HAVE WE MET?
A familiar face opens
The Red Rail restaurant in Carroll Gardens
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Historic location: Executive chef Alan Harding has converted the Cammareri Brothers Bakery on Henry Street into Carroll Gardens' latest trendy eatery, The Red Rail. The Brooklyn Papers / Greg Mango |
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By James Neill Warning: You may be subject to double deja vu upon entering The Red Rail at 502 Henry St, one of Brooklyn's newest restaurants. Some visitors may recognize the storefront as the former Cammareri Brothers Bakery, where Nicolas Cage and Cher met as Loretta and Ronny in "Moonstruck," the 1987 Academy Award-winning film. But that eerie feeling of familiarity may be multiplied for patrons familiar with Brooklyn's new restaurant scene. Not only are you in a bistro in a reclaimed Carroll Gardens storefront, complete with pressed-tin ceilings, but Chef Alan Harding of Smith Street's Patois and Uncle Pho also lurks in the background. Yes, ladies and gentleman, Carroll Gardens has another new restaurant. And, yes, some of the usual suspects and formulas are employed. So it is understandable if you blink and feel you have seen this before. But The Red Rail's creators seem to recognize that Brooklynites are probably beyond being indiscriminately grateful for all the new good grub and are looking for a variation on the Smith Street theme. Unlike many of his fellow Carroll Gardens restaurant proprietors, owner Tod Bullen is not an emigre from a top Manhattan restaurant. His route to Brooklyn has taken him through San Francisco's Le Madeleine and Miami's Nemo, among other hip restaurants. He then skipped Manhattan and went on to stints at Patois and Uncle Pho. So The Red Rail has a slightly different sensibility than its Smith Street neighbors, which instead reflects Bullen's background. One pleasant difference is that Red Rail is not solely a dinner location. Bullen describes his new restaurant as a California coffeehouse for breakfast, a coffee shop for lunch and a California cafe for dinner. The "California" means less cream and butter than traditional French bistro fare with more veggie options and Mexican influences. The evidence at breakfast lies in the Baja scrambled eggs with onion, cilantro and hot cherry peppers, or The Clean Start - spinach, tofu, corn, tomatoes and mushrooms with a grilled tortilla. If that sounds too California-healthy to brace one for the gritty streets of Brooklyn, have no fear. At lunchtime, for every tuna salad with grilled asparagus there are rib-stickers like the Sacramento cheese steak sandwich on Cammareri garlic bread. (Sacramento is Bullen's hometown and he loyally serves its Java City Coffee.) Bullen says he wants The Red Rail to be a neighborhood restaurant at its core. With its cozy size, mix-and-match chairs, children's coloring table, stroller valet parking and friendly wait staff he has created just that. But if Bullen means to say that he doesn't intend to become a destination restaurant like his Smith Street progenitors, he is perhaps being coy. The industrial-size whisks hanging from the ceiling evoke the neighborhood bakery that 502 Henry St. once was, but this sort of casually sophisticated design element more readily reflects the experienced restaurateurs currently in residence. And The Red Rail's dinner menu shows too much flair to be intended solely for folks from around the corner. Yes, on a cold night the neighbors will want to stop in for baked rigatoni bolognese with spinach and ricotta. And they will be grateful for the creative energies behind the delicious pork and butternut squash stew with black beans and cilantro. But the pan-roasted cod with clams, mussels and lemon orzo seems intended to draw diners from neighboring Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights and well beyond. And the rosemary and garlic Cornish game hen are also worth getting into a car or subway for. The Red Rail is not the newest thing under the sun in Brooklyn. In fact, it seems very close in spirit to Fort Greene's A Table. But this is no criticism. Both of these restaurants have breakfast and lunch hours, a child-friendly atmosphere and sophisticated dinner menus. The Red Rail continues to sell Cammareri Brothers bread at its counter, though now it is supplied by the Cammareri bakery's Bensonhurst partner, Reliable Italian Bakery. Although relatively new, Red Rail has the air of a neighborhood fixture. Even its vintage neon sign from an old upstate blues club looks like it has spent the last 10 years on Henry Street rather than in Harding's garage. What The Red Rail seems to reflect more than anything is a growing comfort in Brooklyn with creative, good food. Not only is it unnecessary for Brooklyn residents to cross a bridge and spend loads of cash to find innovative, high-quality cooking, but they can find it combined with an atmosphere that makes visitors feel right at home, whether they have come from a block away or a borough away.
The Red Rail [502 Henry St., (718) 875-1283] is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner Tuesday through Friday. Open for brunch Saturday and Sunday. Closed Monday. Call for hours. Cash only. |
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