Welcome to Where to Eat, the restaurant newsletter that sells wine by the glass at half price from 4 to 6 p.m. Here’s what we’ve got for you today:
THE WHERE TO EAT QUESTIONNAIRE Rachel Antonoff knows where to go for ‘dream date energy’It should come as no surprise that Rachel Antonoff loves to dine out. In fact, the Brooklyn-based fashion designer is known for incorporating food into just about every one of her collections, whether it’s a puffer jacket dotted with farfalle or the radishes, radicchio and alliums patterns featured in her spring-summer designs. The fine art of going out to eat is “all I want to talk about,” she said. Luckily for Antonoff, she’s “rich in dining companions,” whether it’s her parents, Rick and Shira; her younger brother, the musician and producer Jack Antonoff; or her restaurant-obsessed friend Benay. (“I think of both of us as unpaid food writers,” she said.) Read on for the New Jersey native’s delightfully exhaustive list of favorite desserts, the name of the Brooklyn Heights restaurant she turns to for “everything,” and why she believes the best dining experiences involve a bit of eavesdropping. Read the story →
THE BRIEF REVIEW Bar Susanne★ | Critic’s Pick If you were to make assumptions about a restaurant based on the dish everyone is ordering, you might think Bar Susanne is just a place for French fries. One evening, I saw three orders hit a table of three with spritzes already in hand. At another, outdoor diners ate them by the fistful with grand views of the Williamsburg Bridge. The fries at Bar Susanne are very good. The chef, Jackie Carnesi, who previously helped reboot Kellogg’s Diner, could probably limit herself to these and the restaurant would serve its purpose as an amenity for the luxury residences towering above. Thankfully, she didn’t, because the rest of the food is fun, daring and, at times, brilliant. The team of co-owners, including the designer Matthew Maddy, have created an elegantly worn, light-drenched space a stone’s throw from the East River. It is part of the ongoing development of the waterfront that gleams with moneyed polish, a far cry from the hipster ethos of the 2000s. Fries aside, Bar Susanne is actually a raw bar and seafood restaurant. But even the shellfish towers don’t rest on their sourcing laurels. Squeaky clean littlenecks are bathed in slurpable passionfruit aguachile. And merroir meets terroir in cooked scallops cloaked in sweet corn, or tender squid bits in a bright gazpacho-like sauce. Better yet are vinegary boquerones floating over lemony aioli with a side of potato chips. The vision sometimes outpaces the execution, as with a pricey lobster salad overrun with celery served with too-thick endive cups, overwhelming each bite with juicy bitterness. It’s hard to put this cooking in a box, since Ms. Carnesi seems set on shrugging off expectations. Think a seafood spot needn’t bother with dessert? Tell me, then, why is the chocolate coconut sundae with toasted almond slivers, sweet and nutty like Almond Joy, so darn good? Address: 6 River Street (South Fourth Street), Williamsburg; 718-938-3765; barsusanne.com Recommended dishes: Pickled mussels, littleneck clam aguachile, scallop, boquerones, squid, French fries and all the sauces, tilefish, Pavlova, chocolate coconut sundae. Price: Raw bar, shellfish towers and caviar service, $14 to $190; snacks and appetizers, $14 to $26; entrees, $32 to $40; dessert, $9 to $15. Wheelchair Access: The restaurant is wheelchair accessible and A.D.A. compliant.
FROM OUR CHIEF CRITICS Very high highs and, well, other things at Bistrot HaI have so many feelings about Bistrot Ha. It’s everything I love about dining in New York City: small, scrappy, stubbornly sticking to its vision. The young chef-owners, Sadie Mae Burns and Anthony Ha, started out cooking from a retrofitted Mexican paletas cart, as a side gig to their official restaurant jobs, before opening the wildly popular and claustrophobically tiny Ha’s Snack Bar in late 2024. Now they have a little room to stretch out. The food at Bistrot Ha, which opened at the end of last year, draws from France, Vietnam (where Mr. Ha’s parents grew up) and, if they feel like it, beyond, managing to be playful and dead serious all at once. The menu changes almost compulsively, which means not everything has the polish that comes with more practice. I was by turns charmed, puzzled, disheartened, then charmed again, and slightly wistful for all the restaurant could be and almost is. But in a world succumbing to an epidemic of sameness, I’ll take originality and erratic brilliance — the human — every time. Read the review → SCENE REPORTS A Montauk restaurant opens at the ‘end of the world’Sean MacPherson’s name goes hand-in-hand with luxury. He’s responsible for the Bowery and Chelsea Hotels and the Crow’s Nest, a popular celebrity hangout on the South Fork of Long Island. But now he’s trying his hand at something slightly more approachable: the Lighthouse Café, which opened in June in Montauk Point State Park. With a government-mandated requirement to operate from March through late November, MacPherson will have to court a new cohort of customers: locals. Read the story →
RESTAURANT AT HOME Den’s ChawanmushiThis time of year, simplicity can feel like a gift, as in a really good tomato or uninterrupted time by the water. This chawanmushi egg custard — by way of the restaurant Den in Tokyo — is simplicity in recipe form: Two large eggs, bonito stock, soy sauce and about 12 to 18 minutes of your time is all it takes. Your bowl is guaranteed to be empty in far less time than that. See the recipe → Need to know where to eat across the United States? Check out our guides to Atlanta, Austin Boston, Chicago, D.C., Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Portland, Ore., San Francisco and Seattle. Follow NYT Food on TikTok and NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest.
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