New York Times published an appetite-whetting article about local clam bars, beginning with a conversation between strangers at Randazzo’s counter (2017 Emmons Avenue). The writer, Sam Sifton, artfully runs readers through the four types of clams, a slew of New York City-area clam bars, and the culture of the clam. For those who, like me, got turned on to raw clams only recently, it’s a great and romantic introduction to the topic, full of imagery and reverence deserving of the under-appreciated food. On a hot day, a beer and a platter of raw clams along a waterfront – any waterfront, but especially our waterfront – is a slice of beach-town paradise. For me, like Sifton, clams have become a blessed escape from clamor.
Located on the border of Sheepshead Bay and Marine Park, Pizzeria Del Corso (3003 Avenue U) is a neighborhood secret waiting to be exposed to the world’s pizza connoisseurs.
With grilling season in full swing, we got Sheepshead Bay’s resident grilling expert, Robert Fernandez, to tell us what are the best public places to cook up some dead animals. Fernandez is the organizer of Grillin’ On The Bay, the city’s only sanctioned BBQ contest, and is the editor of WhiteTrashBBQ, a city-dwellers guide to grilling.
Barbecue season is hitting the high water mark, so it’s time to answer that age old question, “Where can I barbecue in New York City?” And the answer is, “Lots of places.” NYC has over 30 parks where grilling is legal.
Some of my favorite spots in Brooklyn include:
Manhattan Beach, which has two grilling locations, Oriental Boulevard & Hastings Street and Northeast of Promenade, median adjacent to parking lot (no amplified sound permitted)
Of course these are just some recommendations, you can check out the entire list of grilling spots in New York City at the Park’s Department webpage.
Remember; barbecuing or grilling is allowed in designated areas ONLY. No barbecuing permitted under trees. All coals and litter must be disposed in trash receptacles. Please remember to extinguish all coals before dumping them into a trash can. No extra fires please. And if you’re going with a group of 20 people or more, the city requires that you get a $25 permit 21 days in advance.
State Senator Marty Golden gathered with a handful of Senate Republicans to blast the governor on the state’s parole policies, and to introduce reforms that would make it more difficult for cop-killers to walk the streets.
“There are over 2,500 parolees in the city of New York right now, and they are wondering why crime is going up,” said Senate Crimes and Corrections Committee Ranking Member Martin Golden, R-Brooklyn, at a June 8 press conference in the Capitol.
“There are no jobs so these parolees are going back to what they know best. What is that?” he asked.
“It’s raping, murdering and killing — and that’s what’s happening,” said Golden, answering his own question.
Following a Parole Board decision to release a convicted cop killer and in advance of another cop killer up for parole, the senator, a retired police officer, lambasted Governor Paterson for giving violent offenders a “second chance.”
Village Voice readers couldn't figure out what this was or where it came from. It's Turkish octopus casserole from Marmaris. - Photo courtesy of Village Voice
We live here, so we know all about Sheepshead Bay’s hidden culinary gems. There are the little bodegas with back-room burritos, the strangely decorated bars on quiet side streets with staggeringly cheap lunches, and the waterfront eateries that manage to go below radar. There are food carts that survive despite rhyme or reason (a hot dog cart by Doody’s? Really?), and dim sum dining where we don’t know what we’re ordering. There’s fried chicken where a sweatshop used to be, and a bagel place that’s been there so long no one knows what came before.
These are our treasures, and they’re known only to us locals.
That was, at least, until Village Voice’s Robert Sietsema began plundering our neighborhood a few weeks ago. Several of the venerable food critic’s recent pieces have eyed the nabe’s gastronomical glories. And all of them sing our praises.
There aren’t words to describe the video above. It was filmed yesterday at the Seaport Buffet at Loehmann’s Seaport Plaza (2027 Emmons Avenue), and it’s the number one reason I hate going to buffets in Brooklyn.
I went with a friend of mine from New Jersey. I spent a good 25 minutes prior to going to the buffet explaining the tong takedown that occurs when crab legs hit the table. You see, I needed to explain it because in New Jersey they don’t do this. They don’t do it in Pennsylvania, either. Or any other state in which I’ve been to a buffet. You go to buffets there and people take just a couple at a time, and there’s always some left in the tray. It’s called civility, and it’s enough to make a fat Brooklyn boy cry.
And so I explained it. In detail. He geared up, excited to see it. To him, it sounded like a gladiator match for the morbidly obese. But I warned him my words didn’t do it justice, which he couldn’t imagine. And so we arrived, and we went for our first plates of appetizers and just then the woman came out with the steaming tray of critter limbs.
I made him watch. I counted to fifteen. The crabs were gone, and so was my friend’s appetite.
Yes, it’s like this all over Brooklyn. But the Seaport Buffet is the most competitive of all the places I’ve been to, and it’s disgusting. People even take the tongs back to their seats (watch the guy in the top right). They trample children. They leave nothing for no one.
We got down with Coney Island Taste back in November, munching on the restaurant’s Peruvian goodies and dishing it out to all of you. To this day, we continue to get messages from readers thanking us for bringing it to their attention, and at least one reader told me her office now orders from them several times a week.
Well, now Mr. Fancy Pants, Robert Sietsema (also one of my favorite food critics in the city), has made his way down here and checked it out in our wake. His verdict? Que rico!
As the patient proprietor took our complicated order, we realized that—despite its dodgy disguise as a forgettable deli—the place was a very serious Peruvian restaurant. The menu was extensive, and as we ticked off dishes, the guy never once said, “We’re out of that,” which is the trademark of overextended cafés.
We’re glad you agree, Sietsema. Next time, give me a call when you’re down here; I’d love to show off a few other hidden gems.
The blogger over at Peak & Eat, a food and photography site, recently took a trip down to Sheepshead Bay.
“Yo, ho, yo, ho, a pirate’s life for me,” B sang as the Brooklyn VI slipped away from Sheepshead Bay. Surrounding me were gritty, beer-bellied, middle-aged men; some quiet veterans brought their own fishing rod and bait, while others just came with a macho attitude.
To read a Black Sea Bass’ voyage from capture to consumption – and the delicious recipe used to cook it (steamed, with beer) – head on over to Peak & Eat. If you love food and good writing, you won’t regret it.
There’s no shortage of accolades for Roll-N-Roaster’s (2901 Emmons Avenue) classic roast beef, kaiser roll and cheeeeeez. But now its sister, the hot turkey sandwich, is also getting a claim to fame. Grub Street published a list of the 101 top sandwiches in New York City, and the turkey sandwich at Roll-N-Roaster was ranked 96. Sure, it’s a long way to number one, but considering how many sandwiches we’ve got in this gastronomic Gotham of ours, that’s pretty flattering. Here’s what they had to say:
Warm slices of fresh-roasted turkey piled on a soft, gravy-dipped kaiser bun nails that Thanksgiving flavor, especially with a brown-sugared sweet potato on the side.
I’ve never had the turkey sandwich, but they make it sound so scrumptious that it’ll be my order next time I’m there.
Nevermind roast beef, though. Nevermind Roll-N-Roaster, even. What do you think is the best sandwich in Sheepshead Bay?
Margherita slice at Del Corso, courtesy of Jeffrey Tastes
We Brooklynites, we know how to gush about our local pizza places. We have our favorites, and the rest are “just pizza.” For chrissakes, we build entire childhood memories around those special pies that daddy took us to eat. Forget the Thanksgiving Turkey – the pizza pie is the most highly-esteemed family meal on Brooklyn’s table.
That’s why, if you’re a pizza blogger, and you bounce around to foreign neighborhoods – visiting some pizzerias and not others, and declaring some better than others – you’re gonna upset some locals.
Take Jeffrey Tastes, a blogger who’s touring Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and Manhattan, nibbling bites of well-known local establishments. Jeffrey came down to Sheepshead Bay and visited just two pizzerias, kicking off the knee-jerk reaction of, “‘Ey, yo, what the eff?!”
Barbecue season is hitting the high water mark, so it’s time to answer that age old question, “Where can I barbecue in New York City?” And the answer is, “Lots of places.” NYC has over 30 parks where grilling is legal.
