Is Brooklyn Food Actually Terrible?
Brooklyn’s food scene as we know it — and, more specifically, as it’s represented in this article — has existed for a relatively short period of time, and Manhattan has had decades to build up a coterie of varied restaurants in varying price ranges with maximum kitchen efficiency. To say that Brooklyn has outstripped Manhattan is silly. But do people who are in any way worth listening to really say that? And why, at this juncture, would it not be a big deal for Brooklyn to be “a great little culinary city?”
But anyway, there aren’t really going to be clear-cut winners in a conversation that’s simultaneously hyperbolic and subjective. Most likely, the more specific elements of Ozersky’s argument that make you take the whole thing seriously — disappointment with steak quality at St. Anselm, accusations that Buttermilk Channel is “a southern restaurant incapable of serving decent fried chicken or biscuits, [that] gets hailed as masterful, mostly, I suspect, because you can take squealing infants there and nobody will complain” — are the ones most likely to piss off purists and be largely ignored by everyone else.
So yeah, tear into him if you will. Or, just go eat at a restaurant you like and try not to worry about it. Everything is fine. We have a lot of options.
Follow Virginia K. Smith on Twitter @vksmith.