Summer Weekend Guide: Gowanus
Food
As with Red Hook, or really any time you’re trying to get to know a new neighborhood or city, the main event here is food. Lots of it. First and foremost, there’s The Pines, which a couple weeks back we gave the honor of having the neighborhood’s signature dish, in this case hot, buttery bread from nearby Runner & Stone, served alongside a simple, perfectly executed menu that changes daily. The area’s also become something of a hotbed for the exploding (and totally welcome) barbecue trend. There’s Fletcher’s, which has a solid lunch deal if you happen to be hungry earlier in the day, and there’s also the newly opened, instantly beloved neighborhood branch of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, where we’d suggest you go late in the day and knock yourself out with a “Big Ass Pork Plate” and a flight (or two) of beer.
Of course, it tends to feel a little blasphemous to hang out in a waterfront neighborhood without eating at least some shellfish, even if the thought of actually consuming sea life from the Gowanus itself is a little, uh, dubious. For this, there’s Littleneck, which has all the clams, oysters, lobster rolls and chowder you could want in a local seafood joint, alongside more creative options like a Full Belly Ipswich Clam Roll, and mussels with thai basil and curry. They’ve also got a homemade pie of the day, but for pie, it’s worth re-locating down the street to Four & Twenty Blackbirds. Their menu changes seasonally, but there are always certain staples you can count on, like The Derby (that chocolate-mint-bourbon thing we were talking about earlier), and salted caramel apple (or salty honey custard).
The Pines, 284 Third Ave.
Runner & Stone, 285 Third Ave.
Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, 604 Union St.
Fletcher’s, 433 3rd Ave.
Littleneck, 288 3rd Ave.
Four & Twenty Blackbirds, 439, 3rd Ave.