Went: Dumbo General Store

I did it!  I finally went.  Brooklyn Heights being devoid of many weekday breakfast joints, I went downhill to the general store.  The iced latte was swell--and had some sort of maple-y syrup-y flavor about which I was too shy to inquire.  I haven't been so good with the blogging of late, and so I failed to take a photo of the amazing Egg in a Cloud, which is baked and fluffy egg whites surrounding a soft cooked yolk.  It rests on some ham, fontina, and toasted brioche, and overlooks a field of creamed spinach. CT had the old-fashioned breakfast, which came with some exceptional bacon.  I wish I'd had a cookie.  And I'm glad I went to there.

Went: John Dory

We went to here after finding The Breslin not yet open, and No.7 Sub shuttered.  5 pm on a weekday in a neighborhood devoid of many options, Jon Dory it was.  I complained about the smell upon entering--something a little sickly and desperately washed, like a sidewalk in front of a nightclub.  It was one of the first hot days of the summer, so maybe they just didn't have the seafood disposal down yet.  I was hot, and unhappy, and maybe I wasn't inclined to think favorably of them--but enough excuses; I didn't like it.  The waitress was unintelligible, and disinterested.  The food was diminutive, and vaguely unpleasant: we started off with a glass a Gruet for me, and a beer for the gentleman, and a half dozen oysters.  They were okay.  The roasted peanuts with garlic and rosemary were quite good, and spicy.  Chilled crab and avocado in a shot glass was mushy and ill-seasoned  The oyster pan roast, while relatively tasty, only bore three oyster bodies in about 12 ounces of cream, which was just mean-spirited.  The highlight of the meal were the parker house rolls, warm, and brioche like in their sweetness.  I wanted to go to here, I should not have gone to here, and I will not go back to here.

When I Went to Some Wants

Sausage stuffed pears at Elsewhere

I have come limping back to my cousin's web side, and must make amends for keeping quiet when I went to theres.
First, there was Vinegar Hill House.  I went to there.  The cheese board, the cast iron chicken ( succulent, good enough to get again), and a candle in my unmemorable dessert.  There was Sigmund Pretzel Shop--one of the very first postings in this blog.  I went to there.  Sunflower seed pretzel, cheese pretzel, warm cinnamon sugar pretzel, a girl behind the counter bored by my indecision.  There was Vandaag.  We went to there.  An assortment of pickled things, none of which were among the stranger or more interesting Vandaag purports to make. A burger, okay.  A seat too close to a window on a freezing Winter evening.  A surprisingly delicious ice cream sandwich.  There was Char No. 4.  I went to there.  They were out of the shrimp and grits, and I wasn't much in the mood for anything else.  Except some 3 oz pours of whiskey, and some fried balls of something kindly brought to us on the house.  Buttermilk Channel.  I went to there. Again.  It was New Year's Eve, and they let me take home a balloon.  And gave me a glass of pink champagne just for being me.  The Duck meatloaf  continues to be excellent.  There was Momofuku.  We went to there.  Pure bliss.  

Biscuits and pretty nails at Elsewhere

There have been others, theres I never wrote about to begin with, destinations never to receive a place in line with all the published wants--Five Leaves, Elsewhere (I may never go elsewhere in Times Square), two aborted attempts at Balaboosta (we WILL go to there), X2O (Yonkers, foodie destination), one aborted attempt at Prime Meats (two hour wait at 7 pm? ), Rubirosa, Strong Place, and some place whose name is lost to me.  And now, you.  Which serves me right for turning my back on the blog.  Now I've dipped my fingers onto the keyboard, it might not be so hard to jump back in.

Balaboosta

214 Mulberry St.

Fortunately, we already have plans to go to there. Of particular interest to me: pickles, hummus, smoked eggplant bruschetta, falafel-wrapped meatballs, grilled calamari, brick chicken.

Peels

325 Bowery at 2nd St.

I want to go to there -- mainly for breakfast. They have a whole section on their breakfast menu called "Build-a-Biscuit." Sam Sifton says that the biscuits -- "salty, airy hosts" for delectable toppings such as sausage and pepper-jack cheese, make you want to hunt ducks.