Finally, there’s a kick-ass menu to go with the beautiful setting and creative cocktails at one of our favorite DUMBO watering holes, reBar.
The bar, once most famous for its girly grapefruit-juice-and-ginger-vodka cocktail named after its biggest fan, Brooklyn Paper Editor Gersh Kuntzman, now serves a full “gastropub” menu that includes big salads, pressed sandwiches, pizzas, crepes, entrees such as whole roasted trout, Moroccan tagine, hanger steak and pork tenderloin, and bowls of steaming mussels.
Actually, come to think of it, stop reading right now and go to reBar for a bowl of those mussels (I won’t be offended).
The immaculately prepared, stunningly fresh bi-valves ($16) come in teeming bowls and are served in three styles: a standard Provencal, a hard cider and fennel version, and a coconut curry-covered classic.
The cocunut curry mussels are the standout — the sweet meat of the shellfish perfectly balanced against the heat and richness of the curry. Paired with a lager or pilsner, there may be no better summer dish.
And the pairings are part of the fun of this new menu. Owner Jason Stevens, bar manager Luke Wheeler and chef Lori D’Agostino picked wines and beers that matched the plates — and the results are fantastic (only a fool would argue against a hanger steak paired with a Cono Sur Cabernet — the wine perfectly matched to the crusty char on the fatty steak).
It’s been a full paragraph since I mentioned the mussels, and I am reminded of them anew. Please go to reBar and order them right now. I’m done here.
reBar [147 Front St. between Pearl and Jay streets in DUMBO, (718) 766-9110] is open Monday and Tuesday, 11:30 am to 2 am; Wednesday through Saturday, 11:30 am to 4 am; and Sunday, 11 am to 2 am.
