Where to Eat in Brooklyn This Week

By Brooklyn Magazine

Keeping up with the culinary action in Brooklyn is almost futile. Even with our help, there aren’t nearly enough meals or minutes in the day to hit them all, which is why we’ve been trying something new these last few weeks, sending some suggested destinations directly to your inbox, so you always know where to eat, no matter which corner of Kings County you might be exploring. 

This week, we can’t help but be kinda inspired by the audacity of Jackie Cuscuna and Brian Smith. The couple, who very famously and publicly founded, grew, bankrupted, and sold the local ice cream titan Ample Hills, is back, yet again. This time around, they’ve (mostly) left the eye-screaming behind them, reemerging with not just a new business, but a new food format: chicken smashburgers. If you’re curious as to just what those are, and how this new chapter is going, check out our latest on Ramblin’ Chick, their roadside-y reemergence in Carroll Gardens.

Cuscana and Smtih’s clucked up comeback is certainly miraculous (given the history and all), but their return got us thinking about some of the other great birds we’ve encountered on recent trips up and down that freedom highway (in our case, the BQE), and how blessed we are to live in a borough with so many exceptional preparations of them. Take, for instance, the wall of golden rotisserie at Badaboom, where buddies Henry Glucroft and Charles Gerbier are bringing big bistro energy to the southeast corner of Bed-Stuy. There’s also TriniJam, the crucial Canarsie operation run by a former union carpenter and his wife, with a smoky, spicy jerk chicken culled from generations-old family recipes. And if you prefer your fowl thoroughly dredged and lovingly fried, this list of best-in-class bar food around town should prove helpful, especially with the madness of March now in full swing and the NBA creeping towards a postseason.

See where to eat this week in Brooklyn below.

(Photo by Scott Lynch)

Ramblin’ On: The Ample Hills Couple Returns with a Chicken Smashburger Spot in Carroll Gardens

The first and most obvious reaction to the news that Jackie Cuscuna and Brian Smith, the couple that founded, very publicly grew, and then very publicly bankrupted and sold their Ample Hills ice cream brand and parlors—and then kind of did the same thing again with The Social, another Prospect Heights ice cream parlor—have just launched a new and totally different Brooklyn venture is: “Really, guys? You want to do this again?”

And the short answer to that question is: Hell yeah, they do, and you should be stoked they did. Because not only is Cuscuna and Smith’s resilience admirable, but also (and more importantly) Ramblin’ Chick, their new spot specializing in chicken smashburgers and nuggets in Carroll Gardens, is a pretty perfect everyday neighborhood spot, a fast-casual restaurant with a full menu of crowd-pleasers and a lived-in, roadside vibe.

(Photo by Scott Lynch)

Badaboom Brings Classic Bistro Bangers to Bed-Stuy

You can’t miss Badaboom while strolling along Howard Avenue this fall. With its spiffy, bright-blue exterior, elevated outdoor seating, and general open-arms aura, the place stands out for sure in this relatively un-bustling patch of southeast Bed-Stuy.

And you definitely don’t want to miss it, either. Opened in late June by Brooklyn buddies Henry Glucroft and Charles Gerbier, Badaboom is a friendly neighborhood bistro that doubles as a wine bar (or maybe it’s the other way around?) with an easy, appealing menu, and what Glucroft calls “a really interesting reserve list that I’ve been able to help build up over the years.”
If you live nearby and like to eat and/or drink, get ready to be a regular.

Glucroft and Gerbier both have experience keeping people fed, tipsy, and happy. The former runs both Henry’s and Sunrise/Sunset in Bushwick, the latter is responsible for Frog Wine Bar over on Marcus Garvey. But Badaboom, their first operation together as business partners, represents a pretty big step up for them in the restaurant game.

(Photo by Scott Lynch)

Canarsie’s TriniJam BK is Feeding The Neighborhood with Family Recipes and Caribbean Comfort Foods

Calvin and Latoya Sennon have lived in Canarsie for almost 30 years. They met in high school here, they fell in love here, they raised their kids here. Their roots are planted deep in this community, and it means a lot to them.

Also important to the Sennons? Their heritage. He’s Trinidadian, she’s Jamaican, and though neither of them had any experience running a restaurant, every time they walked past the old Anna Napoli building on the corner of Flatlands and 95th—which was a lot of times, since their home is just a few blocks way—they fantasized about turning the space into some sort of celebration of their beloved Island cuisines.

Then about six years ago, after a series of happy coincidences and a big leap of faith, the Sennons bought the building. And on August 8, 2020, TriniJam BK was born. “I am not a professional chef,” Calvin Sennon told Brooklyn Magazine. “I’m a union carpenter. Local 608. But I love cooking, and food has always been our passion, and at TriniJam, we serve Caribbean comfort food. We really try not to chef it up too much. We’ll give you a nice plate, a nice presentation, but we really want you to taste the dishes we grew up with.”