Where to eat & drink RIGHT NOW!
A couple of food events you should not be missing, if you care about that kind of thing...
I spent the first few days of May working on a piece about the origins of Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum, so when I received a press invite to the Goslings Parlour, an 8-week pop-up bar in downtown BK serving rum-based drinks, it felt like God was winking at me. I’m sure it comes as a shock to no one that I immediately agreed to go.
You guys: this place is a TREAT. We’re talking live pianist in the corner, history on the walls, nautical-Bermudan-royalty-chic. To get in, you need to enter the downstairs restaurant Gage & Tollner and find your way up a flight of stairs—the pop-up is located in what is usually a private party space, right next to the underwater-themed bar Sunken Harbor Club.
What really excited me about this pop-up is that the Goslings team got James Beard nominee Caroline Schiff, Executive Pastry Chef of Gage & Tollner, to create a show-stopping Goslings-infused dessert: it’s a rum pineapple upside-down cake, served with ice cream and literal FIRE on top. (I love a flambé situation.)
Presenting the spectacle was Schiff herself, recognizable by her signature hairdo. On top of being marvelous to behold, this dish was delicious—the cake is flavored with spiced molasses, the creme anglaise tastes of dark sugar, and the rum is strong.
We also got to sample some of the pop-up’s incredible cocktails and food. Don’t miss the Dark ‘n’ Stormy Slushy, which is made with Goslings Black Seal Rum, lime, and a ginger beer that is brewed specially in-house to have the perfect blendable texture. The Devil’s Isle is a riff on a daiquiri; rum is mixed with gum syrup and guava purée to create a very Bermudan sweetness, and then combined with bitter amaro and lime and topped with a tropical flower. Everything at this bar is the classy type of old-fashioned, even the bartender’s equipment, which includes a machine that agitates the liquid for the bartender so he doesn’t even have to shake the drinks himself.
Goslings Parlour opens to the public literally tonight, if you’re in that mood, and closes June 30. Go soon, before the opportunity to have your own flaming pineapple cake is gone.
Other places to eat RIGHT NOW:
Razza. “The best pizza in New York is in New Jersey,” my father mumbles maniacally every fifteen days before proposing that we go to Razza again. To be fair, Jersey City is actually pretty easy to get to: you can transfer to the PATH train at the World Trade Center, and then it’s just a few quick stops before you find yourself at Grove Street. Razza recently took over the space next door and now offers reservations, so you don’t have to go at exactly 5 pm and wait in line anymore. Razza’s chef, Dan Richer, wrote the book The Joy of Pizza, and walks around the restaurant making sure every single person is happy with their pizza. (He looks a lot like my former Italian professor Marco, who had similarly exacting standards.)
J. King Seafood Palace. This is one of those massive, epic dim sum halls in Sunset Park with communal tables. It’s a lot easier to get a table during the week, but while I was growing up, we used to come on the weekends and walk around the neighborhood while we waited. I love the har gow and the rice roll with shrimp here—I’m just a shrimp freak, I guess—but the custard buns and shumai are pretty great, too. Something I just figured out after years of going to J. King is that you can actually ask for a menu if something you want isn’t coming around on the carts. The more you know!
Places I personally plan on eating AS SOON AS POSSIBLE:
Margot. This French-ish restaurant in Fort Greene opens to the public tonight. It’s run by a trio with a simple, sweet Instagram aesthetic that I have been obsessed with for a couple of months, two of whom came together working at the Oberon Group (which is in charge of Rucola, a personal fave). Very, very excited to order the sourdough and meadow butter here.
Masalawala & Sons. For weeks, I have been trying and failing to get a reservation at Masalawala and Sons, the trendy new Indian restaurant in Park Slope that is so popular that other nearby restauranteurs are getting excited that it might drive some eaters to their doors, too. If anyone has a number I can call I would be much obliged.
Also, I just became a licensed bartender. Kinda funny, right? Ok, bye.
Hannah
Good stuff !!!!!