Beasts & Bottles

Equal parts wine bar and rotisserie restaurant, this Brooklyn Heights rookie comes from the team behind Atrium Dumbo, the Provence, France–bred duo of Leslie Affre and Laurent Kalkotour along with Alexander LaPratt. The latter is the borough’s sole master sommelier and 2011’s Best Sommelier in America, as chosen by the American Sommelier Association. He taps into these credentials with a wine list that spotlights smaller French producers and environmentally responsible wines. For the other half of the spot’s focus, Kalkotour fires up three breeds of rotisserie chicken: Crystal Valley cluckers from Indiana, served provençale style with rosemary, thyme and preserved lemons; Sasso chickens from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, slow-roasted and sauced with black truffle jus; and a Goffle Road Poultry Farm bird from New Jersey, finished with chili-infused hoisin, roasted peanuts and cilantro. The starring rotisserie can be seen in the open kitchen from the 55-seat dining room, which also features stained-glass paneling, whitewashed brick walls and a centerpiece wine station constructed from an 1876 tiger-maple butcher block.