Fort Defiance

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365 Van Brunt St. Brooklyn, NY 11231

347-453-6672

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2 User reviews Write A Review

Critics'
Pick
Best Unpretentious Mixed Drinks
Award Winner 2011

Cuisine(s): Cafe, Eclectic, New American

Hours: Sun,Mon,Wed,Thu 8am-12am, Tue 8am-3pm, Fri-Sat 8am-2am

Price: $$
Payment Types: cash

Features: Takeout, Wheelchair Accessible

Serving: Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch, Snack Food
Alcohol: Full bar

Reservations: Not Accepted

Parking: Street

Description

This congenial neighborhood café peddles small wonders like proper seltzer, a strong Tom Collins, and delicious country-style paté. At lunch, the sandwiches are particularly good, including a stellar reconstruction of the New Orleans-style muffuletta, and a banh mi filled with fat slices of pork paté. Don't miss the bluefish rillettes, which sometimes sell out later in the evening. Other lovely things to eat include perfect oysters, deviled eggs with creamy, whipped centers that taste of good mustard and yolks, and the brick-red cashews fried with smoked paprika.

2011 | Best Unpretentious Mixed Drinks

It won't gild your drink with gold flake, it won't set it aflame, it won't muddle it with cloudberries grown by Swedish virgins and picked at the full moon. Really, it's not even a bar, more of a neighborhood café that just happens to serve some of the friendliest, most satisfying, and most reasonably priced cocktails in the five boroughs. St. John Frizzell, a former bartender at the Pegu Club and the Good Fork, opened Fort Defiance in Red Hook in 2009. The menu changes seasonally,... More »
2011 | Best Brunch

Should you ever find yourself questioning kosherism, you can't really beat Fort Defiance's cold fried chicken with oysters and bacon. This tasty, protein-heavy dish is served only at brunch, however. Make sure to order it, then tack on an order of the Dutch pancake, which arrives in a piping-hot cast-iron pan is topped with warm blueberry compote, a little maple syrup, and a gentle dusting of powdered sugar. This is not a pancake. This is so much more than a pancake. 365 Van Brunt Stree... More »
2010 | Best High-End Drinks for Low-End Prices

The Red Hook waterfront doesn't much resemble New Orleans, although Erie Basin can exude a rather Bayou-esque scent and Fairway will supply you with everything you need to create a splendid oyster po'boy. But since last year, one local bar, Fort Defiance, has been making the Big Apple feel that much Big Easier. After stints as a food writer, bartender, and Jedi-level backyard barbecuer, St. John Frizell opened the Southern-spiked watering hole. There's a food menu, and our critics assure us... More »
2010 | Rebecca Marx's Top 10: No. 10

Sometimes the most memorable dishes are the simplest. But while Fort Defiance's deviled eggs may be short on menu descriptors, they're certainly not lacking in thoughtful preparation. In addition to using the usual mayo, chef Bobby Duncan whips his yolks with Greek yogurt, which makes them even creamier and bestows a subtle tang. They're further adulterated with Old Bay, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper, and then showered with cured mustard seeds. The crunch of the seeds provides invigorating... More »
2009 | Best New American

RobtS: The designation "New American" is absurd because it's really a catch-all for all sorts of creative food that lacks one particular ethnic influence. SarahDG: Seconded. RobtS: Where the rubber meets the road is in places designated as bistros. While Joseph Leonard is clearly a French bistro, the status of Watty & Meg is uncertain. It flaunts its regional borrowings--shrimp and grits, for example--but the bedrock of the menu is clearly French, like red wine reductions in... More »

Best of NYC: Our Critics List Their 10 Favorite Dishes

By Robert Sietsema, Sarah DiGregorio, and Rebecca Marx | Wed, October 20, 2010

Robert Sietsema's Top 10 1. This doesn't mean I'm forsaking my first love, Katz's pastrami, but the smoked-meat sandwich at Mile End is denser, redder, and offered in a sandwich that's just the right size for one person to eat, which means I don'... More »
Fort Defiance Pops Up in Red Hook

By Sarah DiGregorio | Tue, September 22, 2009

If Edward Hopper had been in a better mood when he painted Nighthawks, his famously desolate scene of a diner, the piece might have ended up looking like Fort Defiance, viewed from Van Brunt Street on a late, velvety summer night. The light stream... More »

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fstabile | New York, NY | 440 Reviews

| Mon, June 28, 2010

get the muffaletta sandwich, so delicious
Like (0) Dislike (0)

cpettit | Unknown, NY | 32 Reviews

| Mon, June 28, 2010

the best deviled eggs and mulled wine in the immediate universe.

Dinner Menu

Oysters On The Half Shell

Each $2.75
Half Dozen $16.50

Island Creeks
duxbury, ma

$3.00

Deviled Egg

$7.00

Chicken Liver Pâte
with toasts

$8.00

Pickled Herring
with horseradish creme fraiche and seven-grain toast

$9.00

Grilled Broccoli And Ricotta
with olives and pine nuts

$7.00

Escarole Salad
with lemon vinaigrette and parmesan

$8.00

Red Hook Farm Fall Lettuces
with herbs and buttermilk

$12.00

Grilled Blood Sausage
with watercress and pickled cherries

$20.00

Grilled Mackerel
with braised leeks, fingerling potatoes, and grainy mustard

$17.00

Seafood Stew
with mussels, fluke, squid, and broccoli spigarello, served over grilled bread

$24.00

Dry-aged Strip Loin
with glazed onions and potatoes “aligot”

$26.00

Grilled Pheasant
with winter greens, olives, and croutons

$7.00

Chocolate Ginger Cake

$7.00

Sour Cream Apple Pie

Coomersdale $8.00
Twig Farm $8.00

Saxelby Cheesemongers Selections
coomersdale: raw sheep’s milk, pecorino style, from bonnieview farm, vermont / twig farm: mixed milk, semi-firm and creamy, aged three months, rind washed with cider

The Old-fashioneds

$9.00

Rum Old-fashioned
with 5-year-old english harbor rum from antigua

$11.00

Oaxacan Old Fashioned
created by mayahuel’s phil ward; with reposado tequila, mezcal, and a flamed orange peel

$10.00

Breuckelen Old Fashioned
with breuckelen whiskey, made on 19th st. from new york state organic wheat

$8.00

Tom Collins
gin and fizzy lemonade

$10.00

El Diablo
tequila with ginger and local black currant liqueur

$10.00

Breuckelen Corpse Reviver
from the savoy cocktail book, 1930; with breuckelen gin made in sunset park

$8.00

Barbados Buck
our dark and stormy; from the british club, bridgetown, barbados, 1930

$10.00

St. John’s Martini
plymouth gin, dry vermouth, orange bitters, and a twist

$8.00

Criterium
named after the red hook criterium, an international bike race; a bitter, juicy highball featuring the milanese amaro rabarbaro zucca

$9.00

Marconi Wireless
from the old waldorf-astoria bar book (1935) a kind of manhattan with bonded apple brandy

$9.00

Sazerac
the 19th century new orleans classic

$9.00

King Bee
comb vodka (made from honey in port chester, ny) infused with darjeeling tea, with lemon and prosecco

$10.00

Rye Morris
our version of the modern classic, created by jamie boudreau, featuring rye, cocchi americano, and amaro nonino

Hot Helpers

$10.00

Irish Coffee
coffee, powers whisky, and cream. the best you’ll have

$9.00

Kentucky Nightcap
bourbon, steamed milk, and nutmeg

$8.00

Hot Toddy
powers irish whiskey, lemon, and spices

Looking for another city?

Fort Defiance

365 Van Brunt St. Brooklyn, NY 11231

347-453-6672

Description

2011 | Best Unpretentious Mixed Drinks

2011 | Best Brunch

2010 | Best High-End Drinks for Low-End Prices

2010 | Rebecca Marx's Top 10: No. 10

2009 | Best New American

Best of NYC: Our Critics List Their 10 Favorite Dishes

By Robert Sietsema, Sarah DiGregorio, and Rebecca Marx | Wed, October 20, 2010

Fort Defiance Pops Up in Red Hook

By Sarah DiGregorio | Tue, September 22, 2009

fstabile | New York, NY | 440 Reviews

cpettit | Unknown, NY | 32 Reviews

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