Details

Details of the Talde crew’s recommendations for where to eat, drink and shop in New York City.

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Pork Slope

Q. Why is your newest spot called Pork Slope?

A. David: Because we wanted the menu to focus on as much pork as possible. It's not all pork, by any means, but to John, Dale and I, it is definitely our favorite animal to eat. We wanted the place to be reminiscent of the places we grew up going to in the Meat Packing District, like Hogs and Heifers and The Hog Pit. Those places weren't necessarily all about pork, but it was about the wildness of the pig, the crazy debauchery of pigging out and hogging it up. And then we had the light bulb go off and said, ‘If you were going to do a pig-centric kind of barbecue place in Park Slope, why wouldn't we call it Pork Slope?’ And we're were all like, ‘that's it, that's the name.’

Q. What is the vibe of the place?

A. John: It's The Commodore meets Max Fish in Park Slope with a pool table in the back. We have TVs, but it's subtle TVs for score checkers. It’s not like everybody gathers around and watches a game.

Q. What will you have in terms of cocktails and beer?

A. John: It's going to be very brown booze heavy. We're also going to have 25 beers on tap and, if I can pull it off, 35 beers in a can. For wine, we'll have red, white and rose on tap.

Talde

Q. How would you describe Talde?

A. Dale: It’s an Asian-American restaurant where people can have a really good time, have good food inspired by a lot of different countries, but through the eyes of a Filipino-American in Brooklyn. Hopefully, people can get down with what we’re doing here.

Q. So when you say Asian-American, it’s putting two cultures together. What are some of the things that you use ingredients-wise to branch those cultures?

A. Dale: I think it’s not being afraid of using things like fish sauce and shrimp pastes and Sichuan peppercorns to season your food.

6 Things | New York City

The crew behind Talde, Thistle Hill and Pork Slope share their “6 Things...”

Restaurateur David Massoni

“Park Slope is a great neighborhood for eating and dining out and I'm glad about that, but it's also a great neighborhood for finding great products and cooking at home.”

Find | Food Stores & Markets

United Meat Market

It's my “go to” place for any kind of meat. Classic old Italian-owned butcher shop and everybody I know in the neighborhood remembers it as always being there. They've got dry goods on the front shelves, like pasta sauces, olive oils and salts. There are always like four or five guys behind the counter ready to jump up and help you with whatever you want and they’ll cut to order.

The Ploughman

They've got a great cheese selection. Alice, who owns it, is really trying to focus on as many local cheeses as possible. She has a good international variety, as well.

Slope Cellars

I think it’s the best in all of Park Slope. The people who work there are really picky about what's on the shelves and they're incredibly passionate about every single bottle that they have in there. They walk you through the store and ask ‘What are you looking for? What are you going to eat tonight? Do you want it to be Old World? Do you want it to be New World?’ They basically work the wine store like an awesome sommelier in a restaurant with every customer that comes in.

Park Slope Seafood

Everything is incredibly fresh. They have really well-chosen, seasonal “what you should be eating fish” and great prices. And it's one of the only seafood markets that I've ever been in that doesn't smell like a seafood market!

Union Market

I think Union Market does an amazing job. They really make a point of trying to stock their shelves with local products. They've got pies from Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies in Red Hook and they've got breads from local bakeries and they highlight sauces from different chefs. It has a clean, utilitarian European feel about it.

Brooklyn Bread

All of our bread at Thistle Hill comes from Dean at Brooklyn Bread. They make amazing Pullman loaves and a very traditional French-style baguette that we use for crostini and bread with our mussels.

Chef Dale Talde

Eat | Brooklyn Restaurants

Applewood

It’s New American with a strong European and French background, all local fish coming out of the East Coast waters. It's the kind of menu with many of the food that you eat every day. Really nice, beautiful salads and nothing is overdone.

Franny’s

One of my favorite restaurants and man, that place is absolutely killing it! The chicken liver pasta is like this chicken liver ragu. It’s a really great pasta, perfectly al dente, it almost tastes like chopped liver. Fantastic with nice acidity. It’s very savory and they put a ton of cheese on it. They have a meatball pizza which is amazing. They’re doing the farm to the table right, sourcing out local, quality ingredients. But they’re not just buying arugula from somebody because it’s local, they’re buying the best they can get and it just happens to be local.

Jean Georges

It’s my favorite fine dining restaurant in the city and it’s still affordable. The food is modern and progressive and the dining room is one of the best dining rooms in the city. You really feel like you’re in New York City when you’re there.

Osteria Morini

I can sit at the bar and have great pasta or I can really sit in the dining room and have like every grilled piece of meat that fits in their wood burning grill.

Tertulia

If you’ve ever been to Spain, you’ll realize he nailed it. It smells like a restaurant in the Basque Country. I really like the Arroz a La Plancha with escargot. They do gambas with the head on, the tail on, the whole nine yards. It’s a simple as it gets, but it’s all so well done.

Yakitori Taisho

It’s bar food, an izakaya and it’s open until 4 am. I started going there after work when I was a sous chef at Morimoto. I would bring all the line cooks there and and we would just order the entire f...n' menu and pitchers of beer. Whole bill for like seven people would be $200 and we’d been eating our faces off. I like to get the skewered yakitori chicken skin, chicken meatballs, these weird little Berkshire sausages and I always get the Ika Yaki (grilled squid).

Eat | Manhattan Restaurants

Bartender John Bush

Drink | Brooklyn Bars

Beer Table

It’s amazing, but you are paying wine bottle prices for bottles of beer. They have beers I've never heard of. They do their research, but in a good way. They're not nerdy, big fat guys with suspenders and checkered shirts. They're not pretentious at all. They just really love beer.

Bourgeois Pig

It's a totally random, bizarre place, so bizarre that I like it. It looks like an Iraqi palace inside with the most cheap, gaudy, weird furniture in the world and the only food you can get is fondue.

High Dive

It's a dive bar. Cheap beers, cheap shots, and no social order to the crowd.  You'll see young people in there and you'll see old people in there. Never too crowded or too loud, and never completely empty. Great windows and you can sit outside and watch people walk by.

Sea Witch

My favorite place right now is Sea Witch on Tuesday nights. I work until midnight and I go there until 4 in the morning. There is a bartender named Tim Malloy, who is the epitome of the best bartender in the world, big Irish guy. It’s what I always say about myself that makes me a good bartender -- I'm Irish and I have the gift of gab and Mr. Malloy has the gift of gab. He’s hilarious. You could tell that bartenders built it, because all of the little nuances. The bar is beautiful and they’ve got great selection of beer and booze.

Black & White

It's red and black, just a dark, good-sized bar, nice booths and they’ve got great bartenders. You get a lot of musicians. Pretty much any band that ever played at Roseland went to Black and White afterwards. You get a lot of actors. It sometimes gets crazy, but never too crazy.

Jimmy’s Corner

Probably the best bar in New York City. It's owned by Jimmy, who was Muhammad Ali’s corner man. The old story goes that Muhammad Ali gave him $50,000 in 1972 to open a bar near the Garden and that's what he opened. And it's floor to ceiling boxing memorabilia throughout the whole place. Jimmy is still there and there will be fighters in there sometimes, and you could still get an Amstel Light for $3.

Drink | Manhattan Bars