Gowanus brings the beef, Boerum Hill’s got the challah, and DUMBO’s high on pizza pie in this week’s hearty helping of delicious gossip:
G’Day and ni hao, Prospect Heights: The MooLifeGroup — which owns The Sunburnt Cow and Bondi Road in the East Village and the Sunburnt Calf on the Upper West Side — wants to show Brooklyn how to speak (and eat) Australian. The Feed reports that Vanderbilt Avenue is getting its very own Sunburnt Calf outpost, which boasts an “Australasian” menu (Balinese-spiced chicken sticks) and drinks program (calamansi bourbon sours) designed by Summit Bar mixologist Greg Seider.
See, food: Manhattan Beach isn’t usually a hotbed of restaurant activity, so the recent opening of Aqualina Café, a new seafood bistro on West End Avenue, qualifies as mighty big news. The new eatery, which shares owners with the Buccaneer Crab House in Freeport, N.Y., offers all-you-can-eat blue crab platters, snow crab legs in garlic butter, mussels, bouillabaisse, and plenty of other seaworthy delights.
Un petit bistro: Alan Park, the three Michelin starred chef who most recently worked at Rabbit Hole in Williamsburg, is heading up his first solo venture on S. Third Street and Driggs Avenue. According to Here’s Williamsburg, a new Gallic-inspired spot, Bistro Petit, should be up and running by the end of the month.
Five more guys: It’s hardly news anymore, but we feel nevertheless obligated to report on the slow, but certain, global takeover by Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Zagat reveals that Park Slope is readying to open yet another peanut-happy, red-checkered eatery this Wednesday at the corner of Park Place and Flatbush Avenue, the second location in the neighborhood.
Challah at ya boy: The Jewish high holy day of Yom Kippur doesn’t exactly scream good eating, but leave it to Mile End’s member of the tribe Noah Bernamoff to turn it into a craveable affair. Catered Rosh Hashana feasts (and Yom Kippur break fasts), run $75 for two people, and include brisket, cauliflower and parsnip kugel, salt cod and smoked trout, and blintzes with fruit compote. Oy to the world!
Here’s the beef: It’s that time again … for gluttonous, carnivorous goodness at the Bell House in Gowanus! Brooklyn Beefsteak is back by popular demand on Sunday, Sept. 25, an all-you-can-eat beef and beer extravaganza in which participants are encouraged to shove slabs of glistening red meat into their gullets using little more than a hunk of white bread. Look, ma, just hands!
Thai again: Many respectable restaurants have tried their luck in the diminutive space on 7107 Third Ave. in Bay Ridge, but few have lasted more than a year (the most recent casualty was Viva Latin Bistro, a better-than-average Colombian/Ecuadorian eatery). Next up to the plate is Glow Thai food, which is in the process of having its liquor application reviewed by Community Board 10. If history repeats, we give it six months.
On the rise: Watch your back, Grimaldi’s, there’s a new pie-making sheriff in town! Wild Rise, an authentic Neapolitan slice shop, has opened at Jay and Water streets in DUMBO. The place gets its name from the wild yeast that gives its pies the classic taste and the seal of approval from all those purists in Naples.
