Pizza, Ice Cream, and Time Travel in Carroll Gardens

The pizza at Lucali is worth the lengthy trip on the F train.  The restaurant, dimly lit, with faded yellow walls, feels like a Tuscan trattoria.  Mismatched wine bottles bedeck the walls and windowsills, and wooden tables give the place a rustic charm.  Squint a little, ignore the American patrons, and you’re in the middle of the Tuscan countryside. 

All the pizzas boast eight oozing slices, and cost $24.00 (including tax).  My friends and I split a cheese pizza, opting for no toppings.  Simple, but excellent, was what we craved, and what we received.  The pie consisted of thin, charred crust, slightly sweet tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil for garnish.  The blobs of mozzarella had melted unevenly across the tomato sauce, as if painted by an impressionistic artist. 

It’s probably not the best pizza in the city, but it came pretty darn close.

Next we journeyed back in time to the golden age of ice cream; the age of the soda fountain.  This was a surprisingly short trip!  Turn right out of Lucali, continue a few blocks down Henry Street, enter Brooklyn Farmacy and Soda Fountain, and you’ve successfully time traveled!  

This place is as close to the real deal as you’re going to get.  They’ve thought of everything from the long counter lined with stools, to the old-fashioned memorabilia lining the walls (ranging from typewriters to old jars of medicine).  A mix of oldies and Motown hits (think “Dancing in the Street” and “All You Need is love”) completed the time warp effect; truly, they were the cherry on top.  And speaking of cherries on top…yes, they actually do that!  I ordered an “Any Day Sundae” with vanilla ice cream, which came with thick hot fudge sauce, homemade whipped cream, and, of course, a cherry on top.  I asked for toasted pecans, to add a little crunch.  The Sundae of Broken Dreams also sounded scrumptious; vanilla ice cream, warm caramel sauce, broken pretzels, and whipped cream.  "You can cry over it," the menu jokes.  Asides from sundaes, the menu includes a wide variety of ice cream sodas, shakes, and egg creams, many with intriguing names such as The Pink Poodle (hibiscus soda and a scoop of vanilla ice cream).

The only thing not from the sixties?  The prices.  The sundae cost about $8.00, $10.00 with tip.  It’s okay.  I’ll think of the $10.00 as not just purchasing ice cream, but time travel. And $10.00 to travel back in time?  I think that’s a pretty good deal. 

Lucali is located at 575 Henry Street, and Brooklyn Farmacy and Soda Fountain is located at 513 Henry Street.

Au Revoir New York – If Only for an Hour

White Christmas lights deck the trees outside of Café Lalo, so that passers-by can’t walk down Broadway or Amsterdam at 83^rd Street without becoming intrigued.  Is it a typical New York restaurant scenario of “all that glitters is not gold”?  Not this time. Café Lalo is just kind of perfect. The only downside to this eatery is having to decide what to order out of one hundred plus cakes, pies and tarts!  Go to rejuvenate (and perhaps caffeinate) after a stressful day at work or school, celebrate a birthday, or catch up with old friends.  Thanks to the décor – floor-to-ceiling French windows and fin de siècle posters – you don’t have to have any imagination to pretend that you’re in Paris.  

My first time there I split a slice of German chocolate cake with my friend Carlyn.   We both agreed it was the best German chocolate cake we’d ever had!  The cake, which had the taste and consistency of a rich chocolate pudding, was topped with particularly gooey coconut-pecan frosting. 

Tonight I tried the chocolate peanut butter mousse cake, which has four layers:  chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, peanut butter mousse, and chocolate ganache.  The mousses were airy yet intense. This cake is what happens when a Reese’s bar decides it wants to become a cake.  Oh, and then decides to change its nationality from American to French. 


Leaving the cafe and venturing into blustery February night was difficult, but made easier by my new knowledge that a little piece of Paris exists on the Upper West Side.

Rice to Riches

I was a little skeptical when friends told me about “Rice to Riches” - A restaurant that only serves rice pudding?  It sounded brilliant, if not a little down-the-rabbit-hole. 

As I entered through the mushroom shaped door I wondered if I really was in wonderland.  At Rice to Riches, the tables do not come up from the ground, but hang from the ceiling.   A balanced diet is frowned upon…signs on the wall read such things as, “Eating three sensible, balanced meals a day will only spoil your appetite for rice pudding.”

The names of the flavors instantly charmed me; whoever named them clearly had a lot of fun doing so.  Among the more memorable flavors are Sex Drugs and Rocky Road, Hazelnut Chocolate Bear Hug, and Perfectly Legal Pecan Pie. Pure poetry!

I decided on a “solo” size of “Fluent in French Toast,” with a topping of “Spirit” – oatmeal coconut crumble. The rice pudding was thick, rich, and tasted like French toast; sweet and eggy, with a bit of cinnamon to top it off, like a light dusting of snow.  Surprisingly, it was not weird, but good.  The “spirit” added a crunchy contrast to the smooth, creamy pudding. 

I find the “Riches” part of “Rice to Riches” pretty ironic; while the pudding was rich, my wallet was almost empty after ordering a single portion. It cost $6.75 for the pudding and $1.00 for the topping.  Customers who order the $6.75 portion aren’t even allowed to get two flavors; to do so you need to order the next size up.  If you go, I’d recommend sharing that next size, “Epic,”  ($8.50) with a buddy, so that you can try two flavors, and not pay as much.

Rice to Riches is located at 37 Spring Street between Mott and Mulberry.