While we're fans of lazy gluttony and daytime drinking here at Fork in the Road, we sometimes have a hard time getting super stoked about weekend brunch, mostly because we're uninspired by fighting a riled up crowd eager to cure its collective hangover, only to sit down to mediocre eggs and bacon and drop a sum of money we normally associate with dinner pricing.
Look out the window from your seat at Achilles Heel, the new Greenpoint bar from Andrew Tarlow -- whose expanding empire includes Marlow & Sons, Diner and Reynards, among others -- and you'll look straight into the shipyards, where a dock worker might be casually leaning against a brick wall and smoking a cigarette. 
"Were those used in the London Olympics?" whispered our dining companion as we sat down at the bar at The Fourth. He was referring to the sculpture work hanging from the ceiling, which is oddly reminiscent of the hospital beds into which children were tucked in the opening ceremonies as dozens of Mary Poppins characters rained down around them. 
The common cicada, as it looks just before you eat it
Wikipedia/Bruce Martin
Unless you've been hiding underground for the last few months, you probably already know that New York City is due for a cicada invasion. Indeed, the cicadas themselves have been concealed deep in the dirt as they've undergone their 17-year life cycle, and are only emerging for the purpose of having sex with other cicadas - which might make the coming infestation seem even more gross. Imagine a sky darkened with flying pests, splooging indiscriminantly from the skies. What can you do besides hiding in your apartment and waiting for the cicadas to leave? Eat them!
Rao Cronut fever is highly contagious.
Are you experiencing feelings of extreme happiness and sadness? Have you lost interest in other breakfast pastries? You may be suffering from cronut fever.
Last Friday, when we first tasted Dominique Ansel's newly unleashed pastry--a delicious, delightful croissant-doughnut hybrid with a delicately rose-flavored glaze--we had no idea that half the city was about to lose it over cronuts. Neither did the pastry's creator, Dominique Ansel, who first began tinkering with his idea for a French-style doughnut about two months ago.
Last Friday, a small batch of 50 cronuts debuted on the menu. By Saturday, dozens of people were lining up at 7:30 a.m., before the bakery even opened, to get their hands on one of Ansel's exquisite rings of fried dough. And by Wednesday, people were crying angry tears when they found out the last cronut had been sold, while others gave baristas the finger on their way out of the pâtisserie.
When we spotted the rhubarb banana daiquiri on the list at ABC Cocina, we joked that we "don't often see banana in drinks that aren't smoothies." In our interview with beverage manager Ann Marie De Bello this morning, we learned that she added the creative concoction to mirror the bananas on the food menu. 
The smoked-banana margarita at Empellon Taqueria
But almost immediately after we sipped that tipple, we started seeing banana cocktails all over town. Here are three more to drink right now.
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With substantial space carved out for drinkers, newly opened ABC Cocina's bar is likely to get as much play as its dining room, and sure enough, when we stopped by last week for an early taste, the cavernous area was packed to capacity with imbibers sipping fresh, bright cocktails and pitchers of sangria.
We caught up with beverage manager Ann Marie De Bello, who came over from sibling restaurant ABC Kitchen, about her focus, her list, and what's proved most popular so far.
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Food and wine are natural companions, so I'm polling some of New York's most illustrious chefs to find out what kind of wine they are drinking off and on the job. After establishing they actually drink wine (a surprising number prefer beer!), I'm asking a few questions to find out who's got a penchant for Piedmont, which chefs dislike oaky Chardonnay and why there is no right or wrong way to enjoy wine.
In today's installation of this series, I talk with Anita Lo, chef-owner of West Village restaurant Annisa, where the seasonally curated list highlights a number of women winemakers.
Read more of this series:
-Wolfgang Ban of Seasonal, Edi and the Wolf and The Third Man Talks Wine
A neon gamophone hung in the window gives a clue to what's inside the deceptively large space at 115 Allen, a Salvation Army store turned a number of failed concepts -- including the former Scotch-fueled hangout Mary Queen of Scots -- that's been given fresh life by Hill & Dale, which opened last night. The new joint is named for the earliest method of recording sound, and it pays homage to the history of that technology with a slew of musical tchotchkes (though you're more likely to hear top twenty pop hits on the speakers than a crackly old record from yesteryear).
With GoogaMooga just a day away, we're savoring the videos Food.Curated created to preview what some of the participating restaurants will bring to this weekend's food festival in Prospect Park.
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