Brooklyn Food & Drink Round-Up

Mile End Starts Serving Dinner, Beer & Wine
97A Hoyt Street, Boerum Hill, (718) 852-7510
Mile End‘s twitter announces the birth of their first challah (pictured above), and the Village Voice announces that the lunch spot will start serving dinner as of today “from 5:30 – 10 p.m. For now, the menu will be the same as the daytime menu, but there will also be beer and wine.” You may want to get there early to nab a seat, but the restaurant says, via twitter, “We’ll close for an hour at 4:30, and will start dinner service with meat and all at 5:30.”

Four New Williamsburg Eateries
After a decade on St. Marks Place in the East Village, Crif Dogs is expanding to Brooklyn: “A tipster reveals that Crif Dogs is eying 555 Driggs Ave., the former Neil’s Luncheonette space right next to Argentinian restaurant El Almacen. Reps tell us they have yet to sign a lease,” says Eater… The people behind Williamsburg arts organization 3rd Ward “spent a year restoring a 1946 Spartan trailer they found in a junkyard in Ithaca, N.Y.,” they’ve stationed it in a lot on the corner of Metropolitan and Lorimer, and they’re opening it at as a snack trailer called Goods, says the New York Times Diner’s Journal… Meanwhile, Eater snags a photo of the new Murphy’s Munchies food truck “in an odd overgrown traffic triangle where Berry, Banker and North 15th crisscross.” …And Time Out New York reports on Cariño Restaurant and Cantina is opening in the old Bonita space being opened by two former Bonita employees at 82 South 4th Street in Williamsburg, “serving much of the same menu at this comfortable neighborhood spot.”

Brooklyn’s Own “Haute Stoner Cuisine”
From the top story in today’s New York Times Dining Section: “The chefs and restaurateurs Frank Falcinelli and Frank Castronovo said most of their projects — going to Sicily to import olive oil to sell at their two Frankies Spuntino restaurants; the concept for their Brooklyn restaurant Prime Meats; even a new restaurant planned for Portland, Ore. — were conceived with the creative help of marijuana.” Mr. Falcinelli also claims to have “like four or five different types of marijuana in my refrigerator right now. Reefer madness, people!

After the jump: The Times hits up Pies ‘N’ Thighs and Bark offers a $22 tasting menu…

Recently Reviewed: Pies ‘N’ Thighs
166 South Fourth Street (Driggs Avenue), Williamsburg, (347) 529-6090
“The chicken is deep fried, which will disappoint partisans of cast-iron skillets who tremble at the sight of a burnished-mahogany skin. The cooks here are after a more delicate, crisp effect. The meat is juicy and far more delicious than any $11 plate of chicken has any right to be… And how are the pies? Honest, American and sweet, they’re enough to restore the faith of anybody who’s eaten too many fancy desserts that look like Frank Gehry‘s rejected sketches.” [New York Times]

Bark’s $22 Tasting Menu
474 Bergen Street (Flatbush Avenue), (718) 789-1939 or barkhotdogs.com
“This special tasting menu includes one classic hot dog, one Bark burger and a lineup of sides, which include sweet-pepper relish, baked beans, coleslaw, salt-and-pepper fries and onion rings. Plus, the spread comes paired with two pints of Bark Red Ale (custom-brewed for Bark by Six Point Craft Ales).” [Tasting Table]