I’ll let you in on a secret: Frankie’s Spuntino, a cozy spot for reliably delicious Italian fare, serves a pretty damn good brunch. Just a few doors down from where weekend hordes queue up outside Clinton Street Bakery, I had some of the finest french toast in town–without waiting for a table. When I heard Frankie’s was opening Cafe Pedlar next door, I dutifully marched down to Clinton Street to sit in a sunbeam and sample some pastries. Keeping up Snackish is a dirty job sometimes but someone has to do it.

Cafe Pedlar serves Stumptown coffee, a name I hear thrown around so much I’m starting to wonder if they’re trying to annex a little bit of Starbuck’s turf. No matter, as the barista coaxed a fine cappuccino ($3.75) from the La Marzocco espresso machine. The pastries were even better. I sampled a moist and spongey olive oil cake with lemon zest ($3.50) and the pièce de résistance, a slice of crunchy french toast ($4.00). This was french toast imagined as pastry, a piece of eggy bread encased in a crisp maple syrup shell, served room temperature and eatable on the go, if you don’t mind sticky fingers.

The room will feel familiar to anyone living on the Lower East Side–a narrow, ground-floor dwelling with brick walls and few windows. Spartan’s the word when your main decoration is a shelf of wine bottles. But the open tables and mellow Bob Dylan tunes on the stereo invited lingering, whereas many of my favorite coffee shops (sorry Think, Abraço, and Ninth Street Espresso) seem designed to hustle me back onto the street. Next time I’m bringing a book and trying one of their delicately-twisted soft pretzels.

Cafe Pedlar and Frankies Spuntino also have Cobble Hill locations.

Cafe Pedlar
17 Clinton St. between Houston and Stanton. 7am-5pm Daily

Vinegar Hill is only a mile from Manhattan, but it feels about a hundred years away from anywhere. It’s not just the early-19th century buildings along cobblestoned Hudson Avenue or the Federal-style Commandant’s mansion, perched on a hill above the Navy Yard, that transport you to another time. It’s the lack of cars and people, the and the blank, paint-chipped storefronts, that evoke a place that’s been sealed off; by housing projects and the BQE on one end, and by a vast humming Con Ed plant and pungent sewage treatment plant fumes on the other.

(corner of Hudson Ave. and Evans Street with Con Ed towers)

(doorway on Hudson Ave.)

(Looking East into the Navy Yard from Hudson Ave.)

Freeman’s chef Jean Adamson, willing to bet a few people will venture east of Dumbo, installed Vinegar Hill House in a former butcher’s shop about a year ago. I have to wonder what the locals must think of it. They might be dreading an onslaught of a certain breed of bearded, plaid-shirted hipster, harbingers of gentrification to come. But the place exists so quietly (at least on a Sunday evening) that it seems to fit its surroundings. No sign marks its entrance and most of the renovations have been kept indoors. The wide plank floors and thrift-shop decor evoke early, rustic Americana; the seasonal menu follows suit.

According to their website the menu changes each week, so quite possibly the dishes I tried will soon be out of rotation. I ordered the corn ravioli with jalapeno, bacon, and sage ($13). I never met a ravioli I didn’t like, but I appreciated the crunch of sweet corn in a creamy sauce, with salty bits of bacon. My snacking associate had the boneless braised short ribs with heirloom tomatoes and croutons ($21). The ribs were deliciously flavored and tender, while a bit of blue cheese added lots of tangy flavor to the sauce. A roasted corn salad with cabbage, lime and parmesean ($8) would’ve fared better with a bit less cheese. My cocktail of tequila and peychaud ($10), while potent, did not equal more than the sum of its parts and was my least favorite part of the meal. I had to ask the waiter to bring a basket of bread–shouldn’t this be de rigueur?–and proceeded to sop up every bit of delicious sauce from our entrees with it.

Other than this oversight, the service was friendly, and while I didn’t think the prices were a bargain, the food was hearty, inventive, and probably a few dollars cheaper than comparable fare in Manhattan. Mostly, I’d stop here for the pleasure of finding a mellow nook in a forgotten corner of the city. Walking home over the Brooklyn Bridge can’t hurt either, especially if you indulge in the chocolate Guinness cake.

More about Vinegar Hill on Forgotten-NY

Vinegar Hill House
72 Hudson Ave. between Front St. and Water St. Brooklyn
Mon.-Thurs. 6pm-11pm, Fri-Sat. 6pm-11:30pm. Brunch Sat.-Sun. 11-4.
(718) 522-1018

For a pizzaholic, the trip out to Di Fara in Midwood on the Q feels almost like a pilgrimage. Located deep in Brooklyn, just after the subway creeps above ground into a strangely suburban landscape, this unassuming corner pizza parlor churns out some of the most celebrated pizza in the city. Pizza zen-master Dom DeMarco, who’s over 70 and has operated Di Fara for 40 years, makes each one himself (all day, seven days a week), from shaping the dough and spreading the sauce, to snipping fresh basil and swirling olive oil over the finished pie. Considering all the hype, I didn’t doubt it would be good; but would it meet my ridiculously high expectations?

It exceeded them. This is one of the rare slices where there’s just the right amount of everything, and it all tastes incredibly fresh–crisp, chewy crust, bright, tangy sauce, and slightly salty cheese melted over it all. Di Fara uses a mixture of fresh mozzarella or mozzerella di bufala with processed mozzarella, and a generous sprinkling of grana padana parmesean, that layers over every inch of sauce and is never too much. I ate two slices transfixed on the quiet sidewalk and then I wanted more.

But the wait is daunting. The line at Di Fara defies logic and patience; your order is written down and promptly forgotten, you ask for four slices and you get three. Regulars sidle in front of you, shouting “another pie!” and meanwhile you watch Dom, unhurriedly working away on another blob of dough, and wonder desparately, “is that mine?” You do this over and over again for maybe half and hour. The slices are expensive ($4) and if you’re looking to eat in, the interior is less from spotless.

Maybe I just really love pizza, but that’s all background noise to one of the best slices you can have. Granted, January may not be the ideal time to visit but one day soon the thermometer is bound to crack 50 degrees. Go early–wear a scarf, bring a book, and wander up the pretty rows of Victorian houses off Avenue J with a hot slice folded in your hands.

This just in from Slice: Di Fara is closed because Dom DeMarco broke his kneecap in a car accident and needs surgery. Word is he’ll recuperate at work, and reopen on or before February 1st. Here’s wishing Dom a speedy recovery.

DiFara on Slice
Dom DeMarco interview in the New York Times

Di Fara 1424 Ave. J at E. 15th St. Brooklyn
Daily 11am-10pm

Tasty Mexican street food is hard to come by in NYC, so this no-frlls tacqueria is worth the trek to Williamsburg. The tacos here, served on diminutive palm-sized tortillas, pack loads of flavor and at $2.50 apiece, are considerably cheaper than those you’d get at Mercadito in the East Village. (The tortillas also didn’t disintegrate while eating like my Mercadito tacos did, a good thing since at La Superior there was not a fork in sight). The carne asada taco was delicious by any standard, yet paled compared to the rajas taco–tender roasted poblano peppers drizzled in “Mexican” cream, and the chorizo toluqueno taco. The chorizo was like nothing I’ve tasted; a medley of spicy flavors that I devoured too quickly to contemplate. The flautas ($5.00) arrived hot and crisp from the deep-fryer, rolled around tender chicken and heaped with romaine and mild cheese, and the chips ($3.00) came with an assortment of sample-size salsas to satisfy any spice comfort-level. Two things you will NOT find here are dessert and alcohol. La Superior is BYOB but luckily there’s a deli right on the corner where you can pick up a few bottles of Pacifico or Bohemia. I can’t yet comment on the plates, which range from $8-$13, and include slow-cooked pork in banana leaves, grilled skirt steak and cheese with corn tortillas, and “torta ahogada”–sourdough bread stuffed with carnitas and beans, topped with hot arbol sauce. But you know a place is good when the waitstaff shows a clear passion for the food. When asked for a taco recommendation, one waiter said “that’s like asking me to choose between my children.”

La Superior in NYMag (3 stars)
La Superior 295 Berry St. at S. 2nd St. Williamsburg
Sun-Thurs 12:30pm-midnight, Fri-Sat 12:30pm-2:00am
cash only

The pizza at Alligator Lounge is an unexplainable phenomenon of budget snacking. I can’t quite figure out how it’s free. Well, it’s not exactly free–you must purchase one drink, at about $5 a pop, to get a free pizza ticket. If you want toppings, it’ll be $2 for the first and $1 for each additional. But assuming you don’t, in about ten minutes you’ll have a piping-hot 12-inch pie to accompany your beer at a cost of zero dollars (except possibly a tip for your pizza guy).

How is it possible? Because the pizza actually isn’t terrible. True, it tastes better after several beers. And you might want to blot the grease with several napkins and go heavy on the crushed red pepper and oregano to give it some extra taste. Better yet, you might want to carry along your own personal pizza spice-rack for just this situation. But if you spice it up just right and be sure to eat it fast before the cheese congeals–this is the miracle of which I speak.

The kitschy-tropical ambiance is bearable, to a point: potted palms and bamboo shades, flamingos and rainbow lights, a decent digital jukebox, pool table, and inevitably, crowds. Alligator lounge may not be the main attraction for your night, but it’s a good late-night hunger fix (open until 3:30 am), or a place to get the party started before moving on to some serious drinking at Spuyten Duyvil.

If you don’t feel like hopping the L, there’s even an East Village outpost. And if you can handle two pizzas, you get another free one with your second drink.

Brooklyn: Alligator Lounge, 600 Metropolitan Ave. at Lorimer St. Open Daily 3pm-4am

East Village: Crocodile Lounge 325 E 14th St. at First Avenue Open Daily 12pm-4am