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10 Reasons Brooklyn's Got Food Cred
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IMAGE: Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain perscribes nostalgia at its finest, serving up classic egg creams, candies and sodas.
Brooklyn, long a magnet for varied ethnic groups, has been culturally reimagined as a center of the urban artisan food renaissance. The Old Brooklyn always had authenticity down. But hip? Not so much. Today, the borough teaming with bearded hipsters, passionate do-it-yourselfers, and well-heeled young families is representative of a lifestyle brand. You can get Brooklyn Brine Pickles at Williams Sonoma or an all-beef hot dog at the new outpost of The Brooklyn Diner in Dubai.
IMAGE: Fatty 'Cue, a cross between Texas BBQ and traditional Malaysian eats, features fermentation, pickling and lots of chilies.
The New Brooklyn is an edgy mix of old and new. The result: a mashup of global cuisine deeply rooted in culinary tradition along with the intensity of the hyper-local movement, driven largely by a strong passion for authentic production and reputable source. Come along on our walk-about as we uncover the culinary gem that is Brooklyn.
Williamsburg
1. Fatty 'Cue: Barbecue with a nod toward Southeast Asia
As thirsty patrons, we toasted Fatty 'Cue's rustic smoke-infused beverages, including the Fatty Manhattan, which married smoked Cherry Coke and Rye, and the Smokin’ Bone, where a stroke of genius inspired pineapple syrup to be smoked then added to whiskey and finished with a few dashes of bitey Tabasco and earthy chocolate bitters.
The menu at Fatty 'Cue comes in two main sections: snacks and specialties. The snacks section suggests “hey friends, you can eat these delightful victuals on any occasion!” A larger trend moving away from the structured world of appetizers and entrees, and towards smaller bites throughout the day, designed for gathering and socializing.
The menu focuses on American pig-centric barbecue, along with the pungent fermented fish and bright curry flavors of Malaysia.
The combination of two deeply rooted food cultures proves remarkably addictive. New York Times food critic Sam Sifton refers to Fatty 'Cue’s “bowl of noodles” as the Oxycontin of ramen.
As with David Chang’s empire of restaurants and the wildly popular Kogi Korean taco truck, the food at Fatty 'Cue does not resemble the horrid notion of fusion cuisine, but very appropriately borrows from more masculine, or yang cuisines, where meat, fat, heat and pungent flavors dominate.
IMAGE: Mayur Subbarao serves up a mean cocktail featuring homemade vermouth at The Dram.2. Dram: Hand-Crated cocktails with a sense of play
Williamsburg is blessed with many quality drinking establishments, however Dram, with their Scandinavian-esque wood decor and highly skilled bartenders, is a standout. The beauty of Dram lies in their ability to knock out a remarkable handcrafted rum cocktail, i.e., Behind God's Back, while not taking themselves too seriously. They get that customers are there to enjoy themselves, so a big wooden spoon, intentionally serving as the bathroom door lock, provides a great sense of ease for a place with such a deft hand at mixology. The take-away from Dram is to act with integrity, but avoid taking yourself too seriously. It also doesn’t hurt that the wildly popular Pies-n-Thighs fried chicken joint is a stone’s throw away. After a few hard cider-based Apples in Stereo cocktails, we are fairly certain you’ll be ready to settle up at Dram and head over for a shared fried chicken box. Just don’t miss the fried pickled cauliflower.
IMAGE: Marlow & Daughters specializes in pastured, grass-fed meat and carries everything from hoof to tail. Literally.
3. Marlow & Daughters: The local butcher is back and with rock star popularity
Marlow & Daughters, related to hipster hangouts Marlow & Sons and Diner, is a mecca for grass-fed, sustainable and well-sourced local meat products. It’s the go-to spot for pork belly, sausages, house-made stocks and lush pâtés. The folks behind Marlow & Daughters take great pride in their work, and locals are smitten. It doesn’t hurt that the butchers are both adorable and helpful. And in a category where the desire for transparency is ever increasing, the butchers have been known to invite customers back to see the walk-in. All this attention to detail does come at a higher cost, yet customers in the know say the price tag makes sense if you care about where your meat comes from and how it was raised. One customer had this to say:
"I am fairly sure that they reflect the true price of raising sustainable meat, and not just mark-up by the folks at Marlow."
The take-away from Marlow is to commit to a well-trained staff and foster a sense of passion regarding the product being offered, whether it’s cheese, sub sandwiches, wine or ice cream. Sure, it’s easy to say Marlow and its brethren are boutique meat shoppes for customers with deep pockets, but there is a larger movement afoot where consumers are engaging in more thoughtful meat consumption. This is showing up in the form of Flexitariansim and Meatless Mondays. And knowing vegetables are fast becoming less of an afterthought, Marlow & Daughters offers local, seasonal and foraged vegetables to accompany their quality meat products as well as in-house smoked tofu. In fact, customers can get pigskin footballs and handsome leather totes made from the very chops they grill for supper. How’s that for meeting the needs of the sustainably minded consumer?
4. Brooklyn Kitchen: The place to punch up your kitchen skills
This all-things-culinary shop is crammed with tools for both serious cooks and food newbies. But Brooklyn Kitchen is not your average kitchen supply store. Sure, you can get new pots and pans, but the best part about the Brooklyn Kitchen is their Labs. Each week they conduct several classes in brewing, preserving meats, bread making, kombucha and butchery. Proof that consumers are looking to go beyond watching Top Chef and develop some real skills.
IMAGE: A bevy of offerings at Brooklyn Larder including preserved foie gras and rabbit rillette.Park Slope
5. Brooklyn Larder: Modern meal assistance
A tasteful local grocery with a respectable cheese and charcuterie offering. But the real draw is the chilled pantry and to-go items from kale pesto to pickled kohlrabi and house-made duck confit. Consumers are increasingly interested in more than high-end, shelf-stable condiments and charcuterie. Demonstrating you’ve got chops in the kitchen requires fresh, real and novel foods in order for consumers to look to you as a partner for preparing family meals to causal dinner parties. Brooklyn Larder does an excellent job at this with fresh, short shelf-life sauces and crisp, market-fresh fermented foods to compliment meals.
Red Hook
6. Fairway Market: Food theatre for the everyman
IMAGE: A shopping destination for food lovers since the 1930s, Fairway Market opened its 4th branch in the Redhook area of Brooklyn in 2006.It’s no wonder Fairway Market has developed a cult-like following. Freshness, variety and well- priced quality makes Fairway a maze of exploration.
Produce delivered fresh from farms to store with no warehousing, more than 70 olive varieties, 600 artisan cheeses, including pulling their own mozzarella, custom-cut meats and poultry, and over 100 varieties of olive oil, including unfiltered barrel oils. Fairway, with their staggering array of specialty products and everyday SKUs, successfully leverages retail theatre while continuing to appeal to the everyman and avoid the reputation of exclusivity that Whole Foods Market continues to struggle with or the carnival-like atmosphere found at Stew Leonard's and Jungle Jim’s. Fairway’s prepared foods represent are an excellent standard by which other retailers may want to consider comparing their foods-to-go section. Abundance, freshness, neat/tidy and on-trend ingredients is what inspires consumers to purchase with confidence.
IMAGE: If you've never had a Brooklyn egg cream, head to the Farmacy. You're in for a treat. Carroll Gardens
7. Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain: Nostalgia at its finest
What’s old is new. Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain hits on the right amount of nostalgia and kitcsh, while making old -school egg creams with the one and only Fox’s Ubet chocolate syrup and super-bubbly seltzer. Penny candy, pretzel rods and coffee soda from P&H soda company offers Millennials a taste of Americana and Boomers an opportunity to wax nostalgic about the good old days. Apparently Brooklyn Farmacy struck a timely nerve as they recently opened a new outpost in Kiehl's in Manhattan. The beauty supply store's apothecary-like look certainly jives with the Farmacy's aesthetic.
IMAGE: Head barman Giuseppe Gonzalez concocts a delicious sazerac at the Clover Club. 8. Clover Club: Old-timey aesthetic meets Brooklyn causal
As of late, there’s been a significant attempt at recapturing nostalgia in eateries and watering holes in progressive locales. To Clover Club’s credit, they effortlessly nailed the old-timey part with such pointed attention to classics dating back to 1475, as well as the pressed-tin ceiling, etoile wallpaper and the circa-1892 mahogany bar from a Pennsylvania coal-mining town. Yet, there still remains an element of Brooklyn-style casualness. The menu is a friendly user’s guide through cocktail history. From sour-style swizzles to group-friendly punches, Clover Club harkens back to a calmer, more genteel era, serving a curated list of 30 classic cocktails like the Intrepid Sailor and Jersey Julep, where vest-clad mixologists craft throwback elixirs. The regal bowl of Pimms Punch is ladled into dainty teacups. Small plates range from era- appropriate fried oysters to grass-fed steak over toast.
Much like Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain, if you are trying to resurrect a certain time period, be sure to nail the details. Consumers today are savvy. They want authentic, yet updated classics. You are expected to do your homework—becoming a veritable expert on the subject/time period in question, but be cautious about trying to educate the consumer. They come to you to enjoy themselves, not enroll in continuing education.
9. Stinky Brooklyn: Inspired cheese
An approachable cheese shop with an inspiring vibe. They have very thoughtfully curated marvelous meats, cheeses and unique dry goods. Here are a few neat things we found within the wee shop on Smith Street:
- “On-the-hoof” prosciutto sliced by hand.
- Salvatore Ricotta is a small operation run by partners Betsy Devine and Rachel Mark in the kitchen of Brooklyn’s Lunetta. This Tuscan-style ricotta is crafted with milk supplied from Hudson Valley Fresh, a nonprofit collective of upstate farmers. This rich, milky, slightly lemony ricotta is what all ricotta wishes it could taste like.
- Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Ham from Tennessee. Love the camp-fire smoke of this classic country ham. Small production, family run business is the recipe for one of the finest Berkshire hams in the States.
- Vermont Smoke and Cure pepperoni bites made in the Green Mountain State is a killer combination of medium spicy heat and mellow smoke from corn cob and maple wood embers. Best backpack food around, along with a wedge of hard cheese such as Québec Vintage Cheddar.
- Wild Boar Cacciatorini: An air-cured sausage originating in the Northern Hills of Italy. The name cacciatorini comes from the hunters who used to carry these treats in their bags for a quick snack. Now that’s style.
- Annual Stinkfest celebrating the wonders of stanky cheese on the streets of Brooklyn.
Takeway: Cheese, like wine, can be fairly intimidating to consumers. The learning curve and risk factor can be overwhelming, causing consumers to avoid cheese-buying situations. Stinky Brooklyn with their Stinkfest and relaxed attitude reduces anxiety by creating a world of cheese that is approachable and fun.
IMAGE: Liddabit serves up nostalgic sweets weekly at Brooklyn Flea.
Fort Greene
10. Brooklyn Flea: Renegade food crafters
Part vintage bazaar, part hipster hang, part old-fashioned town square, and part food bonanza. The market draws about 200 vendors every weekend, winter at Skylight One Hanson and during gentler months in Fort Greene. The market’s culinary component is varied enough to rival the many brunch options around Brooklyn. Here’s what garnered the attention of our bellies:
Makers of impressive handmade, artisanal sodas and sparkling juices. The Brooklyn couple focus on recreating updated versions of childhood favorites as well as inventing new flavors, using real ingredients, less sugar and sustainable sourcing techniques. Bubbly flavors include Earl Grey, spicy ginger beer, grapefruit, jalapeno and honey, strawberry and rhubarb. Refreshing!
Popsicle purveyors offering local, seasonal ingredients, in the form of a simple and nostalgic summertime staple. Unlike the commodity flavors of most frozen treats on a stick, People’s Pops relies on seasonal fruits (and sweet vegetables) muddled with herbs and other natural ingredients marrying culinary flavors and an herbalists hand with blends such as chamomile and honey, watermelon, cucumber and hyssop, strawberry and buttermilk, and rhubarb and elderflower.
Yes, high-quality breads and freakishly good popovers, but the scones, oh the scones! Designed to be eaten with great coffee, or strong black tea. Scratch bakers use high butter fat content Plugra butter, folded by hand for a flaky, buttery, almost dry creamy scone with intelligent additions of bitter chocolate or candied orange with rosemary and a little coarse sea salt. It will ruin you for all other scones.
With an abiding love for all things fresh and seasonal, the two founders set out to create candy bars, jellies, lollipops and other treats that not only taste wonderful, but support local growers and producers, thereby strengthening the community at large.
Liddabit’s fruit jellies are made with seaweed agar, in lieu of gelatin. The result is a cleaner, more fruit-forward flavor. Flavors include Blood Orange, Mango, Sweet Tea, Mojito, and Meyer Lemon. Then there are Liddabit’s caramels. Progressive caramel goodness in flavors such as Apple Cider and Fig + Ricotta and Beer + Pretzel.
After exploring the brand Brooklyn, we were intrigued to find that the move towards hyper-local is present in a number of urban locations throughout the US.
From Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon, consumers are looking toward traditional methods from growing to preparation, while leveraging social media to broaden one’s skills within an increasingly food-forward community. The key is not that all food and beverage needs be ultra local and uber sustainable, as evidenced by a selection of frozen Charleston Chews in Stinky Brooklyn’s freezer case. The focus is on building community through food and having fun while doing so. From old school (and not so fresh or less processed), U-Bet chocolate syrup to local whipped lardo at Marlow & Daughters, it’s about passion for the product and having a bit of fun in the process.
Psst! Interested in tagging along? We offer customized excursions! Our Cultural Trend Trek informs and inspires product development, design, marketing, brands, strategy, retail and product experiences, and so much more. To learn more or to schedule a Cultural Trend Trek, please contact us.