REVIEW: Second Stop Cafe – Williamsburg

Image Courtesy chow.com

We stopped into Second Stop Cafe this morning for the first time for a cup of coffee and a bite and had a quick conversation with one of the owners. We were really impressed.

The space is on the site of the owner’s grandfather’s 1920s grocery store – it’s been completely renovated, but it’s retained a sort of anachronistic old-timey vibe which actually works well and doesn’t seem too forced, even in a neighborhood full of places straining to feel quirkily antique (we won’t name any names). Actual antiques – including a few from the building itself – help a lot. The thin-slat wood floors are from the ’20s – one of the owners pointed out to me the worn indentation in the floor where the shopkeeper stood behind the counter for decades –  but the tin ceiling, beams, and new (vintage?) counter are all the product of the last six months of renovation.

It goes without saying that Stumptown coffee is fantastic, but it’s worth mentioning that here it was well-prepared, hot and strong – look at the length of this review, for Pete’s sake. Alden had a cup of each of the two varieties of drip they had today – an Ethiopian Wondo (outstanding – big and rich) and their Nicaragua Finca La Amistad (also great, but not my type of roast – citrusy, bright). Genevieve had the cappuccino, which was similarly delicious.

Their selection of pastries and eats were also really impressive. Bagels from Bagelsmith – can’t go wrong there – and a huge number of vegan and non-vegan, house-made (!!) pastries, brownies and cookies.

On that note – there are a lot of places in this neighborhood (you know who you are) who advertise vegan selections on the menu, but they’re Vegan Treats cookies and stuff from that place in Pennsylvania. Which is fine, but as non-vegans we’ll admit they don’t get us all that excited anymore. Not the case here. All their pastries and cookies are made by their in house chef – who apparently is trained in French technique and has spent a lot of time in the last few months getting amazing flavors out of her vegan desserts and pastries. And based on what we tried – a pecan brownie and a vegan carrot-ginger cake – they are fresh, delicious and awesome. We didn’t try the peanut butter cookies or the donut muffin (!), but they’re certainly on our list for next time (tomorrow?). Vegan selections included some muffins, lemon pound cake and a delicious looking juice-sweetened tofu cheesecake with some sort of fruit topping. The owner mentioned that he’s had a hard time selling the vegan stuff so far, and we told him not to give up: once the word gets out that there are delicious, homemade vegan goodies there – that are really delicious regardless of their veganity (not really a word, I know) – we think he’s going to sell the crap out of that stuff.

Service was helpful, enthusiastic and appropriately chatty. Lots of seating space, free wi-fi, plenty of outlets, small and huge bags of beans and good music. The owner mentioned planning to put a turntable in the room so that people could play their selections from a stack of the cafe’s records, which we have to admit is an exciting prospect. Strangely we had just been talking about how awesome and natural it would be, although we’ve never seen it, to have a jukebox in a coffee shop. I think a turntable is even cooler, if they can rely on people being nice to it.

We’re excited for this place, and thankful we happen to live right around the corner. We’ll be in here a lot.

Confidential to vegans: Don’t lose hope for good vegan stuff in this hood! The vegan treats here are delicious and stopping in to buy something here will help ensure that they continue making and serving it. It would be a shame if they stopped making such a great selection of stuff because they don’t think the demand exists.

The We Like To Eat Awards 2008

Yeah, I know, it’s a little ridiculous to have an award roundup on a brand-spanking new blog, but that’s how I roll. Besides, just because I hadn’t started this blog yet doesn’t mean I wasn’t paying attention. So here goes.

I have awards for Best Appetizer, Best Main Course, Best Dessert, Best Drink, and Best None of the Above. Since it’s nearly impossible to pick just one thing, I had to give two awards for Best Appetizer (what’s wrong with a four-course meal?) and I have Honorable Mentions as well. So, without further ado:

Best Appetizer:

House Smoked Bacon – Strip House

(Photo courtesy of Stella Y. at Yelp)

Even considering that 4 thick slabs of pork belly isn’t so much an appetizer as it is a tiny, greasy, wonderful almost-meal – considering that it hardly gets you in the mood to then consume a rib-eye steak for two – Strip House’s bacon appetizer is amazing enough for us to ignore the fact that, let’s be honest, it’s sort of a misnomer. Perfectly and delicately smoked, greasy but not fatty, as tender as that song in Dumbo “Baby Mine.” And a little Bibb lettuce there next to it to make you realize, “if there was a little sliced heirloom tomato here, it might ruin the BLT forever.”

Now, before you get up in arms. I understand that giving bacon any kind of award is sort of like letting the teacher win the spelling bee. Bacon is nearly impossible to make not delicious. But you have to trust me – we’re not throwing this award at an easy target. This is good bacon. Better, dare I say, than the soft-as-pudding pork belly at Fette Sau. Better than the sugar-cured breakfast euphoria at Clinton Street Baking Company. Just – I know bacon, okay? Trust us. It’s really good. Even for bacon.

If I had to give an award to the dish that best prepared me for the entree I were about to eat, this dish would be in trouble. Fortunately, just this once, I’m applying the more American, chronological definition here, which I normally can’t stand. But bacon, how can I stay mad for long?

Best Appetizer:

Lentejas Trufadas – Boqueria

Truffles, perhaps even more than bacon, deserve another award like Lance Armstrong deserves to win the Tour de France again. But Boqueria’s truffled lentil dish is so complex, so flavorful and so comforting that truffles are really given equal weight to the serrano ham, poached egg, and perfectly spiced Puy Lentils. And as heavy as it sounds, it’s a suprisingly light dish and an effective appetizer. The textures are as complex as the flavors – crispy ham, creamy, runny egg yolk, delicately firm lentils – it’s pretty amazing. Everything I’ve tried at Boqueria is impressive, but this dish sits at the top.

Honorable Mention: Louisiana Crawfish Boil at Mara’s Homemade

Best Main Course:

Cochinita Pibil Taco – La Superior

There are no adequate words for how I feel about this taco. La Superior is my new favorite Mexican restaurant in Brooklyn, and this taco is reason #1. Intensely flavorful, deep, and rich, with a little pickled onion on the top to brighten it up – the sauce that the slow-roasted pork is swimming in is almost curry-ish in flavor – I’m guessing it’s coriander that makes me think that – and it’s about as much amazing flavor as you can pack into a taco about three inches across – which is to say, as much as I love this thing, one is enough. Don’t get me wrong, I could probably eat at least 14 of these. But the fact that it packs the punch it does allows me to order a bunch of other stuff without feeling like I’m missing out.

$2.50 for one of the most delicious things I’ve put in my mouth in the entirety of 2008. Well played, La Superior. Well played.

Honorable Mention: Parmigiano, Lemon and Parsely Risotto, served every Tuesday at Supper

Best Dessert:

The Bob – Sugar Sweet Sunshine

(Photo courtesy of Who Ate the Big Apple?)

Cupcakes, especially in NYC, are really overrated. With Magnolia‘s surge in popularity since its appearance on Sex and the City, a ton of other places have followed suit, and to be honest, we just don’t get it. Cupcakes are difficult to transport, difficult to eat in one bite or with the proper proportions of cake to frosting, and in Magnolia’s case, the buttercream is so sweet and so plentiful that it really doesn’t allow the cake to come through at all. (We do love Magnolia, however – but more for their other desserts – namely their icebox cakes) In short, we’d almost always prefer a slice of cake to a cupcake. Sugar Sweet Sunshine is the exception. They use a reasonable amount of well-flavored buttercream, perched lovingly atop a moist, rich, two-bite piece of cake. The Bob (chocolate-almond buttercream/yellow cake) wins this award, but their other flavors are nearly as delicious and well-balanced. If you’ve been unimpressed by other cupcakes, give this one a shot. You’ll thank me for it.

Honorable Mention: Apple Crisp – Hundred Acres

Best Drink:

Fig Sidecar – Walter Foods

Now, it’s no secret that I love Sidecars. But even if I didn’t, this cocktail would probably still win my vote. Figs aren’t normally a fruit that we’d think would be able to stand up to aged rum and fresh lemon, but there it is, keeping things mellow and mature – the rum is all “I’m not supposed to be in a sidecar, but here I am! I’m going to make this whole drink taste like rum, which isn’t the point at all.” Then fig comes along and he’s all, “Slow down fella. Take ‘er easy. You and me and lemon over there, we’re going to do the sidecar proud by sticking to the old-timey. And I’m going to take you there.” Then rum gets in the sidecar, which you don’t see coming because you’d think he would drive because he’s a young hotshot, but fig gets on the motorbike and lemon sits behind and fig drives real slow and makes arm signals to turn, and fig is wearing these cool leather riding goggles and lemon wraps her arms around fig and smells fig’s hair and rum is a little jealous but he’s just happy to be along for the ride and they take route 66 at sunset and they just laugh and sing and ride and ride.

Anyway, it’s a great drink.

Honorable Mention: Shaggy – Great Jones Cafe

Best None of the Above

Coconut Cream Doughnut – Doughnut Plant

(Photo courtesy of teague03 at flickr)

I love Doughnut Plant. But this doughnut I wasn’t so sure about. I bought one of these a few weeks ago for Genevieve as an obligatory gesture – She had had one before and she loved it, but for some reason couldn’t convince me. Now, I love coconut, but to be honest the name made me think coconut cream pie, and while I like that pie pretty well, I wasn’t really in the mood for it. Ladies and gentlemen, I was a fool. A blind fool! This is no coconut cream pie doughnut. If it were, it would be called that. No. This is a coconut cream doughnut. The filling of this doughnut isn’t the saccharine, pudding-y, delicious-but-not-this-morning pie filling I had so foolishly expected, but subtle, velvety, wonderful coconut cream. You know, the stuff you make curry with. It’s amazing. And if that weren’t enough, it’s lovingly surrounded on all sides by the phenomenally soft, pillowy, yeasty goodness of a Doughnut Plant doughnut. I want one right now. You were right, Genevieve. Tell… your sister… you were right!*

*That’s from Star Wars.

Honorable Mention: Iced Americano at El Beit (the only iced coffee drink I have ever loved – nay, lusted after)