The Best Brooklyn Restaurants to Treat Your Dad on Father’s Day
The burger at Rose’s Bar & Grill.
Photo via Rose’s Instagram
We by no means intend to infer that dads are purely one-dimensional beings, united in their across-the-board adulation of beer, barbecues and burgers. But unless you know that your own pop has a particular penchant for vodka cocktails and kale sprouts, the truth is, he’ll probably be pretty darn happy with a Father’s Day repast of beer, barbecue and burgers. [Ed. note: So would your mom! So would, probably, anyone who is not a vegetarian.] So as long as you’re going to indulge in dad stereotypes, you might as well make sure that he’s getting the very best of the best this Sunday, from quality whiskey at Lo-Res to smoked ribs at Pig Beach and artfully curated meat cones at Bushwick’s Hops & Hocks.
Whiskey at Lo-Res: In addition to cocktails inspired by B-movies (i.e., the “Buckaroo Banzai” with oak barrel-aged gin, plum shrub and soda water), a sizable whiskey list (including Vermont Distillery Black Snake Corn), and solid food selection (homemade Thai chili jerky, tater tots with queso, weisswurst smeared with mustard and beer-braised onions), Nitehawk Cinema’s revamped bar screens VHS tapes on a constant loop via bulky CRT televisions. Which means that dad can enjoy old Hulk Hogan matches, grainy kung fu gems and Kindergarten Cop totally without irony, because he probably has his own copies sitting in the basement.
136 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg
Barbecue at Pig Beach: Worried that eating chili, ribs and hot links in a picnic table-bedecked Gowanus courtyard is too downscale for Father’s Day? Keep in mind that the chefs all hail from New York’s elite fine dining world, including Balthazar’s executive chef, Shane McBride, Ed’s Lobster owner, Ed McFarland, and Del Posto’s Matt Abdoo.
452 Union Street, Gowanus
Beer at Hops & Hocks: This beer and charcuterie shop peddles meat cones—an ingenious, edible invention that’s all but custom made for dad. Handheld twists are filled with goodies like salame Milano, prosciutto de parma and options from the ham bar (such as hickory smoked country ham or dry-cured jamon serrano), expertly paired with a rotating selection of local beer on tap, including Radiant Pig’s East Side Rapture Pale Ale, Finback’s Close of Day Saison, and Dyckman’s Café Con Leche Milk Stout.
2 Morgan Avenue, Bushwick
Burgers at Rose’s Bar & Grill: After determining that upscale trattoria fare was a tough sell for the neighborhood, the Franny’s team transformed Marco’s into this no-frills bar instead, currently serving deep fried olives, hot fudge sundaes and one of the borough’s best, decisively unfussy burgers—a sesame bun-cuddled, expertly charred patty entirely devoid of toppings, save for an optional slice of sharp melted cheese.
295 Flatbush Avenue, Prospect Heights
Steak at MP Taverna Williamsburg: If the whole family is on board to help celebrate dad, by all means pre-order one of the large format feasts, such as baby lamb, kid goat or suckling pig. But if you’ve arranged an intimate dinner à deux instead, zero in on the 45 day dry-aged porterhouse, rib eye or NY strip adorned with caramelized garlic and spritzed with lemon, along with multiple orders of the best “frites” we’ve had in recent memory—wide, golden discs of resplendently crispy, thrice-cooked smashed potato, that have been braised, blanched and fried.
470 Driggs Avenue, Williamsburg
