Brighton Beach

[dumpling]

Went to Brighton Beach for the first time ever last week. Really is a visit to another country. In Chinatown, you can sort of get that feel, but there are so many tourists speaking English. Here in BB, everyone was speaking Russian except for the people who I was with who were speaking Georgian.

We walked the boardwalk which was lovely and then scoped the shops. M&I International was on of the biggest shops and had all manner of groceries-panoply of sausages, cooked meats, smoked fish.

There was a fruit store that had starfruit! and gooseberries! and mini kiwi fruit! as well as all manner of other fruit.

We ate at a new little place called Cafe Euroasia on Brighton 6th a couple of blocks away from the boardwalk. The owner offered us some of her pelmeni with pumpkin-ravioli/dumpling like things filled with minced pumpkin, onions and black pepper while we waited for our food. It was nice, nothing to write home about. Everything else they made was very good and worth a trip back for. I wanted

Georgian dishes because I'd never had any before. French fries with onions and mushrooms seemed a simple yet quite tasty dish that I couldn't seem to stop eating even as I was thinking of all the carbs in the back of my head. Then we had a pork shashlik and lamb shaslik(shish kebab) with a beautiful engaging I'm still thinking about it kind of a sauce on the side. The kebabs themselves were juicy and nicely done on their own.

We also had 3 hachapuri(forgive the potential spelling error). If you took a crossaint, made it flatterinto an octagonal shape and put cheese in it that would be like a hachpuri.

A very nice filling dinner for three people for something like $15 or $20 total.

After walking around in the afternoon, we wandered into Gina's Cafe on Brighton Beach avenue. We opted for the solyanka, a spicy soup with mixed meat. Again great choice. Service was a bit diffident but the soup was worth it although the place was more expensive than Cafe Euroasia.

Quite a fun day trip to take for a little bit of Russia and Georgia.

Other places people would recommend there?

[Schneier]

When I was a kid growing up in Brooklyn, Nathan's was my absolute favorite restaurant out there. They served french fries in these plastic boats, which made great bathtub toys.

Bruce

[alacarte]

I've wanted to visit Brighton for a long time. mmmm, pelmeni.

How did you get there? (i.e. what subway line, and does one go left or right after exiting the train, etc.?)

[ophelie]

I've wanted to visit Brighton for a long time. mmmm, pelmeni.

How did you get there? (i.e. what subway line, and does one go left or right after exiting the train, etc.?)

I went to Brighton Beach this summer for the first time. From a friend's place in Greenpoint (Brooklyn), it was a terribly long and circuitous route. I can't even imagine how to tell you how to get there, aside from telling you to grab a subway map (There is a Brighton Beach stop).

- O

[herbacidal]

that's it. that's what i'm gonna do next nyc trip.

brighton beach and difara's.

[mikeycook]

The Q train is the right train, but I couldn't tell you after you get off (although the boardwalk should be relatively easy to find since you will be right on the ocean.) The Q runs along the old N/R line, so you can pick it up in Times Square or Union Square. I believe it starts on 7th Ave near 57th Street.

[dumpling]

The subway stops right at Brighton 6th where I was. I think it was the Q and the R.

The boardwalk would be two blocks away. It's right around the corner from the first cafe I went to. It stops at the corner of Brighton 6th and Brighton Beach Avenue I believe.

My friend travels back and forth to Jersey every week by bus and subway from there.

I drove in from New Jersey. About an hour. Not bad parking.

[Josh]

Was in Bensonhurst this evening, so I thought I'd wait out traffic by swinging through Brighton Beach for dinner. Had the momster in tow, and having come of age in the area she always gets a kick out of going back.

Without JJ Goode's Time Out NY cover story with me, we headed for Uzbeki kebabs at Chio Pio, but it looked like it had either gone "hip" or was replaced with another restaurant altogether (I don't recall the name, but in tiny letters above the new name it still said "Chio Pio Inc.) With a stack of photocopied menus on a table next to some giveaway cigarettes outside the completely empty place, we decided to push on.

We wandered into a shishlik place on the south side of Brighton Beach Avenue between Brighton 4th/5th Streets (I just now see that JJ listed it in his piece as Cafe Shish-Kebab) and after watching a flurry of tasty-looking salads, breads, and kebabs being delivered to the tables around us, we jumped in. We ordered the babaganoush, some bread, the fresh vegetable salad, and a few assorted kebabs of chicken, lamb, and beef (sorry kids, no lamb's balls tonight!).

Despite the waitress explaining that the baba had mayo in it (mistranslaton of tachini, perhaps ?!?), we found it excellent, especially when spread on the piping hot bread that I can only describe as pizza crust shaped like a 9 inch bialy.

The "fresh vegatable" salad was tomato, cucumber, onion and a liberal helping of dill in a light vinegar/lemon dressing -- very Israeli and nicely done.

The kebabs themselves were a mixed bag -- tasty with the accompanying sauce really making it work, but some having too much grissle. Also, as JJ notes in his blip, for some odd reason it takes forever and a day for them to cook these small kebabs...

Overall it was fun. I wouldn't mind going back with a few more people to sample some of the other salads and dishes they were bringing out that looked wonderful.

Hey, does anyone have any updated Chio Pio info? What's going on over there?

Edited June 29, 2005 by Josh (log)

[jogoode]

Next time you're in Brighton, you have to try Eastern Feast for the most amazing kebabs! Especially the chicken and the pork.

Ms. Stahl's, by the way, is no more.

[weinoo]

Four of us took a great ride out to Brighton Beach yesterday and were really happy with our lunch at Varenichnaya, on Brighton 2nd St. It was damn good.

We had delicious garlicky borscht, sweet and tender pelmeni and vareniki - (both are dumplings, btw, one Russian and one Ukrainian, and relatives of the pierogi, which is Slavic, but really, I can't keep track of them all). Suffice to say that we fought over a large platter of each ($6.50), one stuffed with veal and the other with potatoes and mushrooms; both came slathered in butter, browned onions, sour cream, etc.

Showing little restraint, we also ordered the pork stew, which came in a pot that looks just like the one atop the awning, and which had so much garlic and scallions in it that we figured we wouldn't catch colds or see vampires for the rest of 2009. Oh, and 2 skewers of sturgeon, for $3.50 each. That's right, sturgeon - which at Russ & Daughter's sells for about $50 a pound. Not measley skewers, either, but laden with chunks of sturgeon. Served with a slice of lemon and a pile of raw onions, and delish. And a whole, semi-forgettable loaf of bread. All that food, along with a pitcher of a drink called Kompot, which was actually more like Hawaiian punch, so do like the natives and bring along a little bottle of something, ummm, a bit more potent...we saw people drinking cognac and brandy...was $56.

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