I am a good girl so no, I didn't take pictures at Frog Club
Plus: I'm taller than everyone at Montague Diner
Frog Club (86 Bedford St) opened only a month ago, but it already feels like literally everybody has something to say about its obvious (and aggressive) gatekeeping policies. Chef Liz Johnson has deliberately designed the Frog Club experience to feel exclusive: No photos are allowed when you’re inside, and there’s a bouncer whose whole job is to cover your phone’s front and back cameras before you enter. For a brief time, the restaurant had a link to an email address you could use to make a reservation on their website, but that link has since been removed. Literally, go to their website — it is now just a picture of their imposing front door.
Say what you will about how annoying it is to literally not be able to make a reservation or Google what the space looks like, but it’s impossible to deny that this choice makes a night at Frog Club feel special. Entering feels like becoming part of a secret society; as my friend Mia and I accepted our phone stickers and walked in, each of the servers greeted us individually, grinning in their matching green neckties, and I felt like I shouldn’t even take out my phone for the duration of the meal out of respect. I should mention, of course, that the interior is insane — frog murals are everywhere (think Bemelmans), and plates hang suspended by chains from the ceiling. It’s certainly got character.
I ordered lobster pierogis and a hamburger; Mia got a chopped salad and a spinach soufflé. (Whenever possible, the food and drink here is green, too.) We didn’t order a kiss from the chef (priced at $1,000). The pierogis were unbelievably creamy and buttery — a fantastic starter — but the burger, which is served on a housemade English muffin with butter on the side, was a bit one-note for me. I tried to order their greenified version of a Bloody Mary named after Kermit and the server said something spooky like, “Not to make this even more mysterious, but we cannot serve that tonight.”
Psychologically, Frog Club is effective. Did I love the food so much I have to have it again? Probably not. But do I feel special for having been permitted to go? Absolutely. And if they still let me go back after reading this, I probably will.
Best things I ate recently
Omelet at Montague Diner (148 Montague St)
Montague Diner opened Monday and immediately got a very long, very cool interactive writeup in Grub Street. For those of you who don’t like reading and interacting, the TL;DR is that the diner is co-owned by a bunch of movie and television people (including the people who make Catfish!), and they designed the space to look like a Great Depression diner and have fantastic acoustics. Pleasantly, I was there at the same time as the lovely Grayson Samuels (whose popup bakery I wrote about this past summer), which made the whole affair feel very neighborly.
My omelet was perfectly simple, just a plain old fold-over, stuffed with onions just short of caramelized and the perfect amount of spinach. It came with a refreshing lettuce salad, dressed sparely with olive oil and a squeeze of lemon. I worried that the food would be pretentious and therefore un-diner-ly, but that wasn’t the case. My favorite thing about my Montague Diner experience was realizing that I was at least a head taller than every single server on staff. At first I thought there was a step down to the behind-the-bar area, but there isn’t — they’re just all short.
Irish soda bread scone at Mary O’s (32 Avenue A)
Thick schmear of butter, homemade blackberry jam, fresh out of the oven and prepared by Mary O herself. I learned after my visit that the pandemic struck Mary O’Halloran hard, closing her business and trapping her husband abroad; Mary was left alone in NYC, parenting six kids and running her business. Mary's story was picked up by the Humans of New York Instagram account in a post that encouraged its millions of followers to order Irish soda bread, Mary’s specialty. As Eater reported in 2021, the Humans of New York feature brought Mary $1 million — and a hell of a lot of orders to fill.
In 2024, when you enter Mary O’s at dinner time, you’re met with the smell of sweet bread, a wall of neatly laid bags of flour, and Mary's teenage son playing on his iPhone as she feverishly bakes. The restaurant is inoperative, especially nearing St Patrick’s day; Mary has enough to do just fulfilling orders. She was so apologetic about this that she gave me and my friend Nat our very own Irish soda bread scones for free, and they were transcendent.
Key Lime Pie at Double Chicken Please (115 Allen St)
If you happen to mention Double Chicken Please in their presence, my devoted foodie friends
and Shantanu will tell you with intense eyes that it is actually one of the 50 best bars in the world, according to a site called The World’s Best 50 Bars, which I guess would be the authority on the matter. I can’t comment on how it compares to literally every single other bar in the world, but I can say that it is, at least, very difficult to get into — we sent Shantanu out on a rainy night at 11 p.m. to check how long the wait would be for a table and he came back, soaked, and told us it would be four hours. (Thankfully that ended up being untrue, so let this be your sign to persist in the face of adversity.)This strange bar concept specializes in cocktails that taste like food and fried chicken, for some reason. I got the French Toast cocktail, which was fantastic, served with a oreo-shaped, coffee-flavored cookie stuck on the rim like a garnish. But it was Shantanu’s order that stole the show: A key lime pie-flavored cocktail. It tasted so much like its namesake that after sipping, I had to run my tongue against my teeth to make sure there weren’t any real graham cracker crumbs.
Okay also I know this isn’t food related, but do you like the Bronx?
This past summer, I did research for the Center for an Urban Future on a new report about the future of the Bronx. I got to speak to people all over the Bronx — nonprofit directors, community leaders — about what changes they’d like to see to make the Bronx a stronger and more equitable place to live. The resulting report is a fascinating survey of different ways the city could strengthen a borough that is particularly in need of support. You can read the full report here.
Other recent news stories by me
HeadCount celebrates 20 years with new leadership – Lucille Wenegieme, the new Executive Director of voting accelerator HeadCount, has had a fascinating career and I got to talk to her about it over voting-themed chocolate bars.
This Gowanus Restaurant Offers a Taste of Mexico, Texas, and Iran – Parklife is swinging some pretty serious tacos for a bar, inspired by chef/co-owner Scott Koshnoodi’s heritage.
2024 Spark Prize honors Brooklyn’s equity champions – After getting assigned this story, I happened to mention to my father (
, for those who don’t know) that I would be at this event. He responded, “Wait just a moment,” and, to my disbelief, pulled up a picture of him holding a $100,000 check. “This is the first Spark Prize the Center won while I was there,” he said, and then kept scrolling in his camera roll for a picture of the next check. So yeah — if you support equity and/or my father and/or the beautiful borough of Brooklyn, you should know about the Spark Prize. (I guess what I’m really saying is that I, in particular, should have already known about the Spark Prize.)New Show at Brooklyn Film Camera Documents Ephemerality, Local Photogs – I literally have never heard anyone use the abbreviation “photog” but I have been assured since my editor came up with this title that it is in fact a thing.
Til next month,
Hannah
A SHOUTOUT ON *THE* HANAH IS EATING NEWSLETTER oh my goD PINCH ME
You take me back to New York, and I feel like I’ve had a good visit with the food and you!