Estia's Little Kitchen...1650 Sag Harbor tpke

Egg white and vegi burger burrito

Chorizo and scrambled

Sag Harbor New York...once did great fish dinner at this diner turned amermex gourmet without loss of the dineresque comfort. Breakfast with son and granddaughter new years eve and as son often says "the best I have ever had"...but this time so right...his chorizo and scrambled on tortillas and my egg white with veg burger burrito(don't mock)..and Sophie's face painted pancakes. This lonesome road diner is worth a trip from anywhere. Happy Yearofneweating!

Tooker Alley 703 Washington Ave bklyn..a bar with likeability

All the shelves are top shelf

The old slides and weathered reclaimed ceiling and mixologist expertise makes this a comfortable way station next to previouslu reviewed Corvo. There is a brief promising bar menu . The menu itself is a quirky reative good read.

JANE RESTAURANT

100 West Houston 212 254 7000....Its lawyer Jerry Lefcourt's son's
restaurant i would say. No she'd say. Then she goes without me comes back and says great. So we go together and no mushrooms for me she says. Then she tastes my tortolloni. Let me have it she says. Boy Id like to I says. We will go back.

Mushroom Bolognese Tortolloni

Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbeque....makes nyc a bbq town again.

NYC was not known for its BBQ, but then again Memphis was not known for its bagels or pastrami. We do have Daisy Mae's on the west side of Manhattan and we once had Pearson's Texas Q in LIC and then Manhattan and then back of a bar in Jackson Heights Queens...and Virgil's(thanks Artie) and Syracusian Dinosaur spreading around the State. But with some exceptions in one decade or another few were as promising as this chopped/pulled pork heaven hidden as it should be on industrial 3av and 7/8st park slope...not pork slope (name taken) . Bill Fletcher,after selling his Dumbo /Chicago ad agency, started this 5-9pm (Weekend:5-11) joint with the same smoker Brit Pearson had . But he liked bbq before(Bills bbq blog). Matt is the pittmaster and they both like people and talking about bbq-love. Beer and wine and deeply smoked beans,,,crispy slaw..sauces from hot n tot land...brisket and ribs mac  and pickles and a chicken that crossed the road before i got there. A mix of rock and country in the background. And actually if i implied this was a food desert, I am sorry because a Chinese restaurant, a pie oasis and a pub are in arm's reach. Thank you Santa..just what i wanted for Xmas.  347 763 2680

This meat had the tender/crisp blend that God intended and was spicy before adding sauce but
it wanted to wear as least one dressing and it looked and tasted right when sauced and when not.

433 3rd ave bklyn 11215

VESELKA....Ukrainian eats for the evenings

Since 1954 ,Veselka was serving up pirogi and apple sauce and sour cream and blintzes and stuffed cabbage with movie set lighting and a diner decor at 144 second ave but now there is another option at  9 east 1st st between 2av and  Bowery. And in addition to softer lighting there is a good wine list and great salmon cakes and the same great latkes/potato pancakes(kartoofel flaks?). Jack Hitts one person show at Joe's Pub was  evocative of the late great Spalding Gray but with a special blend of brain science meets Jean Sheppard ...dark humor meets humanism...The Moth meets Mark Twain. Hitt
produced for Fred Friendly, wrote for Harper's and the NYT, and taught journalism at Yale (mainly how to sell your story). At the Public Theatre he sold stories from his child-eye and ever growing heart

Salmon

Latkes

Res Ipsa

steeped in a  broth of rugged academic/politics. And so that is why I needed some Gruner and comfort food and why Veselka made me happy. One question though...who is the guy pictured on the wall in a leather sleeved collegiate jacket at Veselka. Is it as one waiter said a Ukrainian singer or a recently released convict as another waiter suggested?  Silly to wonder a day later but that Jack Hitt got me thinking about everything...just as he did when he worked so brilliantly with Fred Friendly on the Ethics in America series for PBS or when he edited a dictionary called Words That Ought To Be.

Bob AND Timmy's Grilled Pizza..Rhode Island

So much was goung on ...Alli singing with Providence Singers and 3 birthdays and Sophie's soccer award...that there was barely time to eat (HAH!)  Timmy and Bob grilled the pies to fuel the gift giving and laughs. Crowded like you want it to be...and real..with great salads and fried things and crispy tasty providential pizza with meats and vegies and soft fresh mozzarella.

JACOBS PICKLES and Biscuits and Beer

Disclaimer one, it was 1145 pm on a Saturday night when we got to Amsterdam and 84st. Number two, there was the kind of loud buzz upfront that I would have liked in my youth but the host moved us to a quiet rear table but the college reunion or some kind of reunification with great young people began expanding like Hitchcock's birds and i was jealous of them and a little crowded and louded out..the waiter apologized...and delivered everything in a kindly timely way. And much was good to great..dark tap cider shrimps on a spicy grit soupy bed and mac and cheese in an iron griddle, pickle slaw....fried chicken next time. The only sour note besides the delicious looking sour pickles was the grits side pot.
Watery and lumpy in a steel pot . Dickensian more than My old Kentucky home--ian. Someone in the crew said that happened sometimes. But it seemed like the only thing that needed quality control. Everything else  from decor to beer selection to staff culture seemed right.

MORE please.

And remember riding the ice flow across from ATO?

MORE?? You want more? (runny grits with lumps)

Pickle slaw

The grits sort of worked here because the shrimp liked them.

BROOKLYN CENTRAL...first burst of flavor

289 5av in Park slope near second street was an erratic place til tonight's opening night at Brooklyn Central. A fully wood burning oven and a crispy professional crew have moved in and pre liquor license will addict you to their mohito like limeades and an old world new world dichotomy of pizzas ...and speck and ricotta and olives and salads and cheeses and pickles. But first some praise for the old world DOC with Italian di bufala and maranzano? tomato's. OMG.  Espresso from Australia..smores calzone..coolhaus ice cream sandwiches...so many reasons to go now and also obtain a loyalty card redeemable in the booze on the way.

Pamelas on the Strip for pancakes and a no hitter and ohiopyle bbq and great folk in....Pittsburgh,the other Brooklyn.

The Great Race is our excuse for a great week end in and around Pittsburgh with Andrew Sheehan of KDKR and Abigail and Emmett(10 minutes better than last year)and Eamon. And the BKLYNERS. As for food the Sheehan Home was the highlight but as of this writing not available to the general public.

Firefly Grill in Ohiopyle

Homer Bailey apologizing to the Pittsburgh fans

Frank and Kristen posing in exactly the way Frank Loyd Wright intended

Tim and Maureen before their next home

Andrew ,Abigail, and Kristen

Retro Pamelas

The Pancakes

Pamelas

Roberto Clemente

Pamelas for pancakes on the strip (Obama's favorite), on the other hand,is available and this cross between a crepe and a hotcake is crispy and spongy and totally worth a trip to Pittsburgh from Chile or Belgium.
And in Ohiopyle (formerly Falls city) there is rafting and hiking and bbq.
And at the home of the Pirates you can if you are quiet about it enjoy Cincinnati's Homer's no hitter.

Firefly bbq

DO you have vegi burgers and do they have peas or okra in them?

And then top it off with thousands of runners and wanna bees at The Great Race. Even if you don't know the Sheehans, this place has the charm of Brooklyn and a proximity to mountains and farm stands...though everyone there seems to know the Sheehans...even the kosher butcher turned cab driver.