Bar Tabac--Brooklyn

718.923.0918

After visiting an artist friend in Cobble Hill we decided to try Bar Tabac, on Smith Street. A hopping joint full of black haired sex pots serving food in push up bras and tight black clothing, Bar Tabac is a neighborhood standby not a destination spot. Though it didn’t necessarily make culinary promises, it also didn’t deliver a memorable culinary experience. By far and away the most notable feature of this restaurant is the old fashioned foosball table sitting smack dab in the bar. Regretfully, the dark lights and subtly sultry setting swept my girlfriend away, forcing me to sit before I could play a game and teach some middle aged graphic designer a lesson.

I would love to go on and on about the menu, but it was a French Bistro. If you’re reading a restaurant review and don’t know the predictability menu of a French Bistro then move back to Iowa. The food was average, as was the service, sans an occasional glance at some cleavage. We had the Muscles and the Steak Frites, two anonymous dishes for a wine list that was equally anonymous and uninteresting. All in all setting us back $61 bucks. I imagine that on late nights the lights go even lower and there could be some interesting dance sex orgy party. Of course, this could also be my misogynistic fantasies getting the better of me. I would recommend Bar Tabac if you can’t make up your mind where else to go in the neighborhood. But whatever you do, don’t go with your girlfriend.

Good Fork--Brooklyn

718.643.6636


The Good Fork is a lovely little restaurant situated in the industrial district of Red Hook. Located on it is exactly what one would expect from a hipster outpost, quaintly standing proud in an otherwise industrial and underdeveloped neighborhood. As the website will tell you the word is out on the 25 seat restaurant. It was packed. The owner/operator Ben Schneider did what he could to assuage our hungry group of four, sending us just north to have a cocktail at a neighborhood drinkery.

It was evident with our negotiation of getting a table that this was a new enterprise. Ben’s heart was in the right place but you could tell that despite the casual ambiance that he was teetering on the edge of total disaster the entire evening. Good Fork became somewhat of a quagmire, suggesting one thing and delivering another. Though the front of house experience was truly lacking, the food was exceptional. A unique collection of Asian influenced comfort food, the eclectic menu dares you to try the sweet breads, but has crowd-pleasing stand-bys like the crab cake and farfalle with lamb ragu. The pan seared dumplings were off the hook, obviously a specialty of chef/owner Sohui Kim. For dessert we shared the chocolate cake, and it was again as consistent in attention to detail and taste as was our first course and entree. Our dinner of four with a three course meal, wine, dessert, and after dinner drinks landed in the $60 a person ballpark; and despite not having half of the after dinner drinks in house, our party was completely satisfied.

Much like the contrast between the service and the food, the overall décor was a little confusing. The natural homey feeling intimated an obsession with wood working and interior design, yet all of it was so brand new that it came off as saccharine. It was too handmade, too well crafted. Like so many New York restaurants the devotion spent on the design should have been spent on the front of house operations. For example: the bathroom, done complete with clever counter levered door, offered paper C-fold napkins as a hand towel. The backyard looked as though it were an impending project, yet, due to ventilation the door was left open, exposing a ramshackle underbelly.

My hat is off to the hardworking couple, for at the end of the day they delivered a nice product: a comfortable atmosphere with quality product. In Brooklyn this recipe grows on trees, and Good Fork’s only true shortcoming sprouts from this accepted notion of casual dining. I understand dropping the formality, but on the same token guests should not be treated like house guests. Good Fork is worth the trip, but you might be expected to help with the dishes at the end of the night.