Tavern on Nostrand (CLOSED)

After working as a contractor for a decade—doing face-lifts on Brooklyn mainstays like Chez Henry and Cafe Buon Gusto—David Seatts has built his own restaurant, Tavern on Nostrand. Seatts wants the place to become a hangout where you can grab chicken fingers and beer (in the downstairs lounge); a full-blown dinner of pasta, steak, seafood and a banana crisp dessert; or brunch. It’s a masterful plan: If you down too many bottles from the floor-to-ceiling wine rack over dinner, you can return to nurse your hangover with grits and scrambled eggs.