Brian and I are actually in Barcelona right now, gorging on boquerones and drinking way more wine than is probably healthy. But until our return next week, please enjoy this second installment of my interview with Danny Brown.

Missed the first one? Click here.



Photo courtesy of Danny Brown


I suspect you don't get many nights off, but when you do, where do you like to eat in the neighborhood?

I don't get many nights off. I frequent a couple of delis that are open 24 hours to get a ham-and-cheese sandwich. If I am going to go out and not just get a sandwich, I like going to Q, it's really good stuff, and I like Dani's House of Pizza in Kew Gardens. I like real simple, good food. I'm easily happy with a nice plate of spaghetti at Dani's.


What do you think of the Forest Hills restaurant scene as a whole? What sorts of places would you like to see move into the neighborhood?

It's certainly getting very interesting around here. My Kitchen has come back. I remember eating there when I was a little kid and thinking that it was pretty cool. I remember the food being sort of salads and soups and room-temperature food back then. I don't know what the format is right now—it's something I would definitely like to check out. I'm excited about Pampas across the street, the Argentinian steakhouse. If I were looking for something else to come in around here, anything authentic and well-prepared. It doesn't need to be fancy.


How would you describe your cooking style to someone who's never been to your restaurant?

I would say new European, for lack of a better term. I'm trying to mix some things from France, some things from Italy, and some things from Spain, primarily.


Are there chefs or restaurants, in New York or elsewhere, that you especially admire or take inspiration from?

Certainly Craig Samuel I think is a fantastic chef—he's now the executive chef at City Hall, a restaurant down on Duane Street. He owns his own restaurant called The Smoke Joint in Fort Greene, which is a great barbecue restaurant. I really enjoyed when he came to The Cub Room—there were a lot of things that were really handled nicely. John Johnson, who's the executive chef at Town, definitely another guy who's in the kitchen every day putting things together. I got a chance to be close to a few other skilled people, but for a much shorter period and didn't really get a chance to have many conversations.


What's the most popular dish on your menu?

The chicken under a brick is pretty popular. And the hanger steak at this point is right along side it with the red wine shallot butter. We added French fries to it, and that put the seal on it.


Brian and I had a little bet going on—I thought it would be the chicken, and he guessed the calamari. 

You know, I can tell you that over the last two nights, I don't think I've ever seen that much calamari consumed. You could definitely put that in there. And for good measure, at times the risotto pancake can be very popular as well.


What is your personal favorite?

In terms of things that always stay on the menu, I'm always thinking about how to change them. I don't really do it, but a regular dish, from my perspective, never quite seems right. It always seems like something could be reworked or altered. The few times I've had the chicken, I was pleasantly surprised at how comforting it was. And I certainly have enjoyed eating the hanger steak. But my personal favorites are the things we don't do every day. It might be wild striped bass, last week we did snapper with parsnips, chanterelles and wilted watercress.


What about the future? Plans? Ambitions?

I wouldn't mind getting back to the idea of the real wine bar. A wood-beamed rustic wine bar that's open later and that's got a nice selection of cheeses and all kinds of olives and maybe a few cool snacks—a couple of polenta sandwiches, a couple of grilled chorizos, things of that nature. Maybe four kinds of Serrano ham. Five kinds of prosciutto. That stuff excites me.


That was your original vision . . .

That was the original thing that we kind of incorporated into [Danny Brown Wine Bar & Kitchen], but it's not exactly that.


Do you promise not to pull a Lidia (Bastianich) and abandon us for Manhattan?

I'll stay here as long as people want me.


Danny Brown Wine Bar & Kitchen
104-02 Metropolitan Avenue
Forest Hills, NY 11375
718-261-2144
http://www.dannybrownwinekitchen.com


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