Brooklyn, N.Y.: Where the Chefs and Gourmands Go

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Jin Lee / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Patrons dine in a window seat at a restaurant in the Brooklyn, New York.

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Do you actually win anything?
Mostly you win bragging rights.

The chapter on Williamsburg introduces us to Georgiana Tedone, a 92-year-old shopkeeper who's been making mozzarella by hand every day for decades. How did you happen to stumble upon her?
This woman has a large and loyal fan base, and when I began my Williamsburg research, I was repeatedly told I had to include her. She makes her mozzarella in the middle of the night, which sells out every morning at her shop Tedone Latticini; she's lived next door for more than 75 years. There's a younger guy helping her out; I think he's her son. The cheese itself is nothing fancy, but it's fresh and handmade — it really encapsulates the craft-like quality Brooklyn is becoming known for.

Brooklyn has become a center of America's urban farming movement, with projects like Rooftop Farms in Greenpoint. Why Brooklyn?
Urban farming is the ultimate example of locavorism [eating locally grown foods] and taps directly into the farm-to-table ethos so popular with Brooklyn chefs. In Manhattan, even at the Greenmarket in Union Square, so much of the products are from New Jersey or New York State. But with urban farms like the Rooftop, you have the freshest tomatoes and peppers and herbs literally from around the corner.

Do you think Brooklyn will be able to sustain its small-scale, locavorean, casual scene?
I do, because I don't think we've even reached the peak yet in Brooklyn — it's still on the upswing. There are still so many Manhattan folks who've yet to try restaurants there and are clamoring for something new and unique.

We know it's like choosing a favorite son, but if there's one Brooklyn restaurant no borough newcomer should miss, which would it be?
I'd have to say Roberta's in Bushwick. It really encapsulates what Brooklyn is all about right now. At its core, Roberta's is a pizza joint, but I love the dichotomy between its laid-back atmosphere and casual environment and its incredible level of quality when it comes to the ingredients. The restaurant grows its own herbs and they're also working on a rooftop garden project. The entire place is just top-notch without feeling precious.

Brooklyn has thousands of restaurants. How did you winnow the list down to the 337 in the book?
It was a grueling process that demanded we eat out every single night for a year and cram in 20 to 30 places each weekend. I live in Brooklyn, but I really had to ask myself, "Is this a restaurant folks would leave their neighborhoods for?" It had to have that kind of allure.

Having now eaten in hundreds of places in less than a year, what's next?
Well, my husband would just like me to stay home, but I'm always ready for my next challenge: Queens. Neighborhoods like Forest Hills and Woodside really have some of the best ethnic food in America. Queens is even more under-the-radar than Brooklyn, so it would be an enormous project. I don't know much about it — I would really be starting from zero!

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