I’ll start with the bad news: Nikita is out this week, so you’re stuck with me again. Now, the good news: Look around! This fall weather is gorgeous! October feels like the last hurrah before we all turn into recluses, hissing when we catch a rare glimpse of sunlight (… just me?).
So I recently passed a sunny day by the water in Red Hook, Brooklyn, a historic neighborhood worth biking or ferrying to (no subway lines here, at least not yet). I urge you to put on your light, autumnal layers and follow suit this weekend.
Two Sandwiches and a ‘Swingle’
I asked my boss Sam Sifton, a Red Hook local, where I should go for lunch. He gave me two sandwich options: one “huge, Italian,” and the other “manageable, hipster.” The first is from Defonte’s Sandwich Shop, an old-school (since the 1920s) favorite in a looming emerald and pink building on Columbia Street. Sam’s order, which he once wrote about in The New York Times Magazine, is fried eggplant, roast beef and mozzarella. It’s a very fine sandwich, one that I’d recommend ordering with all eggplant; skip the beef and add “hot salad,” their way of describing giardiniera. Sifton, let me know if you approve?
The latter spot is Court Street Grocers. It has expanded to four locations now, and the sandwiches are still so good. The broccoli Reuben and the vegitalian are both top-tier, especially alongside a bag of Zapp’s and a Topo Chico. For lunch dessert, go with a true Red Hook institution: Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pie. There’s plenty here for the Key lime purist, but the chocolate-dipped tart known as the “Swingle” (also available laced with raspberry) has my heart.
Roman-Style Pizza and Spicy Noodles
After you’ve walked off lunch and soaked in views of the Manhattan skyline and Lady Liberty from Louis Valentino Jr. Park, maybe do some shopping (I recommend a browse through Record Shop and a home-ware stop at Open Invite) and consider dinner. The brick oven pizza at Hoek is springy, bubbly and best enjoyed under the string lights on Ferris Street with a glass of red wine. A perfect order for two: tender meatballs in red sauce, a bracing little gem salad and a soppressata pie.
For something spicier, try the Red Hook location of the Isan Thai restaurant Somtum Der. The minced fish salad is supremely herbaceous, with lots of bite from raw shallots and chiles, and the pad see ew is best in class. And the well-fried chicken thigh, served with a punchy tamarind dipping sauce, is critical for rounding out the meal.
Wash It All Down With a Drink
For cocktails with a die-hard fandom, head to Fort Defiance, which reopened this summer after a two-year pandemic closure. The bar is around the corner from the general store, and it’s smaller than it once was, but the Irish coffee is as dreamy as ever. (If you don’t want a drink that’ll keep you up for the next 10 hours, the King Bee, made with vodka, Darjeeling, lemon and sparkling wine, is a happy solution.)
Alternatively, there’s Sunny’s Bar, a beloved institution evidenced by its large merch selection; it hosts live music most nights from 8 to 10 p.m. Bring cash and sip beers alongside longtime Red Hook residents and the folks who make a regular pilgrimage to sit at the saloon-style bar. Let the band play you out into the night as the temperature quickly drops — the perfect last hurrah before hibernation season.
In Other News …
-
Michelin’s updated list of starred restaurants has arrived. While the category of three-star restaurants remains unchanged, Carbone, Peter Luger, Meadowsweet and Marea were among those that lost their one-star ratings. Saga and Al Coro were awarded two stars; Clover Hill, Semma and Mari were included in the group of new restaurants awarded one star.
-
Openings: After 27 years, the upscale T-Bar has relocated to 116 East 60th Street; Kingfisher, a fine dining seafood restaurant from a former Per Se sommelier, now calls Prospect-Lefferts Gardens home; and a new Russ & Daughters location with a private event space is coming to Hudson Yards.
-
Tejal Rao wrote about the life and legacy of Sylvia Wu, the Los Angeles restaurateur who “was always landing on another way to please her audience, grow her business and show off the finesse and beauty of Chinese cooking.” Ms. Wu died on Sept. 29 at the age of 106.
-
The chef Colin Alevras, whose “tiny, cultish East Village restaurant, the Tasting Room, helped popularize a quirky, personal farmers’ market cuisine,” died on Oct. 1 at the age of 51, Eric Asimov writes.
-
An inviting combination of long-boiled purple corn, apples, pineapple, lime, sugar and spices, chicha morada is a staple in Peru. Christina Morales reported on where to enjoy the drink in New York City.
Email us at wheretoeat@nytimes.com. Newsletters will be archived here. Follow NYT Food on TikTok and NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest.
