Food & Drink

Williamsburg dominates NYMag’s new best of NYC list

Crown Victoria is the best outdoor bar in NYC, according to NY Mag. Photo via Crown Victoria's website.

New York Magazine’s annual best of New York issue is out and those ranking reviewers are all up in Williamsburg’s guts this year. Brooklyn gets lots of love overall in the list, but Williamsburg earned a particularly starring role for its bars, restaurants and venues that make for great date nights and other superlative experiences — Nitehawk Cinema, for instance, was declared the best first date spot in the whole city. We’ve pulled out all the Brooklyn winners from this year’s list below so you can see just how highly the magazine thinks of our fair borough. As you might expect, BK shines in categories that involve Brooklyn-y things like “best farming class,” while we let Manhattan handle fancier things like “best doorman substitute” and “hostess gifts.”

Best Outdoor Bar: Crown Victoria, Williamsburg
“not just a gravel lot with kegs”

Best First Date: Nitehawk Cinema, Williamsburg
While the mag incorrectly identifies this as Williamsburg’s only theater, (IndieScreen anyone?), Nitehawk gets credit for providing a twist on the classic dinner-and-a-movie special:
“By the time the credits roll, you’ll be in perfect shape for a film-banter-driven nightcap.”

Best Whiskey Bar: Noorman’s Kil, Williamsburg
“women whiskey lovers can be found there as well as men.”

Best Steak: St. Anselm, Williamsburg
“a great beefy thing of beauty.”

Best Third Date: Maison Premiere, Williamsburg 
“If seduction is your goal, the year-old New Orleans–style boîte Maison Premiere is your destination.”

Best Barber Shop: Tommy Guns, Williamsburg
“its huge new Williamsburg salon nails both the interior aesthetic—pressed tin ceilings, leather barbershop chairs, a loudly ka-chinging register—and the art of the old-school cut.”

Best Dumplings: Talde, Park Slope
“The finished products have the tender interior of Eldridge Street’s finest, with a chewy, salty casing reminiscent of a Central Park pretzel. ”

Best Salad: Battersby, Cobble Hill
“It’s hot and cold, crispy and crunchy, sweet and sour with a bit of funk: a multiculti salad for a kale-crazed age.”

Sandwiches
Fried Chicken: Smith Canteen, Carroll Gardens
Horseradish: 606 R&D

Best Record Shop: Black Gold, Carroll Gardens
“Of the dozens of vinyl fetishist destinations in the city, none is more magically transporting than this one.”

Best Second Hand Shop: Pony, Park Slope
” the meticulously arranged resale shop almost makes you feel like you’re buying new.”

Best Kids’ Birthday Party Venue: Brooklyn Boulders, Gowanus.
“Hipster meets hard-core athletics; encouraging and bouncy.”

Best Kids’ Crafts: Taro’s Origami Studio, Park Slope
“Taro’s is a soothing, light-filled, ­second-floor atelier completely devoted to the Japanese art of paper-folding.”

Best Toy Store: Play Kids, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens
“It’s curated with a conscience.”

Best Sneakers: Kith, Park Slope
“this men’s shoe store has sneakers for sporty, splashy, and understated sensibilities.”

Best Farming Class: City Chicken Workshop, Crown Heights.
“the series of workshops run by the urban-farming collective bk farmyards is, essentially, a master’s program in hen-ology, covering every last detail.”

Best Furniture: Module R, Brooklyn Heights; Wonk, Clinton Hill.

Best Letterpress Printer: Foxy & Winston ,Red Hook.

Best Wallpaper: Flavor Paper, Cobble Hill.

Best Upholstery Fabric: Winter Water Factory, Sunset Park.

See the full list at NY Mag.

 Agree/disagree? Speak up in the comments!

3 Comments

  1. Yankeeswinin10

    Tommy Guns?  Are they serious?  Gosh, no other place in NYC to get an “old-school cut.”  Except for about 7,000 other barbershops not run by hipsters, that is.  And none of those old school barbershops has the temerity to charge $40 for that cut- they average about $12-15.

    • I agree on that one: I get the whole appeal of having a man’s-man kind of experience and all, but the Russian dudes I go to on Clinton Street charge half as much, and they started giving out beer and whiskey too. I dig the family vibe of the regular barbershop over the hoopla of a fancy shop.

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