It’s batter up for chefs and owners Walker Stern (left) and Joseph Ogrodnek of Battersby, which made Bon Appetit’s “10 Best New Restaurants in America.” (Gabi Porter)
When it comes to dining out, New Yorkers have taken sides on the Brooklyn versus Manhattan debate for years. Now, there’s more fuel to add to the food-obsessed fires.
Bon Appetit magazine has released its annual “10 Best New Restaurants in America” list, and it features not one but two Brooklyn eateries: Battersby, an uber-neighborhood joint in Carroll Gardens, and Blanca, a 20-plus-course tasting-menu experience grown out of the Bushwick pizza hot spot Roberta’s.
As for Manhattan — well, the borough scored a big, fat zero.
Though two Manhattan restaurants made the Top 50 list — critical darling the NoMad from the Eleven Madison Park crew and TriBeCa’s Atera — they didn’t make the cut for the Top 10, announced on Bon Appetit’s Web site today.
“It’s not surprising to have Brooklyn places on the list,” says John DeLucie, chef-owner of Crown and the Lion. “It is surprising, however, that no Manhattan places made the list.”
Bon Appetit restaurant editor Andrew Knowlton spent about six months eating hundreds of meals across the country as research for his list. “Food is the most important thing,” he says, but “I look at those places where I see a passion in the chef, someone who has a vision and is doing what they want to do, and they’re also creating a restaurant that is fun.”
Though Knowlton is a longtime Brooklynite, he insists his list isn’t a case of home-borough favoritism. “It’s not like, ‘Oh, I’m not going to pick any Manhattan restaurants, and I’m going to pick two Brooklyn restaurants,’ ” he says. “These are real restaurants doing really wonderful things.”
Julian Niccolini, co-owner of Midtown’s storied Four Seasons, isn’t so sure there isn’t a bias. “It’s a little problematic,” he says. “I find that you can definitely push wherever you live.”
It’s no secret that Brooklyn and its various creative scenes, from the culinary world to craft beers, have been press darlings in recent years — and that many members of the media call Brooklyn home.
“Everybody loves Brooklyn,” sighs one restaurant publicist.
Even Battersby’s chefs and co-owners, Walker Stern and Joseph Ogrodnek, attribute some of their success to their Brooklyn location and the young professionals that live in the area. “They get what we’re doing here,” says Ogrodnek.
“The best restaurant in America has been in Brooklyn since 1887 with Peter Luger Steakhouse, but as a borough it’s come of age in the eyes of critics because of what’s going on in Carroll Gardens — with rolled-up jeans, strollers and tasting menus,” says chef Eddie Huang, who insists that when it comes to food, “you can’t touch the galaxy of Queens.”
Don’t count on Gael Greene, a NYC restaurant critic for 44 years, crossing the bridge for that kale salad or to “geek out” at Blanca. “I refuse to go,” she says when asked about dining across the East River. “Many Brooklyn restaurants don’t take reservations and I refuse to drive 45 minutes to wait half an hour or more.” (For the record, dining at Blanca is by reservation only — and it’s nearly impossible to get one, currently booked out until September. No reservations are accepted for a la carte dining at Battersby, but diners opting for their “spontaneous” tasting menu — five courses for $65, seven for $85 — can call ahead.)
Greene recounts an experience at Williamsburg’s Pies ‘n’ Thighs where she waited 35 minutes for a table and nearly left, only to finally get a table in a backyard seating area in a converted garage. “I thought it was fun and good though the pies were overrated.”
Niccolini is also skeptical about making the trip. “Believe it or not I have actually visited a couple of restaurants in Brooklyn,” he says. “Of course it’s very bohemian, for people who live in Brooklyn it’s fine, but I’m sorry, I don’t think it’s a destination yet, I don’t think I’m willing to spend $25 to go to Brooklyn to have lunch or dinner. This is only for Brooklyn people, end of story.”
So-called Brooklyn people do have an increasing appetite for better restaurant offerings, notes chef Dale Talde, who opened the popular Park Slope Asian American spot Talde earlier this year and is opening a nearby bar with “really good food” called Pork Slope next week.
“The neighborhoods are demanding better food,” he says, and the lower rents are allowing talented young chefs to come into the borough and open passion projects. “If you’re a restaurant owner in Brooklyn, there are some chances you can take out here that you can’t take in Manhattan because rents are so high.”
Knowlton himself admits to being surprised by his picks. “If you told me 10 years ago that there would be a place in Bushwick that would be on the Top 10 list,” he says. “I would have said no way.”
While there have long been great restaurants in Brooklyn, Knowlton says this year signifies a shift. There was a time, not long ago, he says, when buzzy Brooklyn spots “were quirky to the point of ‘Why am I putting up with this?’ . . . times there wasn’t great service, the air conditioner didn’t work.”
No longer. Blanca and Battersby have raised the bar. According to Knowlton, they’re the “next step up in the evolution of the Brooklyn restaurant.”
With its Smith Street location, exposed brick walls, and seasonal menu, Battersby has all the hallmarks of yet another boho Brooklyn restaurant, but Knowlton insists it’s not your typical neighborhood joint (though conveniently, it is just seven blocks from where he lives). He says its oft- praised crispy kale salad with green papaya, radish and peanut ($12) is “worth the visit alone” and calls the artfully plated zucchini ravioli with marinated tomato and taggiasca olives ($14/$19) “the best dish I’ve had so far this summer.”
At Blanca, on the other hand, Knowlton has trouble singling out specific dishes. Dinner there is a 20-plus course tasting menu ($180) for 12 diners around an open kitchen in a sleek loft behind Roberta’s, whose tasting course birthed Blanca. The menu is ever-changing; when pressed, Knowlton singles out the 60-day aged rack of lamb, black-pepper garganelli with braised goat, and glass shrimp with celery and poppy seed as standouts. “When people who really love food want to geek out,” he says. “This is the kind of experience they want.”
Even with budding talent and new hot spots in Brooklyn gaining acclaim, many says when it comes to fine dining, Manhattan is still tops. “From a high-end perspective Manhattan is obviously king,” says Ed Schoenfeld, whose new West Village Chinese restaurant, Red Farm, has been hailed by some as a top newbie.
“Most of our top toques are still Manhattan-based though places like Brooklyn Fare and Roberta’s have made inroads for certain.”
Tim Zagat, the co-founder and co-chair of the eponymous peer-reviewing empire, notes that the number of Brooklyn restaurants with high enough ratings to be included in “The Zagat Guide” has grown substantially in the last two decades, from 22 in 1992 to 217 in 2012.
Still, Manhattan is out far ahead with 1,745. Sure, “now people actually go to Brooklyn to eat,” says Zagat, but “it hasn’t surpassed Manhattan.”
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heber@nypost.com