Dinner at Vinegar Hill House and Choice Market Impulse Buys in Brooklyn

The last time Greeshma and I had been at Vinegar Hill House was for brunch in what seems like a very long time ago, but in reality was just March.  We had proclaimed at that time to return for dinner, but there has been just so many places we had to try in the meantime, that it was just until recently that we finally made our way back to its funky location on Hudson Rd. in the Dumbo.

I had a bad experience with the F train (15 minute wait!), so Greeshma beat me to the restaurant and was subjected to smelling the cast iron chicken being eaten by her fellow bar mates for an unnecessary amount of time.  By the time I had gotten there, we had both decided on ordering the cast iron chicken.  Nothing on the menu, besides the pea ravioli, had enticed us as much to sway us from our original choice.

The cast iron chicken was served, of course, in a cast iron, in a sea of vinegary brown sauce, a couple of cooked onions, sprigs of rosemary and a sharp knife.

The chicken kind of looks like a person here. ...A really succulent kind of person.  ...I may be a cannibal in another life.

The chicken had the most fabulous crispy skin.

Greeshma loved the onions which seemed like giant pearl onions that were wonderfully roasted; they were sweet but still crunchy.

A side of asparagus, served with hollandaise sauce that was poured tableside.

Greeshma and I could not stop raving about the absolute juiciness of the chicken, how wonderful the mysterious brown savory sauce was that went with the chicken and how tender the meat was.  We hypothesized that the restaurant must be injecting the chicken with beaucoup amounts of chicken stock or other magically plumping liquids that made the chicken so amazing.

After dinner, seeing as this would be one of our last stops in Vinegar Hill for awhile, we went all out and ordered two desserts:

Rhubarb pie with lemon poppy milk punch ice cream

Greeshma and I have no clue what rhubarb is, but we know that it always comes in the form of a baked good, so we had to try it.  The filling was very thick and tart, and while we initially enjoyed it, the flavor was tiring after the third and fourth bites.  The crust was buttery, crisp and fantastic though as was the bright citrusy flavors of the lemon poppy ice cream.

The Guinness chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting.

 

The cake was ultra dense and, unlike a traditional chocolate cake, it was not sweet in the least bit.  The frosting was sweet in a peculiar sort of way and accented the thick, heavy cake perfectly. 

By the time we finished our 2 hour dinner (time flies when you're eating half a chicken!), the restaurant had packed to the brim with all sorts of cool folk.  A couple days later, Greeshma read a story in which Jessica Alba was spotted eating at Vinegar Hill House in days following her 29th birthday party bash.  We are clearly famous by association.

We were walking back to York St station, and Greeshma's wandering eye noticed a cute restaurant named Choice, which I immediately deduced as the same Choice Market I had seen at the Brooklyn Flea Market.   We went inside, telling the other that we would "just look."

We were immediately drawn to the counter

 where Greeshma "just looked" and saw this sign above the case:

 And then it went from just looking to just buying a: chocolate orange scone (Greeshma) and a ginger lemon muffin (me).

Greeshma then took the scone home, and was "just going to smell" the scone when she ended up eating half of it later that night.  She said it was surprisingly moist, for being out all day, and had the right amount of chocolate and orange. 

I ate my muffin the following day:

And it was quite lemony, with tiny hints of ginger, and not too sweet.  Would be better if warmed and a drizzle of honey.  It too was moist even the day after.

I have a feeling Diana would like this guy from Choice Market:

because they look like French-style popovers.  Next time!

Vinegar Hill House

72 Hudson Ave

Brooklyn, NY 11201

(718) 522-1018

 

Choice Market

108 Jay Street

Brooklyn, NY 11201