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“Chestnut”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	New American	Brooklyn	Moderate	Good

leaves tossed in) and less dressing (it suffocated the flavors of the beets).

If you’re up for a real meal (read: fish, meat, pasta), Chestnut performs much better. While weekends are quite busy (though the 45 minute wait for walk-ins at the bar is actually a lot of fun), if you’d rather go when the neighborhood crowds are at home tucking in the kids, the restaurant is less hectic during the week. Pair this with the mid-week (Tuesdays and Wednesday) prixe fixe that the restaurant offers (any three items off the menu for $30), the warm and friendly service, and there’s little reason to eat anywhere else.

Dinner begins with a pewter tray of exclusively housemade snacks: a generous bowl of crunchy sliced pickles, and two kinds of bread: a soft and fluffy foccaccia and a heartier whole grain with pumpkin seeds and golden raisins. On a Tuesday night last week, Craig and I shared the Bobo farms chicken ($20), a wildly juicy and flavorful bird that Daniel stuffs with housemade sausage, and serves with a potato galette fashioned from potatoes that were sliced way too thin and cooked too long so it tasted like a burnt potato chip more than anything else. No matter, this recipe makes the humble chicken regal enough to serve as the centerpiece on Thanksgiving.

The striped bass ($26) was also terrific, set on top of a mound of roasted acorn squash with “chorizo” which unfortunately was once again the dust, not the actual Spanish sausage. Despite the powder, this dish was very good: the fish was perfectly cooked (moist, flaky and topped with a crispy skin) and it tasted like it had just been pulled from the cold waters off Montauk. The accompanying squash was roasted for a long time so it was soft and almost sweet enough to be filled in a pie shell. I added a side of braised mustard and collard greens, which added a welcome measure of sharpness to balance the plate.

On another visit, the hanger steak ($26) stole the show: rich and meaty and nicely charred, but cooked so its center was tender and ruby red. It’s served rather austerely, just sliced on the bias with a sort of fancy and fantastic hash made from roasted fingerling potatoes and some ripe and ready bleu cheese. Pastas looked terrific, especially the cavatelli with duck sausage and sage, but we’d just made pasta the night before (with spicy Italian sausage, chickpeas and broccoli rabe from Andrew Carmellini’s new book) and ... [more, click below]

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Posted: November 2, 2008

Other restaurants in Brooklyn :
+ Chickenbone Cafe-- Closed   + Pier 116-- Closed   + Chestnut   + Lunch at Peter Luger's   + 360   + Palo Santo   + The Good Fork   + Porchetta-- Closed Now   + Bocca Lupo   + Flatbush Farm   + DuMont Burger   + Dressler   + Farm on Adderley   + The Grocery   + Saul   + Black Mountain Wine House   + The General Greene   + Char No. 4   + James   + Chestnut   + No. 7   + Vinegar Hill House   + Motorino   + Buttermilk Channel   + Buttermilk Channel   + Vutera   + Watty & Meg    + Prime Meats   + Aqualis Grill   + Jack the Horse Tavern   + Roman's   + Fatty 'Cue   + Thistle Hill Tavern   + Broken English   + Trix, by Dara Pollak   + An Ode to New Orleans in Williamsburg: Maison Premiere, By Dara Pollak   + Brooklyn Wok Shop by Dara Pollak   + Arthur on Smith   + La Vara   + Gran Electrica   + Pok Pok Ny   + Ganso    + Reynard   

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