Prime Meats

I love Brooklyn.  Right before we walked into Prime Meats on Wednesday night, I said to Fred that I am so glad that we lived in Brooklyn although for only a short time.  He totally agreed. 

Jessica was born and we were living in a small one bedroom in the East Village.  Thoughts of the second, Emily, were running through our head and decided it was time to move.  We found a brownstone in the Heights where we were able to rent the first two floors.  Rambling and old with a garden that was loaded with rose bushes on the corner of Sydney and State.  We lived there for a little over two years.

My first job at Macy's was running the cosmetic department in King's Plaza which is a completely different area of Brooklyn.  I'd trek back and forth by car.  That was how I really got to know Brooklyn.  All the people that worked for me, which was roughly 100 ladies (morning and night shifts) who lived from Bedford-Stuyvesant to Canarsie to Sheepshead Bay.  Still one of my most memorable jobs.  Those women just made my day. 

Driving down Court Street brings back memories particularly seeing Staubitz (an amazing butcher) that we used when we lived there.  I love all the local shops that run from one end of Court to the other.  The feeling of community and neighborhood is right there.  Brooklyn has returned to its roots.  A myriad of different faces making their mark in different neighborhoods creating new economies from food to fashion to restaurants to technology.  Definitely the coolest borough.

Back to Prime Meats.  I liked the place the second I walked through the door.  Except for the couple in the back with their parents and a screaming baby, it was wonderful.  Why the four adults sitting at the table with the screaming baby thought it was okay for the rest of us to endure that torture is beyond me.  We moved to the front room.  A nice tight booth for four with a big wide open window that gave us a nice breeze.  The restaurant feels like an old bar just cleaned up for a good meal.

The menu is bigger than I expected.  We went with the share concept...my favorite.  Prime Meats?  We shared a rib eye for four.  36 ounces.  A serious piece of meat.  They show you the piece before they cook it.  Nice touch.  Absolutely delicious, full of flavor and juicy.

We started with a mixture of oysters from different areas up and down the east coast.  The celery salad is a nice fresh starter.  Thin slices of celery and radishes mixed with cider vinegar and sunflower oil.  We also had the smoke trout salad which works with the celery salad.  The trout salad is more like something you can spread across a hunk of bread.  Nice bite.  A few pieces of the bone marrow which is so good and decadent was a must.  Served with toasted bread.  The must have is the house made pretzel.  Warm, tasty and served with an excellent mustard on the side and of course melted butter.  The pretzel even worked with the marrow and the trout salad.

The side dishes with the meat were really good too.  We had not only the Gruyere spaetzle, we also had the wild mushroom spaetzle.  Both creamy, flavorful and hard not to keep the whole dish for yourself.  The mushrooms were out of this world.  We also had the Brussels sprouts.  Roasted with tiny pieces of porchetta.  I am glad we shared but there were a variety of things on the menu I could have ordered.

Dessert, but of course.  We split the chocolate cake.  Warm and gooey with a nice scoop of vanilla gelato on the side.  They only offer 3 desserts and between an apple tart, creme brulee and chocolate cake you really can't miss out.

I will be back sooner than later.  Keep in mind two major things.  No reservations and cash only.  Otherwise, get over to Brooklyn.