From Barbecue to Ice Cream: Here’s Everything You Should Be Eating This Weekend
Since Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer, it’s only appropriate to prime ourselves for a season of smoked meat and frozen treats by commemorating the holiday with these ultimate, warm-weather foods.
Barbecue at Fletcher’s Riis Beach: After being ousted from their Williamsburg home, the team behind Brooklyn Night Bazaar is organizing the Riis Beach Bazaar this summer instead, and they’re bringing vendors like Fletcher’s along for the ride. And as much as we love the Gowanus barbecue spot’s inspired, smoke-wreathed offerings, we can only imagine how much better those burnt ends, lamb ribs and duck tacos will taste, while reclining on the beach or strolling the boardwalk.
157 Rockaway Beach Boulevard, Queens
Hot Dogs at Meat Hook Sandwich: Eating hot dogs generally involves a leap of faith, when it comes to the unknown origins of the bits and pieces inside. But since Meat Hook (the butcher) makes all of its tube steaks by hand, you won’t have to think twice about sinking your teeth into a juicy link from their sandwich shop. Keep your eyes peeled for the sporadic reappearance of the “Gyro.” Actually a lamb sausage masquerading as the classic Greek sandwich, this sandwich is slathered with garlicky yogurt, piled with pickled tomatoes, sweet onions and thin slices of white yam, and deposited—not in a pita—but in a hot dog bun.
495 Lorimer Street, Williamsburg
Crawfish at Extra Fancy: Crawfish aren’t exactly omnipresent on Brooklyn restaurant menus, so you know it’s almost summer when the pint-sized crustaceans start popping up all over the borough. And one of the very first boils of the season is at shellfish haven Extra Fancy—stop by on Sunday for all-you-can-eat mudbugs, accompanied by cans of Brooklyn Brewery Summer Ale for only $30.
302 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg
Ice Cream at Fort Grace: What started as a warm weather pop-up in back of The General Greene is now a year-round ice cream shop, serving scoops like olive oil, honey ricotta with orange peel, black currant champagne and salted caramel, from a recipe courtesy of former chef—and now owner of Morgenstern’s Famous Ice Cream—Nick Morgenstern.
229 Dekalb Avenue, Fort Greene