Neighborhood: Park Slope

Sidecar is just the kind of medium-priced bistro that Park Slope is overloaded with, but its location at the southern end of the neighborhood makes it a welcome new hotspot nonetheless. As I’ve written before, the South Slope has come a long way, but it still suffers from a drastic shortage of quality bars and restaurants (at least according to gentrifying yuppie standards). From the outside, Sidecar looks like just another generic bar and grill, but inside it’s filled with cute old-fashioned touches like a pressed tin ceiling, heavy wooden booths and a long retro bar. The narrow nature of the space and the reddish lighting make it feel somewhat like a cross between a speakeasy and a train car, but whatever it’s supposed to be, it’s a nice looking place.

You’ll probably want to start with one of their signature drinks, like the Ramos Fizz (with gin, lemon, egg white, cream and orange flower water, $9) or the eponymous Sidecar (with cognac, Cointreau and lemon, $8). They’ll delight your taste buds and get you tipsy before you’re even done figuring out what to eat. The small menu represents an appealing cross section of international influences, from French to Vietnamese to Mexican, all with modern American touches. The prices are reasonable enough that you can order a couple of courses, and I recommend pretty much all of the appetizers. My favorite is the white bean dip with tortilla chips for a reasonable $6 (add delicious bacon for $2), but if you’re into pate, the Chicken Liver Pate appetizer (with apples, currants, shallots, brandy, port and cream, served with toast points) is a steal at $7. The entrée I’ve found the most intriguing is the Bahn-De (a Vietnamese sandwich with grilled pork chops, pâté, carrots, cucumbers, cilantro and mayonnaise on a fresh baguette, $11). You can order it spicy or not, but I highly recommend the spicier option. The shot glass full of oily green sauce that accompanies the overstuffed sandwich is like a magical shot of spicy deliciousness, and once you pour it on, there’s no non-sloppy way to go about eating this thing. Just dig in and save your napkins for the end.

The food is all well and good, but surprisingly (for this neighborhood), the service is even better. The friendly servers and managers are always quick to offer a free drink for inconveniences like asking you to move tables to make room for a big party, or when the kitchen is backed up on a busy night. Food and drinks aside, that’s what will keep me coming back and bringing my friends. Even if it makes me a heartless gentrifying yuppie.

As someone who grew up in the Southwest, I have great respect for authentic Mexican cuisine, but sometimes even I have a hankering for crunchy tacos, chimichangas and giant blue margaritas. At times like these, I thank the burrito gods for Rancho Alegre. A whimsical but slightly dated mural overlooks Park Slope’s 7th Avenue, promising to whisk you away to a magical world of Tex-Mex flavor. Inside, it’s all neon beer signs, gaudy decorations and oversized sombreros. Pathetic or not, you have to appreciate a place that wears its tackiness on its poncho-draped sleeve.

After you’ve ordered your Technicolor margaritas and pitchers of sangria (it’s arguable which is more watered down), you’ll probably want to indulge in some cheap nachos or guacamole (appetizers average a reasonable $4-6) while you ponder the plethora of combination meals, tex-mex favorites, and semi-authentic Mexican cuisine on the menu. The basic beef and chicken burritos, tacos and enchiladas that comprise the combination meals here are the blandest of the menu items, and can be safely ignored. Opt instead for the La Bandera platter (featuring three different enchiladas, with sauces representing the red, green and white of the Mexican flag, $10.25), or the rich and smoky Chicken in Mole Poblano ($10.75), both served with rice and beans. Sizzling fajitas are also a good bet when you want to make everyone else in the restaurant think you’re important, and nothing says fun like food you assemble yourself.

Once the bellies of you and your dinner companions are swollen and content, it’s time to get back to business. Namely, the business of getting drunk on margaritas. If you really want to be economical about it, you’d probably be better off ordering beer, but somehow it would seem like a betrayal not to order a brightly colored drink in a place like this. If you somehow still have room, you’re in luck, because when it comes to desserts, Mexican restaurants know where it’s at. They don’t just serve you a sad little melty bowl of ice cream, they fry it! Through some kind of magical ice cream frying technology! Flan, fried bananas, and other delights will take care of any hunger you might have had left, and around then you’ll start to realize that tequila plus Mexican food equals heartburn. That’s when it’s time to move on.

If the test of a good French bakery (or French-Belgian in this case) is its croissant, then Colson Patisserie gets an 'A' right off the bat. But besides their truly amazing croissants, they offer a wide variety of equally drool-inducing desserts, including brioche, chocolate mousse cups, and the cutest little bear-shaped financiers, filled with marzipan. Colson's tiny corner shop, which is often staffed by a single, infinitely patient counter person, includes an even tinier seating area. It may be cramped, but it's still a near-ideal place for a Parisian-style Pate sandwich or a peaceful afternoon curled up with a book and a latte.

Pastry chef Emily Isaac, formerly of Union Square Cafe, is the culinary genius behind Trois Pommes Patisserie, which translates to the all-American-sounding Three Apples Bakery. Outstanding cupcakes, brownies, cookies (including homemade Oreos and peanut butter sandwich cookies), ice cream cones, tartlets and other single-serving desserts range from about $2-5, while for a bit more (up to the low $200s for their largest cakes) you can take home one of their full-sized cakes, tarts, pies or cheesecakes. The narrow space boasts beautiful touches like tin ceilings, warm wood counters, exposed brick walls, and of course, the desserts themselves, which make the best kind of window dressing.

For Yuppie brides in the know, there's no better place to pick up a fabulous (and pricey) wedding cake than Sweet Melissa Patisserie. These edible works of art are equally popular with the rich, the famous, and the diverse class of Bridezillas for whom money is no object when it comes to the big day. But Sweet Melissa's cakes and other pastries are only the beginning. A traditional High Tea service is served daily from 11am to 5pm, and if all those Petits Fours, finger sandwiches and scones aren't enough, entrees like Boeuf Bourguignon, Salad Nicoise, and Welsh Rarebit will satisfy any hunger. Children's meals, to stay or boxed to go, offer affordable options for burgeoning foodies and their parents.

A lot of the cooler bars in Park Slope are clustered in the North end, but with Commonwealth on their side, South Slopers can proudly lay claim to one of the best. Even Manhattanites, with all the options available to them on that most accommodating of isles, will cross the bridge for a night of debauchery, Commonwealth-style.

Why, you may ask, does Commonwealth continue to draw in tipplers from around the five boroughs? For one thing, the patio is awesome, with its giant umbrella which has to be seen to be believed. Smokers congregate out there and engage in intense conversations that often end up sucking in nearby tables, and a unique community atmosphere is born. Or perhaps it’s the unusually excellent jukebox, or the endlessly entertaining “Brutally Honest Personal Ads,” which allow angry young hipsters to vent their frustrations in clever satires on the standard personal ad, all under the watchful eye of a weirdly appropriate mugshot of a disheveled Nick Nolte. Some of the constantly changing ads are real calls for guff-free romance, and some are just for entertainment and/or enlightenment, but all are good for a laugh.

Another thing that keeps people coming back is the interesting selection of specialty mixed drinks (all worth a taste), though I am more of a beer person, and I have no complaints as far as the draft selection goes. I dropped in with my boyfriend the other night, as we often do on date nights, due to both the closeness of the bar and the comfortable atmosphere. Unlike many Park Slope bars, it doesn’t get so loud you resort to screaming your voice away just to order a drink, and you can usually snag a table if you are willing to hover over a departing party for ten minutes or so. We managed to pounce on a tiny table in the back of the bar, and while we tipped back a few rounds of Sierra Nevadas (our mutual favorite), we were again reminded of all the reasons we like this bar.

You can order a drink without getting attitude back from the bartender or the clientele (sadly, rare in a lot of hipper Brooklyn bars), take your time drinking it without being hassled, you won’t be hit on by skeezy greasy guys or drunken club girls, and most importantly, when you overhear the conversations of the tables next to you, they’re often interesting and intelligent. Part of this is due to the fact that Commonwealth attracts a fairly diverse crowd: old and young, rich and poor, professors and busboys all share tables and cigarettes here. It’s not unusual to come in on a weekday afternoon and find the bartender deeply in conversation with middle-aged, well-off regulars and authors scribbling away at their poems and manuscripts. It’s this old world, university bar sort of feeling that I feel when I’m on my third drink, feeling half-cheesed, and delighting in a snippet of overheard debate on the merits of Proust or Ionesco. Call it pretension if you must, but sometimes you need a little PBS in your diet.

As it is, at its most basic level, an unapologetic sports bar, Park Slope's 200 Fifth is ideal for nights when it’s just the guys, or anytime you’re with a big group of friends and need someplace that does double duty as a bar and eatery. The moment you walk in, you’re greeted by just scads of TVs blaring a constant rotation of sporting events. Like any good sports bar, they’re always willing to change the channel on the TV nearest you to your favorite team’s game, barring any objections from dissidents. The bar and restaurant are separated so as not to annoy each other, which is a plus when you were expecting a quiet dinner and unexpectedly showed up on a big game night, complete with roaring feedback from the bar crowd.

Standard bar fare is 200 Fifth’s bread and butter, so to speak, with ten (yes, ten) ounce burgers, fresh seafood and decent wings making up the majority of the dishes I saw flying off the line. But Chef Mendy’s menu includes some unique dishes that offer a bit more variety than yet another bar burger, however capably crafted. I recommend you start with the Saffron Mussel Ragout, which is topped with a crispy risotto cake, or the 200 Fifth Clams, which are a favorite of regulars. Entrées include everything from authentic, slow-smoked barbeque to pasta and more excellent seafood. Try the Trout Du Jour (I love that there’s a whole daily menu devoted to trout) or go all out and indulge in the 14 ounce New York steak. 200 Fifth’s brunch menu offers a pretty typical assortment of egg dishes and the like, but I feel strongly about pairing good brunch with good cocktails, and where better to ensure you’ll get a quality Bloody Mary than a freaking bar?

Speaking of booze (and I often am), I haven’t even gotten to the best part about 200 Fifth. They have not ten, not fifteen, but 40, count ‘em, 40 beers on tap. And with a deal offering a sampler of six 4.5-ounce beers on the menu, you can afford to experiment. Among the 40 draft beers, all available at the very reasonable price of $3.50 a pint, are Arrogant Bastard Ale (California), Monty Python's Holy grAIL (England), Victory Hop Devil (Pennsylvania), and one of my very favorites, Six Point Sweet Action (Brooklyn, NY). Call it Brooklyn pride or an affinity for the racy indie magazine of the same name, but I likes me some Sweet Action.

So whether you’re looking for a place to while away a few hours with your buddies after work, or planning a lengthy night of eating and drinking, you can’t really go wrong with a place like 200 Fifth. Sure, it’s generic, and you could find the same type of atmosphere at a TGI Friday’s if you were really desperate. But all of the things that people hate about big chains (impersonal service, high prices, obnoxious families everywhere), 200 Fifth avoids for the most part. If you’re looking for a precious hole in the wall that screams local character and would make your foodie friends jealous, this ain’t it. But if you’re just looking for some wings, some cheap beers and a few hours of reversion to your college days, look no further.

When you find yourself in Park Slope, whether you’re with friends or on a date or even on a pleasant day out alone, it’s almost a rule that you have to stop for some coffee. One place I find myself coming to again and again is Ozzie's Coffee and Tea on Fifth Avenue, not necessarily due to its quality or its atmosphere, but simply because of its gargantuan size. Ozzie's Seventh Avenue location, a converted pharmacy, is quieter and preferred by regulars, but the Fifth Avenue one is, as I said, sprawling (by New York standards). Thus, it has more of a community hub feel, with the flyers and community newspapers by the door and the constant stream of incoming young people, plus it offers plenty of tucked-away alcoves for you to hide out in when you just feel like crawling up with a good book. Both locations are known for their relative lack of pretension, and for the fact that you can chill out as long as you want without feeling pressured to leave, unlike bustling mommy-and-stroller havens like Tea Lounge.

Ozzie’s is known equally for its coffee and its tea, and purists insist that plain coffee or loose tea is your best bet for a beverage here. As far as coffees go, Ozzie’s Blend is organic and fair trade, as are most of their other beans, from Sumatra Mandheling to Colombian Supremo. They do their roasting in-house, which means the intoxicating aroma of freshly crushed coffee beans surrounds the store like an aura, enticing you in from the street with promises of rich flavors and sweet caffeine.

I like to come here when I’m out on my own, shopping or whatnot, and need a break. The iced coffee here is strong and perfect for those sweltering summer days, plus the painting of a giant, dripping iced coffee on the front windows of the store incites a near-Pavlovian reaction from me every time. But Ozzie’s fresh fruit smoothies, iced chai, and blended coffee drinks, which are way cheaper than frapps, also hit the spot when the temperature soars.

Now for the downsides. Ozzie’s charges for Wi-Fi, which is kind of dumb when it’s offered in basically all the other area cafés for free. The Fifth Avenue store gets REALLY hot during the summer, to the point where I tip the baristas double out of sheer pity as I watch sweat drip down their faces. Cleanliness falls behind fairly often (think overflowing trash cans), and general maintenance drops when there’s any kind of a rush (the all-important, but much too small, summertime water pitcher goes dry for hours at a time as thirsty patrons gaze at it longingly). All this despite the fact that there are obviously a ton of employees running around looking confused, which points to the larger problem -- that Ozzie’s tends to hire young, inexperienced workers willing to work for a song, but who are oftentimes completely inept. Another major problem is that they only offer paper cups for their beverages, and even use paper plates for their food, which is both environmentally irresponsible and, well, tacky.

All those negatives aside, Ozzie’s has a lot going for it. The coffee is dependably good, the food is decent if not outstanding (try the red velvet cake), and, most importantly, it’s a giant, thriving coffee shop. People-watching here never grows old, and there are usually a lot of cute single people hanging out. Plus, Fridays they host Open Mic night, so you can kick back a few espresso shots and get down with your Seattle side while you listen to grungy amateur acoustic guitarists sing about feelings. There’s something to be said for a place where that kind of atmosphere is still alive and well.

When you’ve been dating someone for a long time, and especially if you live together, it can be hard to remember to keep the romance alive. Between work and friends and Facebook, it seems like date night is the first thing to fall by the wayside. I am no more evolved in this department than anyone else; I’m ashamed to admit that more than a couple of Friday nights have seen me and my boyfriend choosing Netflix over braving the bar scene. But when we do go out, I’m prepared. There’s nothing worse than being stuck wandering the avenue looking for a place that isn’t so empty it’s awkward, doesn’t have garish lighting or loud/awful music playing, is informal enough that you can be comfortable and talk loudly after you’ve had a few, but is just a shade nicer than a pizza joint. Without a plan, this kind of hellish restaurant searching can go on for hours, and nothing kills the mood more than this kind of frustration. That’s why it’s good to know a handful of surefire date-friendly restaurants, so that whether you’re eating out with your husband of twenty years or out on a first date, you can appear both knowledgeable and spontaneous as you suggest a delightful little place you know right around the corner.

One of these standbys for me is Park Slope’s Sotto Voce. You can usually get a seat, they serve Brunch, and they serve perfectly decent Italian comfort food in a modern, casual-elegant setting. The restaurant escapes the usual pitfalls of date restaurants, i.e. being overly pricey, embarrassingly quiet and intimate, or being so trendy and overexposed that only obnoxious yuppies go there. That said, the restaurant has its share of problems. The waiters, though friendly, are often neglectful of their tables in my experience, and this really becomes a problem during Brunch, when endless refills of mimosas become one refill if you’re lucky. The problem may be under-staffing or poor management, but they should get it under control. I take the words “All You Can Drink” very seriously.

On a romantic night out, however, lax service doesn’t really bother me. Frankly, I’m more annoyed by the vulture-like hovering a lot of Manhattan waiters do, most likely in an effort to get you out the door faster and keep the tips coming. And the food at Sotto Voce is good enough to compensate, for the most part. Many of the Italian restaurants I’ve been to in New York suffer from a general blandness in their menu items, but with the exception of a handful of crowd pleasing dishes that could stand to be kicked up a notch, Sotto Voce manages to escape this fate. I like to start by sharing one of their gourmet salads, like the Insalata Tre Colori (arugula, endive and radicchio with grilled Portobello mushroom, served with toasted goat cheese bruschetta), with my beau, as an alternative to a boring dinner salad.

I usually stick to pasta for dinner, though the meat and fish dishes look divine. The Rigatoni Montanaro,
with Shitake mushrooms, onions and arugula in a Brandy Cream Sauce, is a rich and satisfying meatless option, while some of the best carnivorous pasta dishes include the decadent Fettuccine con Pollo e Funghi (homemade fettuccini with chicken, mushrooms and fresh rosemary in a cream sauce) and the Fettuccine al Sugo di Anatra(homemade fettuccine in a country duck ragu with black olives and tomatoes). You’ll leave with leftovers, but pasta is one of the best next-day foods there is, so no worries.

After a date at Sotto Voce, I always leave feeling a little bit lighter than air. Maybe it’s the red wine or the old-world smells of the kitchen, but Italian restaurants always do this to me, and perhaps you know the feeling. You become Lady and the Tramp for a second, and all the world is singing you a love song. Then, inevitably, a bum will flash you or something and the moment will be ruined, but it’s those little moments that make love happen, and if there’s one thing the world needs more of, it’s love.

There are plenty of perfectly wonderful restaurants, bars and cafés in New York and the surrounding boroughs, but it is the rare establishment that can combine all three. That's why Bar Toto has been, and remains, a Park Slope mainstay. The mostly-Italian eatery is a great place to take your friends for a girls' night out, due to the place's lively café attitude, but it's an equally good date destination, with candlelit tables and ever-flowing wine making for a downright romantic setting. Most importantly, you can sit here for hours, over coffee, food, drinks and conversation, and in true Italian fashion, it won't be frowned upon by the wait staff.

The place has the appearance of a European sidewalk café from the outside, especially between April and September or so, when Bar Toto's outdoor seating becomes a hot commodity. The interior, with its pressed-tin ceiling and antique knick-knacks, feels like something straight out of 1960's Rome (if you ignore the lack of smoke clouds and Vespas parked outside). I always feel a bit like I've stumbled onto the set of an old movie when I come here, and indeed the location is often used for film shoots. The thing that stands out the most the first time you visit, however, is the seating arrangement. It still seems strange even after months of eating there, actually. They don't leave any room between the tables! When you're getting seated, you see, the waiter pulls out not your chair, but your table, and after one of you is seated, back the table goes, and you're locked in. Tables flying here and there, people awkwardly squirming out to use the bathroom…it all seems so impractical, and yet it works.

When gathering with friends and loved ones, I believe you should always start with an appetizer, and the House Antipasto ($10) is a time-tested crowd-pleaser in this regard. The complimentary flavors of the assorted cheeses, pickled vegetables and cured meats leave your hunger piqued and your senses tingling. Pay attention to the daily specials, because some of the best dishes I've tried at Bar Toto have been specials – a sign of good cooks at work. As far as entrées go, I particularly recommend the pasta dishes, which include the fantastic Penne with Peas and Prosciutto in Tomato Cream Sauce ($9). The restaurant's flatbread pizzas are topped in classic Italian style and are great for a light meal, but if you're really hungry, go for one of Bar Toto's special Panini Burgers. The Toto ($9) is the house Panini Burger, and comes grilled to order, topped with Gorgonzola cheese and red onion. The fries that accompany this and a number of other entrées are abnormally delicious, and would be fantastic alone as a snack with drinks (with a side of mayonnaise if you really want to do it up European-style).

Even if you dine elsewhere, you can stop by Bar Toto afterward for $3 drafts and well drinks at Reverse Happy Hour, which takes place seven nights a week from 11:00pm to 2:00am. Late-night Happy Hour is a tricky thing, though; by 2:00am, going to work the next day starts to seem a little more optional.

With more and more New Yorkers going vegetarian and vegan, you would think the city would be just bursting with restaurants catering to the herbivore crowd. Unfortunately, that is not yet the case. That isn’t to say, of course, that vegetarians should throw up their hands in defeat. If you know where to look, there are a handful of fantastic eateries scattered throughout the five boroughs that combine vegetarian eating with the comforting flavors you know and crave, and one of those is The V Spot.

Brooklyn’s Park Slope has long been a haven for healthy eating, with its many coops and natural food stores feeding the locals since the neighborhood’s gentrification. Any neighborhood known for its artists and poets is bound to play home to a vegetarian or two sooner or later, and so came the need for restaurants like The V Spot. You won’t find any plates of colorless gruel here, though; vegan food has come a long way in the last decade or so. Nowadays, you can feast upon all of your diner favorites, sans guilt. Start with an appetizer of meatless Buffalo Chicken ($9), served with spicy BBQ sauce and sesame garlic blue cheese dressing, which is, like everything else on the menu, 100% vegan. You’ll completely forget you’re not eating chicken as you toast your microbrews, feeling more like you’re at a sports bar than a vegan restaurant (if you ignore the lack of TV’s blaring sports, of course). Then take your pick from one of the restaurant’s many sandwiches, entrées and pasta dishes. My favorite is the Classic Veggie Burger ($6), which is prepared with lentils, black beans, veggies and secret seasonings (top it with soy cheese or tempeh bacon to add some flavor). Other standouts include the Sesame Seitan ($16), which beats greasy Chinese takeout any day, and the Penne with Vodka Sauce ($10), which, like many of the other pasta dishes, utilizes the restaurant’s uncanny soy-based heavy cream in its sauce.

Check out The V Spot’s website to keep abreast of wine specials and other events, and don’t forget to stop by for brunch. If vegan restaurants are rare in the city, vegan brunch is even rarer, and it would be a shame for anyone to miss a New York tradition as venerated as weekend brunch. Here you can chow down on some meatless steak and tofu scramble, and show your non-vegan friends that you don’t have to eat meat to be a foodie. See, you can win friend with salad.

Brunch is a beautiful thing – there are multiple courses, you can choose between breakfast and lunch items, and of course, you can get sloshed before noon without looking like a borderline alcoholic. New Yorkers love their brunch for these reasons and more, so it’s not hard to find a decent place in the city to get your Eggs Benedict fix. However, if you’re looking for something a little different, you might want to make a trip to Park Slope, where Sette Enoteca e Cucina serves up brunch, Italian style.

Sette is a neighborhood mainstay serving light and innovative Italian fare in an elegant but unassuming setting. The dining room is dominated by an open kitchen, while the expansive outdoor patio (which is covered during colder months) offers diners a view of bustling Seventh Avenue and Park Slope’s ongoing parade of interesting personalities. Sette’s wait staff is always helpful and friendly, and they certainly keep the drinks flowing, which is one of the reasons my friends and I return time and again. We like our mimosas and we like them filled up often.

The $16 Prix Fixe brunch menu includes an antipasti and secondi course, as well as coffee, tea, fresh bread, and of course, unlimited Bloody Marys and sparkling wine cocktails. The attention to quality ingredients and simplicity of preparation make for some phenomenal dishes here. Appetizers like Ricotta Fritters with fruit puree, and Roasted Beet Salad with hazelnuts and goat cheese, are nearly a meal in themselves, but save room for the amazing entrées. My favorite is the Egg, Fennel Sausage, and Caciocavallo Cheese Panini, but other standouts include the Uovo al Forno (an oven-baked egg over polenta, baked with tomato sauce and ricotta), and Amy’s Semolina Raisin Bread French Toast, which puts a sweet twist on a classic dish. If you are ready for something more substantial, the Secondi menu also includes such dinner favorites as Pizza al Pomodoro e Mozzarella, Baked Lasagna with Tomato and Meat Ragu, and Braised Chicken with Fried Polenta.

So if the thought of eating yet another Belgian waffle at yet another overpriced Manhattan bistro leaves you less than enthused, give Sette a try. By the third Bloody Mary, you’ll wonder why you ever went anywhere else.