AUNT BUTCHIES Brooklyn’s Italian Café - Bakery 383 5th Ave. Bklyn, NY 11215 718-757-9756

 Just arrived in Park Slope but feels like it has always been here. Perhaps because it has been in Bay Ridge  and other locations for some time. Maybe because its owner's are strongly connected to the community. This is a bakery and restaurant and caterer in modest space with a menu as long as your arm...as long as your arm is the Guinness winner for longest arm.Wait staff are charming and youthful and the Chef is experienced and brings his deep brooklyn roots to a love of  a wide variety of pressed paninis named for everyone from chef Tommy to cousin Danny and from Luigi to RAY RAY. They are filled with everything from sausage,broccoli rabe, provolone and ricotta to knish, pastrami, Swiss, and mustard. Vegetarians will love the Davinci with mozzarella peppers, arugula, balsamic, and Evoo. Plenty of pastas and plenty of sauces with plenty of extras can be found at the build your own corner of the menu.

On a recent sudden summer evening we only stared at the case of gorgeous cakes because the Park Slope salad and ravioli left us room to only crave   the deserts and think next time (chicken parm)

                                                          Park Slope Salad

                               Fried Zucchini with a side of red sauce

SORGHUM AND SALT 186 COMING ST CHARLESTON SC

 THIS IS WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS

                                                          SHORT RIBS

.                                                            EGGPLANT DESIRE

                                                          SEA SCALLOPS

                                                          BEET CREMEUX

 SEATED AT CHEF TRES JACKSONS TABLE IS THE WAY TO GO. THE SMALL PLATES ALL COME WITH BIG FLAVOR AND MAGICAL PREP AND YOU CAN WATCH IT HAPPEN BUT REPLICATION AT HOME IS NOT LIKELY. ENJOY IT THERE!  CRISPY SCALLOPS AND EGGPLANT THAT IS CROQUETTE LIKE BUT SOMETHING IN A CLASS BY ITSELF. THE BEET AND HONEY AND FRUIT CREMEUX DEFIES YOUR BEST GUESS AND MUST BE ENJOYED WITH THE LATE HARVEST RIESLING (FROM THE NY FINGER LAKES.....HOME SWEET  HOME.

EDISON 1014 Fort Johnson Rd Charleston SC...JAMES ISLAND. The dream of Chef Joel Lucas and Chelsea Lucas.

Chelsea and SOON-TO-BE CENTER
ERICEATS LEFT AND FRIEND ,PAT RIGHT

Bom With The Wind...1 Greene Avenue (i swear this is the name ). EVERYTHING (YOU WANT )ALL AT ONCE!

BLACK BEAN NOODLES

We couldn't remember the name of this restaurant we had passed a few weeks ago but we found it.

No seats for 30 minutes. BUT..."Anything at the bar?" Pause.   Then 5 people begin shuffling to

open two stools. Kindness culture is not usually mentioned in a restaurant review, but I think it should be.

Then we order.  I order the Duck and cheese dish from a Korean menu. Clinton the bartender asks, "Are

you lactose intolerant?"  Funny and helpful...also often omitted from reviews.  I.   switch to the hand pulled black bean  noodles , which Jeanne later trades for my bom bat veggie and rice dish with a sweet and hot sauce. Jeanne liked both but we both wanted both. We started with a 5 star scallion pancake. OMG-GOOD.

                                                                    BOM BAP

SCALLION P-CAKE

SEMMA IN THE VILLAGE AT PERRY AND GREENWICH...HARD TO GET IN ...HARDER TO NOT.

 Reservations are among the hardest but a line forms between 430 and 5 P.M. for seats at the perfectly managed bar. Don Carlos at the Met ran 4 hours and that made us unusually hungry at 4 pm.

What to do? D train to west 4th st and first on line for Dosas and mango lemonade and a lobster tail with Parotta bread......

and Prawn curry (Eral Thokku) that were big enough for a fish TALE.  And spice lovely enough to stop my heart..What a winning day...topped by a not too oaky California Sandhi chardonnay. 

A restaurant that is finely OILED/Ghee-ed?

PAROTTA

LOBSTER CURRY 

      PRAWNS.  from the land of giants

. PORIYAL..... spicy beets

.   GUNPOWDER DOSA HAT

CAFE SPAGHETTI @126 UNION ST (NEAR COLUMBIA ST.)....EVERYTHING IS ELEGANT AND TASTY/TASTEFUL AND HOMEY

DO you   like really good pasta? A variety of sauces and gravies made with a deft touch? Generously sprinkled cheese? Moments where you could feel like you are on vacation in Milan or Florence?  A cool staff with knowledge and style (like Wilfred) or charm flavored hospitality(See Giovanna)? I know a place for you.

First, where do you want to sit: the most stylish outdoor seating patio I have seen anywhere; bar stools with backs; inside table; vast lush garden ? From our outdoor covered seating we could peer into the cafe

in a way that mades you feel like we were in it....not kicked to the curb. I was captured by the Gavi

before the rapture we felt from Caesar salad with subtle anchovy flavor and a not so subtle removable anchovy. Jeanne's watermelon, tomato salad with balsamic dressing was a choice to be repeated.

The cavatelli was balanced with zucchini and the ravioli with yellow tomatoes . Ravioli have been described as pillows before but this time I actually rested my head on these soft puffy light things...in my mind.

 

WATERMELON SALAD

                                                                 Garden 

                                                            Aforementioned Pillows

                                                          Cavatelli

                                                          

                                                                     This Caesar also conquered
                                                                          

                                                              watermelon and tomato

                                                                       Great Caesars ghost!

POPINA NYC..127 Columbia St., Brooklyn. (the garden of eating)

 Find the perfect cool evening and sit yourself down in a  neighborhood garden. And play bocce ball in the 3rd restaurant that I know of with its own bocce court.  Il Vagabondo (now closed) had a court on 62nd st where my children could watch through glass as they ate...and play. Parkside, in Corona Queens, had one outside the restaurant in a small park which was also across from the Lemon Ice King(made famous by Simon and Garfunkel  as the King of Corona). Also famous for Jeanne's and my wedding location. At Popina,  the court doubles as a sand box where children playfully explore the dirt and balls while parents drink wine and eat

food you might enjoy in Rome or Milan or Madison Ave.

Here you will feel you are sitting in a large back yard near the Brooklyn waterfront across from the lower manhattan skyline. Last night the breeze was not the only thing that was cool. So was the warm sour dough  filone...and the muscles in a corn broth so tasty that it could have been my soup dish. Jeanne's arancini echoed the bocci ball theme and unlike the game balls were a tasty treat. Drinks included a Bklyn Beer without alcohol and an Albarino white wine. That glass was topped of by Brian, the server, who in everything he said and did modeled hospitality and made us feel he loved food and people.  He explained the extra wine by saying "I felt you were waiting too long for your muscles." Shrimp(crispy and tanned) and grits(creamy and lush) deserved applause). Misticanza was a strawberry laced salad that also scored.

                                                        

                                                                        

                                                         

                                                          SHRIMP ANND GRITS

MUSCLES are from a Long Island Island

                                                                                                                         STRAWBERRY SALAD