Restaurant

Lunetta is the very model of a Slow Food NYC Snail of Approval restaurant. The menu changes with the seasons, but a recent winter version included house-cured pancetta, soppressatta and finocchiona, local rapini, brussel sprouts, kale and cauliflower, and the now famous Lunetta meatballs made from sustainably-raised Berkshire pork and grass-fed beef.

Jimmy Carbone is "Italian on both sides." His amiable, eponymous dive bar*, well below the East 7th Street grade, is a place where, alone or in good company, one can hide comfortably from the world above. There are a dozen beers on draught and as many by the neck, including a number of regionally produced brews, and the menu includes local, farmstead cheeses supplied by local cheesemongers, and all-local pickles from Rick's Picks.

James calls itself "a seasonal American restaurant with Old-World European influences," and it is something of an Old World dream come true in Brooklyn for Bryan Calvert (once personal chef to Susan Sontag and Annie Liebovitz) and his wife Deborah Williamson – he runs the kitchen, she the dining room, and they live in the apartment upstairs. Mr. Calvert being a Bouley alumnus, those influences lean toward the French – purées, reductions, confits, beurre blancs – but the produce leans toward the local, including fresh herbs from the couple's own garden.

Chef Ignacio Mattos grew up in his Italian grandmother's kitchen on the family farm, and those origins flavor a menu that celebrates both authentic Italian cuisine and local agriculture—Anson Mills polenta and Chatham cod share space with Umbrian chickpeas and Trapanese sea salt, and a wonderful array of house-made salumi, from coppa to lardo. The dining room, often mistaken for an antique shop, is all rustic warmth and conviviality, and the wine cellar is available for private events.

"98% of our ingredients are local, and as much as possible, we source our produce from right here in Brooklyn," says Laurent Saillard. Ici, owned by Saillard and his wife Catherine, has taken local to a whole new level by buying their produce from the Red Hook Farm. The menu is seasonal—updated versions of the classics that often have an unusual and tasty spin. My favorites are the skate with garlicky collard greens and the pumpkin "pizza" with goat cheese and prosciutto. The wine list is small but exciting with wines from small growers who work their vines in a traditional manner.

Hundred Acres is named for "Hell's Hundred Acres," the gritty, pre-1970 moniker for SoHo. It is the sibling of Marc Meyer's Snail of Approval-winning restaurants Five Points and Cookshop and occupies the old space of Provence, the late French resto air-kissed adieu by a clientele of models and their adorers. Hundred Acres is a far slower place. On entering, guests encounter a wooden table invitingly laden with fresh, local produce...an enticing prelude to the coming meal.

Colonie is located on a tree-lined block of Atlantic Avenue, two blocks from the East River, perched on the edge of Brooklyn Heights. Colonie adds an affordable, approachable and delicious culinary option to Brooklyn Heights' beautiful streetscapes and incredible city views.

From the outside, Roberta’s, in Bushwick, looks more like a third world eatery than a NYC restaurant, but as soon as you walk through the door the unfinished cinder block wall gives way to the aroma and glow of the wood-fired Italian pizza oven, and the comfortable hum of what has clearly become a neighborhood haunt.

If you go to a NYC Greenmarket in the morning, and then have dinner at Prune that night, you will likely recognize, as individuals, the vegetables on your plate. That’s because chef Gabrielle Hamilton not only uses the best of local, seasonal produce, but prepares and presents it so as to take best advantage of its true identity. Roast suckling pig with pickled tomatoes, grilled chard stems, peas and carrots with honeycomb—inspired dishes, but so simple that they absolutely depend on pristine ingredients and flawless execution, which is just what they get.