How to Spend a Day in Red Hook

Abraham Smith

I’ll start with the bad news: Nikita is out this week so you’re stuck with me again. Now the good news: look around! This autumn weather is gorgeous! October feels like the last hooray before we all turn hermit and hiss at a rare glimpse of sunlight (…just me?).

So I recently spent a sunny day by the water in Red Hook, Brooklyn, a historic neighborhood well worth the bike ride or ferry ride there (there are no subway lines here, at least not yet). I urge you to put on your light fall layers and follow suit this weekend.

I asked my boss, Sam Sifton, a Red Hook local, where I should have lunch. He gave me two sandwich options: one “huge, Italian” and the other “manageable, hipster.” The first is from Defonte’s sandwich shop, an old-school favorite (since the 1920s) in a towering emerald green and pink building on Columbia Street. Sam’s order, which he once wrote about in The New York Times Magazine, is fried eggplant, roast beef, and mozzarella. It’s a very delicate sandwich that I would recommend ordering with eggplant; Omit the beef and add “hot salad,” their way of describing Giardiniera. Sifton, let me know if you’re ok with this?

The latter position is Grocery store on Hofstrasse. It’s now grown to four locations, and the sandwiches are still as good. The Broccoli Reuben and the Vegetarian are both top notch, especially alongside a bag of Zapp’s and a Topo Chico. Go for lunchtime dessert with a real Red Hook institution: Steve is authentic lime pie. There’s plenty here for the Key Lim purist, but the chocolate-dipped tart called “Swingle” (also available laced with raspberry) won my heart.

After leaving lunch and enjoying the view of the Manhattan skyline and Lady Liberty from Louis Valentino Jr. Park, maybe do a bit of shopping (I recommend browsing the Record Shop and stopping at Open Invite for homewares) and consider dinner. The stone oven pizza at Hook is vernal, bubbly and best enjoyed under the fairy lights on Ferris Street with a glass of red wine. A perfect order for two: tender meatballs in red sauce, an invigorating little gem salad and a soppressata tart.

For something spicier, try the Isan Thai restaurant’s Red Hook location Summer The. The mince salad is extremely herbaceous, with plenty of bite from raw shallots and chillies, and the pad see ew is best-in-class. And the well-roasted chicken thigh, served with a rich tamarind dipping sauce, is crucial to complete the meal.

For cocktails with a diehard fandom head to Fort defiance, which reopened this summer after a two-year pandemic shutdown. The bar is around the corner from the general store and is smaller than it used to be, but the Irish coffee is as dreamy as ever. (If you don’t want a drink to keep you up for the next 10 hours, the King Bee, made with vodka, Darjeeling, lemon and sparkling wine, is a happy fix.)

Alternatively there is Sunny’s bar, a popular institution evidenced by their wide range of merchandise; There is live music most nights from 20:00 to 22:00. Bring cash and sip a beer alongside longtime Red Hook residents and the regular pilgrims to the saloon-style bar. Let the band play you into the night as the temperature plummets – the perfect last hurray before hibernation season.

  • Michelin’s updated list of starred restaurants has come. While the three-star restaurant category remains unchanged, Carbone, Peter Luger, Meadowsweet and Marea were among those who lost their one-star rating. Saga and Al Coro were awarded two stars; Clover Hill, Semma and Mari have been added to the group of new restaurants to receive one star.

  • New openings: After 27 years, the upscale T bar moved to 116 East 60th Street; kingfisheran upscale seafood restaurant owned by a former Per Se sommelier, now calls Prospect-Lefferts Gardens home; and a new one Russ & Daughters Location with private event space coming to Hudson Yards.

  • Tejal Rao wrote about it the life and legacy of Sylvia Wu, the Los Angeles restaurateur who “always ended up finding a different path to please her audience, grow her business, and showcase the finesse and beauty of Chinese cuisine.” Ms. Wu died on September 29 at the age of 106.

  • The chef Colin Alevraswhose “tiny, iconic East Village restaurant, the Tasting Room, helped popularize quirky, personal farmer’s market cuisine,” died Oct. 1 at the age of 51, writes Eric Asimov.

  • An inviting combination of long-simmered purple corn, apples, pineapple, lime, sugar and spices, Chicha Morada is a staple food in Peru. Christina Morales shared where to enjoy the drink in New York City.

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