BEST OF PARK SLOPE 2011

A million years ago we asked you kind folk to weigh-in on your favorite bars and food joints in the nabe. Well the results are in (insert Griswold family tongue drumroll from that one scene in Christmas Vacation)! We spent hours going over all of your embittered comments and begrudged votes, and somehow we still came up with a great group of winners. Herewith are the very best joints in Park Slope to get drunk and get fat (accourding to YOU...so if you disagree, yell at each other)!

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[WHAT YOU SHOULD ORDER AT...] Los Pollitos II

Image via Park Slope Lens

WHAT YOU SHOULD ORDER AT... is a recurring column designed in kind for your opinionated asses and our lazy asses.  We're going to pick one Park Slope resto a week and recommend our favorite dish at each.  Are we right?  Are we wrong?  YOU KNOW YOU WANNA WEIGH IN.  

I'm always suspicious of restaurants that are so unimaginative that they stick a "II" on their second restaurant location and call it a day.  In college, the second worst Chinese restaurant in the world was Yeung Ho (I'm not joking) and the absolute worst Chinese restaurant in the world was Yeung Ho II. 

Unfortunately, Los Pollitos II (148 5th Ave at Douglass St, 718-623-9152) is about on par with Yeung Ho II.

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Sneak Peek: Zito's Sandwich Shoppe

Image via Park Slope Lens

Oh, circle of life. Last week, Tonio's, the old school Italian mainstay that had called 7th Ave home for the past nineteen years, shuttered their doors, ending a long run in the neighborhood. While it's disappointing to see it go, it couldn't have come as that much of a shock to anyone familiar with the amount of closings in the hood over the last few years.

At the same time, in the spot three doors down that used to house Peek-a-Boo Kids, there's a new school Italian joint that's slated to open up within the next month — Zito's Sandwich Shoppe. It's the product of two brothers-in-law — Marcello & Enzo — who named the joint in honor of the family they both married into and its patriarch, Charlie. Last Friday I swung by to get a sneak preview of the space and although it's still in the somewhat early stages of construction, they left me with a good idea of what to expect.

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COOL SHIT: Nona Brooklyn's Brooklyn Food Chain

File under Next Level Brooklyn Foodie Porn: Nona Brooklyn's 'The Brooklyn Food Chain' Project. From their site site, the project is:

"a little experiment designed to link together Brooklyn chefs’ favorite bites. Each week, contributor Mariko Makino will ask a local chef to name one of their local go-to dishes – something they can’t get enough of when they’re heading out for a bite. With her weekly pick in hand, Mariko will chat with its creator about how it’s prepared, and ask that chef in turn to name their favorite, adding another link to ‘The Brooklyn Food Chain.’

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What To Expect From Thistle Hill Tavern Part Deux

Chef Dale Talde / Photo via My Kitchen Diary

Not long ago we got wind that the owners of Thistle Hill Tavern were opening a modern Asian-American restaurant, and that the head chef would be Top Chef's (and Top Chef Masters) Dale Talde. The restaurant, which is to be called Talde, will be that of the fusion kind; mixing Southeast Asian flavors with Japanese and Chinese influences. They also plan to incorporate a lot of Brooklyn into the menu (Prospect Park grass-infused Vodka, perhaps?).

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