Gothamist is just recovering from the food coma that followed Wednesday night's preopening party at Borough Food & Drink. By the time we got there the room was jammed with all manner of food bloggers, writers and restaurant industry insiders all gleefully sampling items from the menu of the new Chodorow-Pelaccio venture.
It's good to know that our time trolling the mean streets of Queens and Brooklyn hasn't been spent in vain. As soon as we entered BFD, we spotted tall bottles of sauce from Tbilisi in Soviet Georgia across the room. The tall bottles were lined up in formation on the green shelves that line one wall. They were joined by such other ethnic ingredients as ajvar, a Balkan red pepper paste, and every chef's favorite, fish sauce. All the stuff on the walls is for sale and there's a lot of it. By our count there are at least a dozen condiments and other goodies on offer. And that's just on the green shelves. As soon as one enters the restaurant, there's a deli case that's bursting with gourmet products from all over our fair city. Representing Brooklyn there's sausages from Greenpoint's Sikorski meat market and bacon from Brighton Beach's M & I. From Queens comes bratwurst from Ridgewood's Forest Pork Store and from the Bronx there's biscotti from De Lillo Bakery. Manhattan is represented too, with fish from Russ & Daughters and pickles from The Pickle Guy.
By now you're probably wondering what we ate. As you can see we sampled a burger. And not just any burger, mind you. A pork slider so succulent that New York's Josh Ozersky has declared it one of the city's top four burgers. We also had schmaltz-fried pickles and several types of flat breads. The best of these was topped with guanciale from Salumeria Biellese and ricotta. You can never go wrong with cured pig cheeks. If only every white pizza were as decadent as this. We also had some wonderful fried chicken with a dipping sauce of New York maple syrup. Lest you think Gothamist went thirsty, there was plenty of fine beer from New York State on offer, including a crisp and strong Imperial IPA from Captain Lawrence Brewing Co. We can't wait to go back and work our way through the BFD menu. It's pretty clear that this spot is aiming to be all things to all noshers.
Borough Food and Drink
12 E. 22nd Street near Broadway
212-260-0103
