Sneakeater

Carribean/Chasidic up the street. Black/gentrifying whites right around there. A famous place to eat near the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is Tom's, a diner (on Washington St.). It's excellent. Superb, even. But it's just a diner. A Jamaican place called the Islands, even nearer to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, got a favorable review in the Times's "$25 and Under" column last year: http://events.nytimes.com/2005/06/01/dinin...cc8702d&ei=5070 (Registration might [or might not] be necessary) Despite the fact that it's right in my neighborhood, I haven't been there yet.

If Mr. therese and I are restrained it's going to have less to do with the vodka and more to do with the nature of the floor show. Checking around on the web suggests that National offers the appropriate combination of food and entertainment. Choice of "Russian" or "National" menus served family style, with some a la carte offerings as well. Specific information about this venue or another (other options are Primorski, Tatiana, Atlantic Oceana, Pravda, Odessa) welcome. ← The National is where I saw Sexy Man. The food was edible. OTOH, it was a truly memorable night. (The show wasn't obsene or even suggestive, at least not to any of us Westerners. It was just wild and crazy.) I think I've heard that the food at Primorski is better, but never been to it or any of the others.

Flushing is good for dim sum, or Chinese food in general.

Wait a minute. Isn't that sous vide?

(Unfortunately, I had this feeling that therese meant that other Botanic Garden, in the Bronx. Even though, chauvinism aside, I like the one near my apartment in Brooklyn better.)

Never heard of it. Where is the East Village location? ← It's around Avenue B and Third St. (Apparently, their original location just closed, and they're in the process of moving -- or have moved -- across the street.)

Also re Coney Island: Cyclones games sell out in advance. It's rare that you can just drop in to a game. So if that's part of your plan for a visit there, buy tickets in advance of your visit.

That's REALLY interesting and useful. Thanks. In re absinthe -- that's true, of course. But on the other hand, it beats agonizing over finding a good substitute.

I can't recommend dinner with entertainment in Brighton Beach highly enough. I particularly remember a performer called Sexy Man. The show was, well, let's just say that Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd were just too restrained. The only downside is that, what with your children being there, you and Mr. therese might feel restrained in addressing the bottle of vodka they'll slam on your table when you sit down. I have no idea which places there are good (or should I say "good") now, though. I'm sure someone else will. (I have a feeling that knowledgable people are going to point out that the better food doesn't come in the places with floorshows. I know it goes contrary to the ethos of this board, but I personally would recommend that, if that's so, you go with a floorshow.)

PS in re the absolutely delicious-looking "The Abbey" -- This is probably a stupid question, but I'm assuming Lillet blanc (as opposed to rouge)?

Why not just get some absinthe?

I'll also note that Snack Dragon, a well-liked East Village taco place, reportedly just opened a branch in Coney Island. While that's good for Coney Island, which lacks good food, as someone who lives in Brooklyn I'd personally prefer to go to the more "authentic" local taco places in Sunset Park, an actual Mexican neighborhood.

An initial thought: If you're going to Coney Island by subway, either go or return on the Q line, and get off at the Avenue J stop for DiFara's, the best by-the-slice pizza in the known universe. Downside (especially if you're with kids): you have to wait. Not just on line, but because Dom DeMarco, the guy who makes the pizza, takes his own good time to do so. Upside: best by-the-slice pizza in the known universe. And it's right across the street from the subway stop. Totonno's is the famous pizza place in Coney Island (it's by-the-pie, not by-the-slice). But I find it wildly inconsistent. Also, it's one of those places that has no regular hours, but simply closes when they run out of food. So you can never be sure you'll be able to actually eat there.

How old are the kids? How adventurous are their palates (or how tractable are they)?

(For the little it's worth, thinking it over, I'm pretty sure the brasserie/sushi bar I was talking about was/is on 3rd & 60th [not 59th]. Sorry.)

No, it was a (French) brasserie with a sushi bar. Might still be there for all I know (although I'd be surprised if the superstar sushi chef were still there). It was/is in the space that used to house a pasta place called Contrapasta (or something like that).

The original superstar chef at Jewel Bako moved on (long before the expansion) to open a sushi bar that comprised the upstairs portion of a brasserie that opened on 59th & 3rd a couple of years ago. I have no idea if he's still there.

OK, so the chef -- Wesley Genovart -- isn't Anglo, but Spanishfromspain. So shoot me.

This is exactly right. Two Buck Chuck cab is an excellent value because it's a $10 wine for $2 or $3. The problem is, it's hard to moderate one's praise (obviously I'm not talking about rich here), so often people make it seem like it's a very good wine instead of merely a surprisingly drinkable one. And also, of course, a lot of time people read the fairly faint praise this wine deserves as meaning more than it does, so irrespective of what the reviewer has said, they expect it to be a very good wine instead of merely a surprisingly drinkable one.

This is a stupid thing to argue about, and I apologize in advance for it, but 1983 was a very good Bordeaux vintage that (assuming the right bottles) still drinks pretty well. What do you expect, a lot of '82s?

Waaaaaaay west, between 10th & 11th.

OTOH, I -- and indeed many lawyers in New York of a certain age -- know someone whose daughter died when she ate a brownie that, unbeknownst to her, contained peanuts, to which she was allergic.

I liked the "Roast Beef Sandwich", and wished I'd had the squid stuffed with short ribs.

As someone who's never actually been able to participate in this event (in the past: didn't get a Bubba Pass and couldn't hack the lines; this year: sidelined medically), why would anyone even go to booths run by local places? Given the hassle (even with a Bubba Pass, it seems), why wouldn't you stick to places whose food is only available in New York at the party?

I use these cheapass Bodum "Bistro" glasses which, aside from being reasonably attractive in an Ikea-ish sort of way, have the tremendous benefit of being virtually indistructible. And they're small (which I like).