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“Thistle Hill Tavern”

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

ongtime East Village Bartender) and Mike Burkett (better known as Fat Mike of the seminal punk rock band NOFX).
While our usual get togethers find us in frizzy ponytails, with makeup-free faces, often sweating and resembling a band of weary warriors, here we were in our adult play clothes: dresses, shoes with heels, mascara! We looked great. I’d say my friends were definitely in MILF territory.

The restaurant, which is decorated in dark woods with old photographs on display to resemble a turn-of-the-last-century Brooklyn tavern, was named after Thistle Hill farm in Virginia, a place Massoni’s parents owned when he was a kid, which in his words, “had a huge impact on my childhood.” The partners liked the name, but wanted it to have historical significance to the neighborhood. After some research, it turned out the name did. They found an old Farmer’s Almanac from the early 1800s that had farmers in Brooklyn complaining that the “thistle” had followed them from the old country and proved to be a nuisance in their fields. They also found several references in the 1920s to the Brooklyn Thistle Benevolence Society, a Catholic organization that raised money for the poor in Brooklyn. Finally, they found references to a semi-pro soccer team called the Brooklyn Thistles around 1918. Between the history and the personal connection, Thistle Hill Tavern was born.

The place is already popular with the neighborhood and has a nice crowd gathered at the bar and around the slew of heavy dark wood tables (plenty of Brooklyn families in attendance alongside pretty women and bearded men drinking a Friday night away). While the space is quite inviting with its old world accents and young friendly waitstaff; our waitress was adorable in her braids with a yellow flower barrette in her hair. When we commented on how cute the yellow barrette looked in her hair she thanked us and informed us that she was forced to remove it from her hair at the place she had just worked brunch at. Not at Thistle Hill. Here, they want people (waitstaff, too) to have fun.

But the most wonderful part of the concept is not the liberal barrette policy, but the food, which is exceptional thanks to chef and partner Rebecca Weitzman who has spent the last two and a half years as Chef de Cuisine at 'inoteca LES and prior to that held several positions in Bobby Flay's organization at Bar Americain, Bolo and Mesa Grill, and also ... [more, click below]

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Posted: July 22, 2010

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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