Since the start of summer, I have been scheming a full day in Red Hook. While it isn’t the most convenient, the waterfront Brooklyn neighborhood is home to travel-worthy destinations: Ikea, Hometown Bar-B-Que, Red Hook Lobster Pound—everywhere you could hope to be in the summer.
The key was finding the right person to spend an extended period of time with me and eat a lot with—which brings me to the lovely Kate Collins who helped with this weeks right on Franklin. Kate and I met in April when we were set up on a blind-date of sorts, paired up to develop a piece together for Spaced. We hit it off and, given that we are both drawn to various creative outlets in addition to our 9-5 jobs, it felt natural to continue figuring out ways to work together. Kate is an incredibly talented photographer with her hands in everything from food to lifestyle, and I am so glad she wanted to contribute to the newsletter. She is also incredibly smart and has amazing taste, as illustrated in her own Substack which is worth a read.
We utilized the very last Summer Friday, though an overcast afternoon, to spend the day in Red Hook. We met up at 3pm, and didn’t depart until almost 10pm—there was a lot to see and, therefore, so much to share! It was a really well-executed neighborhood crawl and a progression I would repeat without changing a thing.
Today’s newsletter will be a round-up of our afternoon, from where to snack to where to drink, including a truly perfect dinner. The images in today’s newsletter may truncate the post in your inbox—consider reading the full thing in the Substack app!
3:00pm
Red Hook on a Friday afternoon was surprisingly quiet—it isn’t often in New York that sidewalks feel empty and coffee shops have just one other patron. It was a really good set up for strolling around, taking our sweet time, and visiting any business with the lights on.
Open Invite: Your new favorite home goods store with a collection of vintage homewares, curated books, and every giftable item you could ever hope for.
Red Hook Coffee Shop: Half a block from Open Invite is small coffee shop where the antique furniture is all for sale, set up like your dream living room with vintage clothing, jewelry, and trinkets scattered throughout the space. The backyard, the cesca chairs, the chatty staff… huge fan.
4:30pm
Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pie: A Red Hook institution with a few picnic benches and a window where three different sizes of pies are available for sale, along with a few special chocolate-dipped frozen pies which is… genius. We each got a 4” tart in a foil pie tin with a plastic spoon, handed to us to enjoy at a picnic table. Steve’s is one of those places that everyone hears about and knows is good—I’m just here to tell you the key lime pies are perfect and so simple. A soft, just-set key lime custard fills a crumbly, graham cracker crust. The whole operation feels a bit fragile, if the smallest adjustment had been made the pie might completely fall apart. It doesn’t, and it won’t, because Steve is a magician. The perfect single serving for something sweet.
Strong Rope Brewery: Pre-dinner beer along the water. That’s sort of all you need to know. Strong Rope has a huge interior with long tables full of people enjoying a mid-day drink below wooden rafters and among casks of beer. Huge glass doors open up to a slightly muddy outdoor seating arrangement full of picnic benches and folding chairs where you can sip a summer lager while staring at the Statue of Liberty.
5:30pm
The main event on Friday was our 5:30pm reservation. I just need to note that early dinner has never failed me, and I would rather be the first person in a restaurant than wrapping up dinner at 10:00pm.
Cafe Kestrel
This late June opening is one of my favorite discoveries this year. Cafe Kestrel fits its environment so well, an unmarked door on Van Brunt Street leads into a six-table dining room. The walls are adorned with mismatched framed artwork that looks like it was collected from your grandmother’s walls. Four bar stools face a small, mirrored bar lined with candles and each table is covered with plain white tablecloths and pink napkins. Cafe Kestrel has mastered an interior that is effective without doing too much. It is notably intimate and tasteful, but not superficially young or trendy in that, like the food, it is not over designed. Servers wear matching white chore coats and doodles of playing card suits adorn their paper menus. You get a bowl of popcorn when you sit before embarking on a dinner full of balanced bites and beautifully simple plating.
Kate and I opted for a simple, snacky dinner. We started with drinks, white negroni for me and a gin martini with a twist for Kate (very sophisticated, and really delicious) which we sipped with baguette served with soft saffron butter, a soft cheese served with green summer apples and crackers, and two exceptional starters—squash blossoms filled with stracciatella and sitting on a pool of honey, and a farinata (think chickpea pancake) in a pool of insane olive oil topped with seasoned olives. At this point, we were already blown away.
We followed with french fries, which were exceptional, a rare yellowfin tuna dish served with green tomatoes A la Grecque and sumac onions that we could not get over. We also got the Sea Goddess Salad, made of little gem lettuce, sweet and crunchy apples, and thinly sliced fennel in an anchovy green goddess dressing. The entire meal was so light and fresh and not at all boring, everything we ate was interesting without overdoing it. We opted for smaller plates to share but our neighbors ordered the swordfish and the chicken which looked worthy of a return visit. Our dessert was a petite olive oil cake with a fresh apricot center sitting in a pool of butterscotch, topped with fresh whipped cream. The entire meal was divine, but that dessert was seriously special. What felt so notable about this meal was that I wanted to sit in that restaurant for hours—the space was never full or over-crowded, with no more than 18 other people inside at a time, and that even 20 minutes into the meal I knew I would be returning, probably repeatedly, and would want to reorder a lot of the same dishes. That is unique, and a sign of a young restaurant doing something really right.
*I was fairly certain Kestrel, and the writing on the menu “silflay hraka, u embleer rah” was of some Austrian lineage. Turns out they come from Watership Down, an English adventure novel from the 70’s.*
7:30pm
Bar Mario: After our leisurely dinner, this green window bar was really calling our name. We couldn’t totally read the vibe of Bar Mario but on a late summer night, it couldn’t be a better spot. I can’t voice for the food (people say it’s good) but I can vouch for our Italian waiters and a good sidewalk setup.
8:30pm
Last but certainly not least…
Sunny’s: An objectively perfect dive-y bar with live music and a spacious garden. Kate and I sat on the bed of an old green truck that is always parked out front and drank $5 Budweisers. Made some friends, saw a lot of dogs, and listened to some really amazing live music. 10000/10.
See also:
Hometown Bar-B-Que: Never lets me down and worth the trip
Red Hook Lobster Pound: Nautical themed seafood restaurant? Definitely
Red Hook Tavern: For the burger everyone is obsessed with
Red Hook summer trip is alwayssss mandatory
I’m no so happy you found a friend to go eat and explore, and drink! With. I went to Red Hook once on a Monday and most things were closed. Thanks for the suggestions.