2 Yutes Joins Forces With Michael & Ping’s, Making This Gowanus Storefront a One-Stop Food Hub
Well before the charmingly scraggy streets of Gowanus were paved with barbecue hubs and oyster bars, Michael and Ping’s was a rare bright spot on Gowanus’s food landscape, supplying prescient residents and underserved warehouse workers with all-natural Chinese food in a certified green space. Which is why, after all these years, it’s probably disconcerting for passerby to spot a sandwich board outside announcing 2 Yutes, especially since the kitchen within still churns out hormone-free sesame chicken, and free-range egg drop soup.
And truthfully, 2 Yutes (Italianese for “youths”) is much more in Bruno’s wheelhouse, being that he grew up in an Italian household in Bensonhurst. Coupling family recipes with ingredients from the old hood, current options include his mama’s own secret recipe rice balls (we applaud the evident inclusion of cured soppressata and Lioni’s mozzarella), and Papa Pasquales deep-fried ravioli, plunged into pools of housemade marinara.
Its namesake neighborhood may be flush with food options nowadays, but Michael Bruno has admirably doubled down with 2 Yutes.
437 3rd Ave., 718-788-0031
Photos by Sasha Turrentine