Black Swan — The Pub, Not the Movie.
Last night I met Andy for dinner and beer at Black Swan on Bedford.
May well be our Winter 2011 Drinking Locale.
It’s aesthetically appealing. Low lighting and candles, dark wood, exposed brick. High-ceilinged and narrow, with a traditional bar up front and plenty of restaurant seating in the. There are boob tubes, but they’re not oppressive, just accessible.
And the food is good. (Andy revealed after we’d eaten that Cynthia, the chef at Black Swan and former chef/owner at the once great but now defunct Brown Betty – it’s totally Andy and Tri’s style to be on a first-name basis with various Brooklyn chefs and bartenders; he also knew the bartender last night from the guy’s former gig at Sheep Station – just doesn’t make a meal Andy doesn’t like.)
We split the rocket salad, which was small but fresh. Beets, tangy slivers of Granny Smith apple, just enough goat cheese – people sometimes really overdo it on the goat cheese — and the perfect dressing – i.e., one I hardly noticed.
We also shared a Black Swan burger with cheddar and fries and the roast chicken with collards and plantain mash. The burger came very rare – fine by me – and quite seasoned (probably because they use pretty high quality meat, which can get lost in the mix of bun and cheese and other toppings). Pretty simple. Great bun. No sauces. Very mild cheddar and caramelized onion. Very juicy and tender.
The roast chicken dish was great. The skin stays on and has a bit of a kick. The chicken legs – none of this white meat nonsense – were moist and flavorful. The collards were ribboned (for easy forking) and pretty perfectly cooked. The plaintain mash was actually pretty unusual. Sort of sweet. Reminded me a bit of acorn squash.
And then there was the beer. Oh, the beer.
I can’t give you the precise breakdown of Andy’s beer consumption, but I know it involved Bear Republic Racer 5, Left Hand Milk Stout and Speakeasy Payback Porter and that it added up to 5 glorious pints. I, too, although I have not been training – and perhaps because I have not been training – went for the big 5: one pint Founder’s Centennial IPA, one porter, one milk stout, another porter, and another milk stout.
I’ve had the Milk Stout before. I clearly hadn’t had a proper pour, which leaves an inch or more of thick foam at the top. So tremendously delicious. I could probably have put back 2 more.
Thank Santa I didn’t.
(Images borrowed from, inter alia,joonbug)
