Recent restaurant openings CHECK IN

A variety of new Italian, weird-Italian, and Lebanese spots

Okay, I know everyone has been waiting with bated breath for me to drop a life-changing newsletter about the Purepecha food I had in Michoacan. I regret to inform you all that that newsletter is never going to arrive.

Check out this taco made with tiny fried lake fish, a Patzcuaran delicacy. After this I’ll shut up about Mexico though I swear

Instead, I want to write about all the fantastic food I’ve had since returning home. I visited a surprising number of cool new spots this month, some of which I wrote up for BK Reader, some of which were purely just happy accidents. I figured it might be a more appropriate choice to feature them for my mostly-New-York-based audience. Sue me (or leave a comment I guess) if this is a tactical error on my part.

So, without further ado: Five cool new restaurants worth visiting!

1. Sawa (75 Fifth Ave)

Hummus with WAGYU beef cheek (!) and muhammara (not to be skipped)

Somehow, I’m still not done yapping about places to eat on Fifth Ave because Sawa, a brand new Lebanese restaurant and provisions store, opened in mid-April. I brought my mother along with me to a tasting, and we were blown away by the hummus, which you can order topped with this Wagyu beef cheek that’s been cooked in pomegranate molasses — it’s intense, sour, tender. If you go, do not miss it. My mother approved so much that she said she would be willing to add Sawa to her restaurant rotation, which, if you know my mother, is monumental. Read more of what I had to say about Sawa here.

2. Hamburger America (51 MacDougal St)

Classic smash burger at Hamburger America

Yeah, yeah, yeah — I know this place opened in November, and it’s technically not so new anymore. Whatever. It was new to me!!! Hamburger America was opened by George Motz, the guy behind the documentary by the same name. Motz features rotating monthly special burgers that follow specific American culinary traditions — when I went, there was a butter burger hailing from Milwaulkee on offer, but I opted for a classic smash instead. Even though it wasn’t as adventurous, I still thought my burger was gorgeous — it’s served with finely diced onion, thin pickles, and a smack of mustard hiding beneath the patty, McDonald’s-style, which makes each bite feel like a wave of elevated nostalgia. Would rec coming right before noon if you want to avoid the line, but if you do get caught in it, fear not: It moves fast.

2. El Cedro (144 Atlantic Ave)

Lamb drowned in sauce

More Lebanese food — this time with a twist! El Cedro is a Lebanese taqueria, in the tradition of Lebanese immigration to the Mexican city of Puebla. It opened at the beginning of April on Downtown Brooklyn’s Atlantic Ave, in the center of a largely-Arabic-speaking block. El Cedro has a bunch of fun menu items — I was very charmed by the clever Bandera dip, a trio of guac, muhammara, and labneh, mimicking the red, white, and green of both the Mexican and Lebanese flags — but the real showstopper is this insane lamb torta drowned in sauce, pictured above. Read my article about El Cedro here.

4. Daphne’s (299 Halsey St)

Pastaaaaa

My favorite food writer, Scott Lynch, generously brought me to Bed-Stuy to try Daphne’s on opening night a couple weeks ago. (Meet your heroes, it will be very chill.) Ever since, I’ve been describing Daphne’s as weird-Italian. I adored the light, garlicky clam pasta with breadcrumbs in this pic; they also served this divine green vodka sauce over salsify, a vegetable much like asparagus that I had literally never heard of in my life. (When I first read the word, I interpreted it as the act of putting salsa on something — “I just salsified my tacos!” — but apparently it’s “sal-si-fee” and a vegetable. Humiliating.) Anyway, go here if you want to learn new words and also eat innovative food.

4. Piccola Cucina Casa (141 Nevins St)

Imagine how good you would feel if this were specially crafted for you table-side

Located on a low-key block in the middle of Boerum Hill, the newest location of Piccola Cucina’s enterprise opened at the end of April. I got to go taste some dishes for a piece I’m currently procrastinating writing. Piccola Cucina is Sicilian, run by an extremely Italian man named Philip Guardione, and this location is special because it also operates as a B&B, with two apartments available for rent over the location. It’s high-class, hardcore Italian food — pastas made in-house, luxurious tiramisu prepared from scratch at your table. We especially loved the agnolotti ossobuco, a beautiful, buckle-shaped pasta stuffed with veal. Overall, my favorite thing about the Piccola Cucina experience was that Philip’s bilingual 7-year-old daughter Greta was milling about helping out the waiters all night — Philip told me it’s important to start them young.

My official write-up is (hopefully) forthcoming… I will link it here when it pubs.

In Other News

Here are a couple other things I published (emphasis on COUPLE — it’s been a busy month!):

• Moveable feasts: Monthly supper clubs run by young chefs are feeding the borough – My first for Brooklyn Magazine!! Spoke to a bunch of young supper club chefs (including the guy who runs Little Poutine, which you may recall I wrote a whole newsletter about). Now all the chefs I featured want to have a dinner together, which I think is just absolutely darling.

• Instead (My Polyamorous Boyfriend): FICTION! Isn’t it inspiring how fiction allows us to explore things that would never ever happen in real life? Anyway, this is a piece that I published this month at Maudlin House, a litmag I really like, and they gave it a sick graphic. Fair warning that this is another story which, if you’re a member of my family, you’re probably not going to want to read regardless of how fictional it may or may not be.

That’s all for now! See you in your inbox next month.

Hannah