”We have pig ears,” the chalkboard sign outside of Calyer bar cheerfully announces. Pig ears—who can resist that? Not me. I made a mental note to come back during the weekend.

Calyer, which opened this past summer, is part of a Williamsburg / Greenpoint mini restaurant-empire. It’s brought to you by the folks who own Anella, Jimmy’s Diner, and St. Vitus Bar. Located on the corner of Calyer and Franklin streets, Calyer is small and understated. It reminds me of the bars of yesteryear: quiet, casual, comfortable, and not overly thematic. Just a good old, timeless kind of bar with a mix of antiques and old office furniture. The food, however, is a much more ambitious affair. There are Scotched eggs, skirt steaks, slow cooked oxtail, fried pig ears, pork belly, chicharrones, veal tongue, and grilled chicken liver, all served tapas style and priced from $5 to $15.

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How do you recapture a summer’s day? Try lobster rolls and blueberry wine. They’ll bring it all back—the brilliant sunset, the salty air, the sea, and the sand.

And that’s what owner Tommy Chabrowski wanted when he opened the Lobster Joint in Greenpoint over the summer—to be reminded of the sea. An avid surfer, he loves the water. When he was 14, he bought a used surfboard and went surfing in Far Rockaway, and later in Montauk and Costa Rica. By the mid 90’s, he was living a surfer’s life in Puerto Rico, tending bar by the ocean. One day, he noticed an unused kitchen behind the bar. He asked the boss if he could do something with it and soon found himself flipping burgers, grilling chicken, and owning a piece of the action. When he had his fill of Island life, he came back to Greenpoint and opened the Mark Bar, and later, The Lunch Box.

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Illustration by Carri Skoczek

By Benjamin Lozovsky

Going out in Williamsburg is like ordering an unfamiliar cocktail or draft, based on an existing favorite. The ingredients are generally expected, but with bold twists on flavor presented to a discerning palette, it’s all about the mix. When done right, it’s an exercise in spontaneity and audacity, blanketed in a warming sense of comfort. On a typical Friday night, start off at a brewery; when that closes go beer-garden hopping, later take in a weekly dance party, finally head to your local pub. Choosing a trajectory is practically a philosophical debate, with so many options on and off the main strip. You’ve just got to do what feels right. The choices are all good, with attractive women in fanciful outfits and guys wearing cool hats and vests drinking local beers on tap. At the end of the night, one sighs contentedly, picks up some freshly baked bread, and stumbles home down cobblestone streets. That’s a common scene from Williamsburg’s history.

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Pizza fanatics may know Paulie Gee from his food blog on Slices.com. A computer geek turned pizza aficionado, Paulie Giannone built a small dome shaped pizza oven in his backyard in New Jersey and started to experiment with toppings and dough. He invited his family and friends to sample his handiwork and many of his exploits were posted on the blog. Before you know it, he cooked up a large Internet following. And now, here he is, roasting away in a gorgeous pizza joint on Greenpoint Avenue. His followers are thrilled because they can join in the fun.

His pizza parlor is designed and built by those crafty carpenters from HoME, the same team that built Manhattan Inn. And their style is very much in evidence, with lots of reclaimed wood and interesting doors salvaged from century old buildings. It looks like an old Italian inn with an odd twist — a bank of white bedroom lampshades illuminating one of the rafters. We asked the waitress what’s up with that and she said, “It’s Brooklyn rustic.”

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“One of Those Fabled Italian Restaurants”

35 Broadway (Wythe Ave)
(718) 218-9272
Tue-Thu 11am-11pm
Fri-Sat 11am-12am
Sun 12pm-10pm

By Mary Yeung

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