SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Posted this morning on Di Fara’s Facebook page:

[Di Fara] is happy to announce that several doors down we will be opening a tiny take out place offering all our old menu items that so many have been missing. We will have pasta, heros, salad and more.We expect to open mid April. All our products will use the finest and freshest ingredients as we always do at Difara….please, no questions at this time…Will update as we see fit ! Thank you….Happy April !

Eater, which was the first to report on this off-shoot of the current Di Fara’s location (1424 Avenue J), notes that it will be the first time in at least 10 years since Di Fara sold pasta dishes.

THE BITE: Connie’s Pizza (3845 Nostrand Avenue) is one of the survivors of Sheepshead Bay. With Pathmark closed and a Subway shop located almost next door, it has to be.

Enticed by a large sign in the window offering $5 heros, I ventured in for lunch and ordered.

Find out how it was, and why certain shenanigans are ruining the restaurant’s reputation.

This is a paid announcement from il Fornetto Restaurant, located at 2902 Emmon’s Avenue, Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn (718) 332-8494. 

Il Fornetto’s beautiful waterfront setting right on Sheepshead Bay is the perfect place for love this Mother’s Day. Treat your mother, grandmother, or wife  to a special brunch or luxurious three-course dinner in il Fornetto’s window-lined dining room. Reservations highly suggested. Please mention Sheepshead Bites when calling.

Click to open the flier, then press CTRL+P to print.

The above is a paid announcement by il Fornetto Restaurant. Sheepshead Bites has not verified the claims made in this advertisement. If you own a business and would like to announce a special offer to tens of thousands of locals, e-mail us at advertising [at] sheepsheadbites [dot] com.

THE BITE: Cannoli filled to order are a rare thing in Sheepshead Bay. As the demographics in the neighborhood have changed over the last decade, the number of shops offering cannoli declined. But fear not, V & S Italian Kitchen and Pizzeria (1723 Emmons Avenue) still makes old-school cannoli for only $3.00 per piece.

Leave the gun. Take the cannoli. Feed it to Robert.

THE BITE: Anthony’s Place over on Ave X claims to have invented garlic knots. Now I don’t know if that’s true, but they do make some good garlic knots. However, Five Brother’s Pizza, 2650 Coney Island Avenue, has just upped the game.

In a move so simple that I’m amazed that no one has thought about this before, Five Brother’s takes the lowly garlic knot, slices it open and makes a ham and cheese sandwich out of it. What a fantastic concept. In keeping with the food world’s obsession for sliders, for only 75 cents, they have created the first garlic knot slider. Another foodstuff invented in Brooklyn!

Now, I don’t know definitively if Five Brother’s is offering the only garlic knot slider on the planet, but this is the first I’ve seen of it in my travels. I am a little disappointed by the limited selection as they currently offer only ham and American cheese sliders, but, hey, great inventions take time to develop.

I would love to see the offering expand to a greater variety of cold cuts and cheeses. I am hoping that they create sliders more in the tradition of an Italian Salumeria by offering a wide variety of Italian cured meats, sausages, salami, prosciutto, and various types of bologna.

To me, the perfect slider would consist of some extra sharp provolone, topped with Prosciutto di Parma and sun dried tomatoes. What’s yours?

Five Brother’s Pizza, Pasta and Grill, 2650 Coney Island Avenue, (718) 648-1600.

The Bite is Sheepshead Bites’ weekly column where we explore the foodstuffs of Sheepshead Bay. Each week we check out a different offering from one of the many restaurants, delis, food carts, bakeries, butchers, fish mongers, or grocers in our neighborhood. If it’s edible, we’ll take a bite.

Photo by Robert Fernandez

There’s a new pizza joint in town.

Click to enlarge

Five Brothers Pizza, Pasta and Grill (718-648-1600 ‎) just opened at 2650C Coney Island Avenue between Crawford Avenue and Avenue X. Flanked between Universal Hair Studio on the left and the Famaliving furniture store on the right, Five Brothers (“& a sister, the boss”) replaces Beans & Crepes, whose lasting legacy, according to a Yellow Pages reviewer, was that they made “fresh queezed juices” and their chairs “fit the behind in a perfect manner.”

But enough about queezed juices and ergonomic seating — a cursory web search revealed that, in the short time Five Brothers Pizza has been open, foursquare user Stefanee R. has checked in twice (a good sign), uploaded a photo of a sumptuous slice of New York pizza, and has subsequently declared herself Mayor of the new establishment, which also offers free delivery. We hope the five brothers and a sister don’t mind someone from outside the family’s bloodline crowning themselves with such a high-ranking level of distinction.

Nevertheless, we wish the entire Five Brothers family much success and look forward to sinking our choppers into a hot slice or two in the near future.

We all know about Roll-N-Roaster’s commercials; after all, the same commercial has been airing since the 1980s alongside late-night cable programming. And there are some of the old ads we’ve featured in the past.

But over the weekend, the above commercial for that other legendary Emmons Avenue eatery – Randazzo’s Clam Bar – surfaced on YouTube.

Produced in the 1970′s, the ad captures some awesome footage of not just the existing Randazzo’s Italian Restaurant – “known the world over for seafood at its best” – but also some blasts from the past. There’s the original location of Randazzo’s Clam Bar, Randazzo’s Sea and Turf Restaurant, as well as the old Randazzo’s Fish Market, where “most seafood and fish are delivered fresh daily from right across the street.”

All of the businesses were located on Emmons Avenue between Ocean Avenue and East 21st Street, but only the corner location still stands.

Bonus points? The video has a heck of a lot of mustaches and tight-fitting jeans, proving, once and for all, that Brooklynites are the original hipsters. Today’s Little Wisco freakettes are 40 years too late.

Posers.

Don’t believe the signs! Though Taste of Romania’s Europa Bistro still flaunts “Grand Opening” flags, the Italian-Romanian eatery at 1652 Sheepshead Bay Road has closed down after less than a year in business.

Europa Bistro opened in January, replacing La Sorrentina II. One of the two owners of the business told Sheepshead Bites’ Robert Fernandez a few weeks ago that he planned to buy out the other owner, and reopen with more of a focus on hamburgers and other quick-fix foods – which could help balance things out on the stretch that’s home to more sushi shops than Tokyo. We just hope they keep the pastrami.

Whatever happens, best of luck to those involved, and we hope to see this space put to good use soon.

Welcome back to The Bite, Sheepshead Bites’ weekly column where we explore the foodstuffs of Sheepshead Bay. Each week we check out a different offering from one of the many restaurants, delis, food carts, bakeries, butchers, fish mongers, or grocers in our neighborhood. If it’s edible, we’ll take a bite.

Today we stop into one of the oldest restaurants in Sheepshead Bay – Delmar Pizzeria (1668 Sheepshead Bay Road). Delmar has been in business since 1957, which makes it older than even your illustrious food reviewer. And, as Ned would be quick to tell you, “That’s old!”

Delmar has been serving Italian-American classics for 54 years, so they must be doing something right. With their chicken Parmesan on a roll, they’re doing something very right. For only $3.50 at lunch ($7.50 on a hero other times) Delmar’s serves up a very tasty and very filling sandwich.

I was served two, all white meat chicken cutlets, that were lightly breaded and fried. The cutlets were then placed on a Kaiser roll, topped with Delmar’s marinara sauce and covered with mozzarella cheese. The sandwich was then placed in a salamander (no, not the amphibian, but an oven) where the cheese is melted and the roll lightly toasted. And finally it was delivered to me as I waited impatiently in Delmar’s nondescript dining room.

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Welcome back to The Bite, Sheepshead Bites’ weekly column where we explore the foodstuffs of Sheepshead Bay. Each week we check out a different offering from one of the many restaurants, delis, food carts, bakeries, butchers, fish mongers, or grocers in our neighborhood. If it’s edible, we’ll take a bite.

Pastrami. Just the word evokes a certain time, a certain place. I think of the Lower East Side with Katz’s or the Second Ave Deli; not Sheepshead Bay Road. So imagine my surprise when I saw a hand-written sign in front of Taste of Romania Europa Bistro (1652 Sheepshead Bay Road) touting their “in-house smoked pastrami.”

With a sense of excitement I entered the restaurant. But, wait a minute. Looking around I wondered if I made a mistake. The restaurant, housed in the old La Sorrentina space, still looked like the same old pizza joint. The glass cases on the counter still displayed a variety of pizzas. The pizza ovens still loomed as large sentinels behind. In fact, a pizza was being removed from the oven as I approached.

So what gives? Where’s the steam table? Where’s the smoker? Where is the pastrami?

Turns out the pastrami was there, just not front and center. Like many a treasure, you’ll need to seek this pastrami out. This pastrami is not on display; it’s kept hidden away in a special back room, until it’s needed. It is then cut to order and heated in the pizza ovens until warm.

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