Yesterday was my dear friend Lis's birthday, and we had an evening out in Carroll Gardens to celebrate. Carroll Gardens, though only a few stops on the subway from my own neighborhood, is a place I don't visit too often. It's part of that whole Manhattanites-don't-come-to-Brooklyn-for-anything thing... as a result, I either miraculously convince my friends to come to my own neighborhood, or I end up going in to Manhattan. It's very rare that something happens in between, so I get extra special excited when I have a chance to explore parts of Brooklyn that I don't get to see much.
The evening began with dinner at Frankies 457 Spuntino (457 Court Street, Brooklyn), a cozy Italian restaurant with brick walls and a nice outdoor patio. The word "spuntino" means "snack" in Italian, and the menu at Frankies is mostly true to the concept; aside from a list of 7 or 8 main dishes and a number of sandwich choices (served on Sullivan Street Bakery rosemary bread), the rest of the menu has a lot of wiggle room for mixing and matching individual items. You can have the decision made for you with the traditional antipasto (chef's choice of 2 each from their meats, cheeses, vegetables, and marinated olives), or you can get crazy with your own choices. Add their crostini, salads, and soups into the mix, and suddenly deciding what to eat is a veritable Sophie's Choice of food.
After our very patient waitress plied us with cocktails (and may I take a moment to recommend the bourbon lemonade...), we managed to make a decision upon her third stop at our table. We had two antipasti for the table, and I ordered for myself the Frankies greens with a delicious cippolini onion cider vinaigrette, an avocado and pesto crostino, and roasted Brussels sprouts.
Between the two antipasti, we got to sample both spicy and sweet sopressata, prosciutto di Parma, marinated cremini mushrooms, roasted cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, string beans with preserved garlic, green and black olives, and two cheeses -- Villa D'Este, which is a soft and rich sheep's milk cheese otherwise known as a Caciotta; and Castelrosso, a harder mixed milk cheese from the Piemonte region of Italy that's a bit saltier and has a very nice bite.
My love of Brussels sprouts is pretty new but totally intense, so I was more than happy to have another plate of them all to myself. One thing I love about good Italian food is how simple it can be; the sprouts were halved, very lightly salted, and roasted in olive oil, then served at room temperature. Perfect.
The crostino was also quite good. It could have used a bit more pesto and the avocado was slightly under-ripe, but I would be lying if I said it didn't taste pretty darn good anyway. I also liked having my greens at the end of this meal. It was a nice, light way to finish things off. The greens themselves were straightforward, which was fine because clearly the dressing was meant to be the highlight, and indeed it was.
I couldn't believe how full I was at the end of this meal. I was perfectly happy to be so, except that it meant not getting to sample any of the desserts. I can imagine them now, though... red wine prunes with mascarpone... tiramisu... ricotta cheesecake...
(A brief pause, to clean up this drool.)
So after dinner it was off to Abilene (442 Court Street, Brooklyn) for a vodka gimlet. They were advertising a bar spelling bee, which sounds like a prospective replacement for my favorite, now-defunct trivia night, Dr. Fact's Night of 50 Questions at Buttermilk (577 5th Avenue, Brooklyn). (In Buttermilk's defense, they may no longer have trivia, but they've got pizza night, a photobooth, and a fantastic jukebox.)
Before I threw back one too many cocktails, it was time to head up to Cobble Hill Cinema to meet my partner in crime for some peanut M&Ms (Come on! No one's perfect.) and Michel Gondry's quirky and beautiful Science of Sleep.
A lovely evening all around.
