Pete Wells, the NYT restaurant critic is filling in for Nikita Richardson doing the ‘where to eat’ column.
He recommends ‘& Sons’ in Prospect Leffert Gardens (medium-deep Brooklyn), which pairs hams with American wines. The wine list is stunning, with 200+ entries. The large majority are in triple digits, but close to half of those start with a ‘1’. The list goes back to the '70s. A lot of them may be crap shoots (I have no idea of their return policy for dead bottles), but overall it’s spectacular and very fairly priced, with a lot of fascinating bottles. I like wines with substantial bottle age, so I may be more enthusiastic than some. There’s quite a bit of Zin, Merlot, Pinot and blends at 20+ years, somebody put some serious thought and effort into this.
I’m not spending much time in NY, but on my next trip will get to this place. If it’s convenient, you may want to as well.
No one should take advice from me on domestic wines, but I do recognize a lot of seemingly reasonable prices. Interesting, but a challenging extremely limited menu for pairings
I went to & Sons back in May and it’s an awesome spot. It’s owned by Andre Mack, who used to work as sommelier at The French Laundry. The domestic ham they serve up is also really great. Not a part of Brooklyn I’d ever experienced, and I’d love to go back. Incredible stemware too.
He previously worked for Thomas Keller, including help launch Per Se in NYC as their inaugural Beverage Director. I remember when he was putting together the concept, and we had many a great lunch talking it over. His sourcing is strong, and I’m sure if there was a bad bottle, he would gladly replace it.
Major points for the wines and the pricing, and more major points for the brilliant decision to organize this particular list by decade. That was a stroke of genius.
But a minor deduction for the all-too-common error of putting the apostrophe in each decade in the wrong spot.
will back you on this.