[Gettin' it Wrong] 200 Fifth

Gettin' It Wrong is our semi-regularish column where we call out a Park Slope biz that deserves an online kick in the nuts for doing something that's totally fucking stupid. Today's nominee: 200 Fifth!

Late nights, at like two in the morn, I like grabbing a beer at a bar someplace & ordering up some food to go. Often times, due to the lack of post-midnight takeout options in Park Slope, that place ends up being 200 Fifth. While I love sports as much as the next guy, the atmosphere there kinda sucks. Still, they do have an expansive selection of craft beers and the bartenders are always friendly with me, so I put up with the atmosphere in deference to my late night cravings.

Not any more.

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I Kinda Got Schooled at Terroir

I love to drink and, when it comes to beer, I like to think that I'm somewhat of a connoisseur. I'm good at picking out beers for friends based on their preferences. I'm often able to determine the type of hops in the beer I'm drinking. I'm a WHIZ at looking down at you for drinking shit beer. Recently, I've been going to Terroir a lot more and you'd think that by frequenting a wine bar, I'd at least try out some wines & get a feel for them. Nope. They have a solid beer selection so, like an asshole, I've just stuck with beer.

This past weekend, Terroir launched a series of hour-long wine classes with different teachers that they're holding twice every Saturday for the next five weeks. The first one was on Saturday, a "Wine 101" of sorts led by the founder of Terroir and the 2012 James Beard Award winner for Outstanding Wine, Beer, or Spirits Professional, Paul Grieco. Since I don't know shit about wine and dude's apparently winning awards for his passion for wine, I made sure I was there.

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FiPS Weekly Food ROUNDUP!

Photo via LA

As far as food goes, this week was pretty damn slammin' Sammy Sosa in the Slope. Openings, closings, pending openings, pending closings, food on wheels...a metaphorical cornucopia of food news.

For a lil' bit there, Bay Ridge bakery & institution Leskes looked like it was pretty much done for. In 2011, after fifty years in business, they closed their doors & their Scandinavian baked goods were no more. Then last August, a group of folks who loved Leskes rehired a bunch of the former staff & reopened it using what were essentially the original recipes. Now they've expanded, with a bakery at 588 5th Ave that opened this past Tuesday. To be perfectly blunt, I'm only in it for the black & white cookies, but they have a ton of other delicious junk there. Shit...yesterday they had pink Twinkies in honor of VD.

Last fall, rumors started swirling 'round that Park Slope was about to fall victim to a SHACK ATTACK, as Shake Shack was poised to open their second Brooklyn locale within the shadows of the recently-opened Barclay’s Center. Then this past Tuesday, Shake Shack announced CONCRETE plans to open up shop at 170 Flatbush Ave this Fall. See what I did there? I cleverly incorporated the names of TWO popular Shake Shack menu items into this article. FUCKING BRILLIANT. Anyway, once it opens, it should be a pretty sweet place to go just after a Nets game.

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A Vendy Award Winner Opens on 4th Ave (Also TACOS!)

It's just a scientific fact that in Park Slope, there's a serious lack of taco options. Sure there are a handful of places to grab a taco in the hood, from Oaxaca to Tacos Nuevo to that Jalapeno NYC truck that's been showing up on 5th Ave recently, but most of them are ultimately forgettable. With that in mind, taco lovers have been salivating in anticipation of 2008 Vendy Cup winner Calexico's impending move into the spot formerly occupied by Blue Ribbon Sushi.

While the wait for the Park Slope Calexico continues, this past Saturday another Vendy Award-winning taco purveyor quietly opened up shop in the neighborhood—Country Boys. They've been around since 1993 & as the winner of the 2009 Vendy Cup, they became the first vendor from the Red Hook Ballfields to take home the prize.

Since Red Hook's far & the Brooklyn Flea's become "too hipster" for you, Country Boys has decided to come to you, Park Slope citizen, taking over the space on the corner of 4th Ave & 16th St that was formerly occupied by J&R Restaurant.

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FiPS Food Throwdowns: Banh Mi Edition

FIPS Food Throwdowns is a series where we order the same exact thing from two different Park Slope restaurants and evaluate which was better. It's a culinary smackdown...a triumph of the will of sorts.

In Park Slope, the banh mi sandwich has a storied tradition. Specifically, the hood is home to two Vietnamese sandwich shops along 7th Ave--Hanco's & Henry's--who are so intertwined, from their owners to their menus, that NPR's This American Life did a 2010 segment on their strange rivalry. Hanco's came first. Then a guy from there left & opened Henry's with the same exact menu...blah blah blah.

Down on 5th Ave, there are two more Vietnamese sandwich shops--Home & Lotus Vietnamese Sandwiches--and late last year, a new, ridiculously-named joint--Banhmigos--opened up in a tiny spot just off of 7th Ave on Lincoln Pl. If it wasn't for frozen yogurt shops, Vietnamese sandwich shops would be the best target for any & all "OH GREAT, ANOTHER ONE" jokes.

For today's Throwdown, we'll be pitting the original--Hanco's--against the new kid on the block--Banhmigos. They're TOTALLY gonna meet after school by the bike racks and scrap for my approval by serving me the exact same takeout order, proving once & for all which of the two is OBVIOUSLY BETTER.

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