the street, their selection was still pretty hard to beat. She walked out with two pounds' worth of dried citron (and, no, that's not French for "lemon").

fig. j: at the Brooklyn Flea Market

One of the major highlights of our New York trip (actually, it was barely long enough to be a trip--it was more like a fling) was our Sunday morning trip to the Brooklyn Flea Market. There we found tons of great stuff to be had--clothes, furniture, knick-knacks, art, clock faces, etc.--but what left the deepest impression on us was the small but stunning array of food stands.

fig. k: fresh beef taco

Stop #1 was to the rather prosaically named Martinez Food Vendors From Red Hook, seasoned veterans (no pun intended) of the legendary "soccer tacos" scene. We could barely wait to get our hands on a couple of freshly prepared tacos with "the works" for our Sunday brunch, so we marched right over and got busy. Perfect timing, too. They had just finished cooking down another batch of carnitas just as we arrived. Topped with all manner of fixings, plus a couple of lethal hot sauces, these were the best tacos we've had since Frisco.

fig. l: truckin' good

Just as impressive, and even more original, was the Pizza Moto stand.

fig. m: Pizza Moto's oven

Here, Mr. Moto (a.k.a. Dave Sclarow, seen on left) serves freshly baked pizzas from a brick oven built on the bed of a trailer. Good pizzas. Very good pizzas.

fig. n: Pizza Moto's pizza

Sure, they looked a little funny, but they made up for it with a chewy crust, a wonderfully assertive tomato sauce, and some rather tasty blistering. This was pizza #1. #2 was even better. It was also better looking, but I was too busy eating it to snap a shot. Talk about the little oven that could.

When we got back to Montreal I checked to see if our friend Adam "Slice" Kuban had paid a visit yet. Not yet, apparently, but it turns out Mr. Sclarow just recently got some well-deserved coverage in the New York Times. According to the NYT, there's a reason Pizza Moto's pies have so much character: Sclarow honed his skills at Franny's and picked up some additional inspiration backpacking through Italy.

Oh, yeah: and don't miss the stand selling open-faced sandwiches with smoked ricotta and hand-carved prosciutto di Parma on semolina-sesame bread. Among other reasons, they not only use Brooklyn's own Salvatore ricotta, with its unparalleled creaminess, they sell it retail too.

fig. o: gimme!

The very best coffee of the weekend, by a long shot (again, no pun intended), was the macchiato I had at Gimme! My expectations were big, but Gimme! delivered. And then some. After that jolt, it was more like Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!

fig. p: menu, table, upholstery

But the most magical hour out of the 48 we spent in New York, was probably the hour we spent at Café Sabarsky. Michelle had made Café Sabarsky her #1 priority for the weekend after hearing P. wax poetic about chef Kurt Gutenbrunner's meticulous Mitteleuropean pastries. She insisted that we pop in on our way out of town, and god bless her for having been insistent.

Café Sabarsky is located inside the Neue Galerie, specializing in Austrian and German modernist art, and is named after Serge Sabarsky, the Vienna-born art collector to whom the gallery is dedicated. It's got an absolutely note-perfect Central European café feel to it, from the professional service right down to the upholstery.

fig. q: apple strudel

And the pastries? My apple strudel was among the very best either of us had ever had, a perfect marriage of tangy sliced apple filling, the flakiest of strudel doughs, and plenty of ground walnuts,

fig. r: strudel + sachertorte + kaffee = bliss

while Michelle's sachertorte was simply fantastic, leagues better than anything we'd ever experienced. It was light as a feather and had the most exquisite chocolate flavor, yes, but really it was that homemade apricot preserve that made all the difference. Truly outstanding. And that whipped cream!

So there you have it.

MTA's Transit Museum, Boerum Place and Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn Heights, (718) 694-1600

A & A Bake & Doubles Shop, 481 Nostrand Ave., Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

Brooklyn Flea Market, Lexington and Vanderbilt, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Sundays

Gimme!, 228 Mott St., (212) 226-4011

Café Sabarsky @ the Neue Galerie, 1048 5th Ave., Manhattan, (212) 628-6200

aj

fig. s: the occasion

[Thanks to H. for the hospitality. Thanks to R. & M. for providing us with the occasion.]

New York Odds & Ends 1

fig. a: Egg

Egg

Ever since I was taken to a restaurant in Reykjavik that operated as several different restaurants during the course of the week (there was a rotation at work, so it'd be a hippy vegetarian restaurant every Friday, a Pakistani restaurant every Saturday, and so on), I've liked the idea of restaurants sharing a space as a way of minimizing overhead costs. Of course, the fact that both visits to that Reykjavik resto were successful certainly helped. In theory, rock bands sharing a rehearsal space can be a pretty cool thing too, but in practice the results aren't always all that, well, noteworthy. Anyway, when we heard about the breakfasts at Egg, which started off by sharing its space on N. 15th St. in Williamsburg with a nouveau hot dog and hamburger joint named Sparky's--Egg by morning, Sparky's by afternoon and evening--we were intrigued. When we heard the folks at Egg were serving Col. Bill Newsom's legendary Kentucky country ham, we were more than intrigued: we got downright excited. We'd been dreaming of Newsom's hams for some time, and we even looked into getting a Newsom's country ham shipped to AEB headquarters in Montreal at one point, but we're sorry to say free trade ain't what it's cracked up to be.

It was a little too blustery to dine seated at the outdoor table for two you see pictured above, so we stepped inside and joined the short queue waiting inside the door of this slender, minimal restaurant with the short, minimal name. Ten minutes later we had our table and our menus and it took about 2 seconds to make up our minds about our order: country ham biscuit with fig jam and aged Grafton Village cheddar for her, eggs over easy, cheese grits, and artisanal bacon for him. The grits, from South Carolina's Anson Mills, were quite possibly the best I'd ever had. They weren't really cheese grits, they were more along the lines of "grits with cheese," but I couldn't have cared less because the grits themselves were truly awesome. The bacon was ridiculously good too, and cooked to tender perfection--such a rarity. But that country ham biscuit was simply out of control. What it lacked in volume--it's fairly compact and is easily dwarfed by its plate--it more than made up for in complexity of flavor. That ham, that cheese, that jam--we're talking a veritable symphony. I can't say I'm a connoisseur when it comes to Southern hams (sadly, I might add), but it's hard for me to imagine a better-tasting ham. Dark and smoky, with an almost crumbly texture that reminded me of a fine Parmigiano Reggiano, this was a ham with character to spare. Michelle enjoyed every last morsel. And when she'd made it disappear we ordered a generous side order of Newsom's ham for the road. Pretty much the best $4 we've ever spent.

From there we crossed the bridge

fig. b: Brooklyn as seen from the Williamsburg Bridge

and made our way into the Lower East Side.

Essex Street Market

We paid a visit to the Essex Street Market for the first time since its make-over and while we were at Saxelby Cheesemongers sampling some cheeses and having a friendly chat with one of the cheesemongers (eventually we bought some artisanal butter), we both couldn't help but notice an odd-looking café just to the right of the cheese counter. A few tables, a short-order cook behind the counter composing his short orders, an informal, open setting--nothing too strange about that, right? Aside from the fact that there was a waitress, the format was pretty much the same as any other North American food court operation. Except that we found ourselves looking at the plates that were getting served, trying to figure out what kind of food they served, and, try as we might, we just couldn't pin it down. Some plates looked vaguely Mexican, others vague Southeast Asian, but none of the plates looked entirely like one thing or the other. Then we noticed their hot sauces. This place had a massive selection, and, again, they spanned the globe (Mexican, Caribbean, Southeast Asian, American, etc.). And then there was the grizzled beatnik manning the kitchen. After puzzling over things for a minute or so, we both came to the same tentative conclusion: "Shopsin's? Here?" And so it was.

We'd been having elaborate Shopsin's fantasies ever since we read Calvin Trillin's "Don't Mention It," his in-depth account of the Shopsin's mystique, in The New Yorker a few years back. We knew Kenny Shopsin had reopened his namesake restaurant in Greenwich Village sometime after his original "general store" was forced into retirement--we had no idea that he'd picked up and moved the operation yet again. Unfortunately, as brisk as our walk across the Williamsburg Bridge had been, it wasn't quite brisk enough to work off the country ham and grits we'd just finished wolfing down, so all we did was admire Shopsin's from the periphery. Correction: all we did was admire Shopsin's from the periphery and grab one of Shopsin's thoroughly unhinged menus,

fig. c: detail of Side 1 of Shopsin's menu

the better to prepare for our next trip to New York.

fig. d: one of #1 Dumpling House's #1 dumplings

#1 Dumpling House

Minutes later we had just enough room to run a little QC on #1 Dumpling House, and we're happy to report that their pork and chive dumplings and their sesame pancake with beef are both just as dazzling as ever.

fig. e: Saigon Bakery

Saigon Bakery

Post-#1 Dumpling, we were back to having no room, but that didn't stop us from following up on another lead and checking out Saigon Bakery in search of mind-blowing banh-mi, and as soon as we did it was clear to both of us that this was an opportunity that we couldn't possibly pass up on. Saigon Bakery is tucked away in the back of a jewelry store, but, make no mistake, this is a serious banh-mi joint. We ordered one of their massive--and I mean massive--meatball subs and promptly got our minds blown. These were luscious pork meatballs, they were hefty, they were packed into a big sub that was slathered with pork pâté and mayo and absolutely overstuffed with Saigon Bakery's fresh, flavorful (and spicy) fixins, and they forever changed our notion of what banh-mi means. You could have fed a family of four with that thing. You could have fed a family of four and made them very happy indeed. Definitely the best $3.75 we've ever spent.

Joanne Hendricks

A couple of hours later we were on the western extremity of Greenwich Village. We'd gone there in search of out of print, antiquarian, and unusual cookbooks and behind this handsome door

fig. f: Joanne Hendricks

that's exactly what we found. We knew from experience that New York's cookbook specialists could be very impressive, and Joanne Hendricks was just such a bookstore. We'd already had our minds blown by Saigon Bakery's meatball sub--now we found our minds getting majorly expanded by the curiosities at Joanne Hendricks. Like a good museum, or a sprawling flea market, a store like this exposes you to so many things you never even knew existed. We spent about an hour just browsing, each of us lost in our own little culinary world. Then we started talking to Joanne Hendricks herself--she was almost as excited about our impending pizza tour as we were--and the next thing we knew another hour had elapsed. In the end, I only picked up one book, but she's a beaut: Judith and Marguerite Herman's Cornucopia, a book I'd once pored over at my friend J.'s place some years ago (and had been coveting ever since). Here's a seasonally appropriate scan (complete with Mrs. Acton's Christmas Plum-Pudding receipt [courtesy of Tabitha Tickletooth]) to give you a small taste of Cornucopia's considerable charms and its striking two-tone printing:

fig. g: Cornucopia on plum pudding, holly, and mistletoe

The Strand

Our mandatory visit to The Strand only turned up one real gem and Michelle found it in their Rare Books department: The Merle Armitage Book of Food. I mean, what can you say about a book that combines some pithy food writing, a collection of recipes that includes everything from Lapin au vin blanc to 'Possum and Sweet 'Taters, celebrity recipes from the likes of Lewis Mumford, Edgar Varèse, and James M. Cain, and "Four Vegetables," a four-page portfolio by Edward Weston? Beautiful layout, too, including, some more fine two-tone printing:

fig. h: Merle Armitage on food as art

Egg, 135 N. 5th St., Brooklyn, (718) 302-5151

Essex Street Market, 120 Essex St. (at Delancey), Manhattan

#1 Dumpling House, 118 Eldridge St., Manhattan, (212) 625-8008

Saigon Bakery, 138 Mott St., Manhattan, (212) 941-1541

Joanne Hendricks, 488 Greenwich St., Manhattan, (212) 226- 5731

Strand Bookstore, 828 Broadway (at 12th St.), Manhattan, (212) 473-1452

aj

Top Ten #22

1. No Country For Old Men, dir. Coen



2. Una Pizza Napoletana, NYC

3. Di Fara, Brooklyn

4. Franny's, Brooklyn

5. Joanne Hendricks, NYC

6. Peter Pan Doughnuts, Brooklyn

7. Saigon Bakery, NYC

8. Egg, Brooklyn + Col. Newsom's country ham, Kentucky





9. Fit For a King: The Merle Armitage Book of Food, Ramiel McGehee, ed. + The Cornucopia, being a kitchen entertainment and cookbook containing good reading and good cookery from more than 500 years of recipes, food lore &c. as conceived and expounded by the great chefs & gourmets of the old and new worlds between the years 1390 and 1899 now compiled and presented to the public in a single handsome and convenient volume, Judith Herman and Marguerite Shalett Herman

10. Lomzynianka, Brooklyn

New York, New York 4: Red Hook Report

fig. a: New York Dock Co.

It all started with a rumour about NY's best selection of bourbon and a warehouse full of Key lime pies. Some things just cry out to be investigated further, even if only by me alone. This time, though, I had no problem enlisting other researchers to join me on my quest. Off we went, taking the sea bus from Pier 17 straight to Red Hook. (And not a moment too soon: Pier 17 was the site of "Kid's Day," a horrifying display of under-10s running around without adequate supervision.) The sea bus left the port and the kids behind. The water was choppy, Governor's Island was lovely, and the wind blew our hair around. A cheap thrill at just $5 per person.

The view of Red Hook from the water is amazing. Old brick warehouses line the shore, some of which are residential, some function as art galleries, others are abandoned. Sadly, a chunk of the waterfront is slated to be demolished to make way for a huge Ikea. Until then, the waterfront's history remains more or less intact. The sea bus docked right in front of a disused tram.

fig. b: tramcar

From the water we'd spotted an amazing warehouse covered with potted tropical plants and a greenhouse. Thinking it was some sort of wholesale plant store we made our way along the streets of Red Hook trying to get a better look at it. That's when we stumbled onto Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pies.

fig. c: Michelle at Steve's

It was right beside the plant paradise. I made a beeline for the pies while Todd took a look at the plants. Inside the pie place was a tiny counter with a bowl of Key limes. They sell Key limes, a few pies of different sizes, and a frozen Key lime tartlet on a stick dipped in chocolate. This last treat, named the Swingle, was easily the best thing I have ever eaten on a stick, and probably the best Key lime-based dessert I've ever encoutered. It was a knockout. The curd was smooth, tart and refreshing. The chocolate added a sweet richness. A perfect product. I agree wholeheartedly with Steve's philosophy: When you make something that's this perfect, why make anything else? (They don't.) While Stephen and I ate our Swingles, Todd was peering into what we thought was a plant wholesaler but was actually someone's home. This someone came out and wasn't too friendly, either. We walked quietly away and hoped he wouldn't chase us. He didn't. We thought about getting another Swingle, but even I have to draw the line somewhere every once in while.

fig. d: Sunny's

Red Hook used to be a bustling port, crawling with sailors on shore leave. Their first stop? Probably Sunny's, a bar that's been around since 1890. We were in dire need of a drink when we got to the door. Too bad it doesn't open until 8:00 p.m., Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays only. We took a longful look inside and continued down to Van Brunt St. in search of booze.

fig. e: hooch from LeNell's

And booze we found at LeNell's, along with free and exceedingly generous samples of caipirinhas and Brazilian barbeque. (Note to shopkeepers: samples work. We came home with a bottle of cachaça after tasting their samples, plus wine, cider, and bourbon.) When I walked into LeNell's, I felt like I'd come home. It's the liquor store I dream of in this uptightly Protestant country of ours. A claw-foot tub sits in the window filled with a selection of gin. Their bourbon section takes up three full shelves, and I do mean full. And when I asked the proprietor if she had any elderflower cordial, she looked at me and said, "I'd love to get my hands on some of that stuff." So would I. Tonya LeNell Smothers (hence the name) is a friendly, knowledgeable lady, and if her southern accent doesn't charm you, her selection of booze will. Ask her about her mezcals. You won't regret it. And if you happen to come from a bourbon-deprived region of the world, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better assortment. Don't be a fool. Get on that sea bus.

Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pies, 204 Van Dyke St.
Sunny's, 253 Conover St.
LeNell's Ltd., 16 Van Brunt St.
(all in Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY)

m