[category]
[title]
For a good while, Red Hook Tavern was the spot. You couldn’t get a table and the burger was all anyone talked about. Depending on who you asked in South Brooklyn's insular enclave, it was either a yuppie gentrification magnet or an entree to chic cultural relevance. Now that the frenzy has cooled, it's free to be neither and settle into what it actually is: an attractive pub-adjacent room with nice cocktails and elevated tavern fare. Tavern Next Door, its cocktail-focused annex, plays in a different register, offering a more gettable table and a streamlined menu.
The vibe at Tavern Next Door is more intimate than its next-door neighbor, better suited to a date night. The cocktails, all riffs on classics, are well-executed but so subtle that you might not clock them as riffs at all. The House Dirty Martini (my preference is gin) nailed the brief: dirty, not filthy, dry, blue cheese olive. The Blue Hawaii was similarly solid, if a touch heavy-handed with the garnish–a whole bouquet of mint. The Tequila Sunrise threw the biggest curveball with a warm-spice finish I'd guess came from the house-made grenadine. All were tasty, went down easy. All were worth ordering, none stole the show.
The food menu is shorter and more streamlined than the Tavern proper, with a narrower range. The focus, again, is on the drinks. Fried artichoke poppers were solid: crunchy exterior, tender artichoke, a smear of pimento cheese. The bucatini with clams was as advertised, the clam liquor doing the perfumey heavy lifting. But the sauce was more like a broth, and once the noodles were gone, it pooled in the bowl with no means to extract it. Yes, you can get the burger here. Yes, it’s the same as next door: a thick, tavern-style patty that arrives hot, perfectly temped. It sits atop raw white onion, beneath a single slice of American cheese, between an unsauced brioche bun. It comes with cottage fries and half a dill pickle spear that I wish had been chips to put on the burger. I've heard it called the best in the city. I respectfully disagree. It’s quality, for sure, but at $34, it offered no defining signature, no X-factor that earns so much breathless praise. Others in the city do. Dessert was a fior di latte gelato, i.e., milk-flavored gelato, which is to say, unflavored. It had hot fudge and crispy bits scattered throughout, but once those were gone, finishing the ice cream didn’t feel necessary.
Service was excellent: prompt, gracious, with a professional polish that matches the price tag. Drinks and service were both executed with admirable efficiency and speed. If you don’t mind dropping some coin, Tavern Next Door is a great choice for a mid-week dinner with enough ambiance to make it a good date spot. Does it succeed in what it aims to do? Absolutely. It’s as straightforward and safe a bet as you can make on an evening with dinner and cocktails. Depending on your priorities, that might be an inducement or warning. Not every place has to delight or thrill, but if it’s going to be as locationally inaccessible and spendy as Tavern Next Door, some flourish wouldn’t go unappreciated.