Cicily and I met up at 6:30 right when they open up the line to non-pre-orders. Over the summer, you were able to reserve your meat on line and then come into the restaurant to claim your meat. Otherwise, the restaurant opens at 6pm and then is only open until when they run out of meat. I was a bit worried that if we didn't get there early, we would be shut out but luckily it looks like they had enough meat that night until at least 9 or 10pm. The restaurant is super super small, maybe about 8 or 9 tables max. You walk up to the counter and there is basically one thing on the menu: brisket. There are 2 cuts, either lean or fatty. It's $25/lb and the super nice owner, Daniel, told us that for 2 people, he recommended about 1/3 to 1/2 a pound per person. We decided to go for a mix of lean and fatty and got 1 lb total. The only other things they serve there are potato salad ($4) and coleslaw ($4). We went for the potato salad and a few slices of Texas white bread. Now the issue with the seat yourself style of restaurants is that sometimes you can get your food and find that there is no where to sit. I literally jumped on top of a group of people as they were leaving their seat. Not my ideal way to enjoy a meal but when it comes to BBQ by the pound, it usually is easier to order yourself. The food looked great and I was super excited to cut into it. One problem. There were no knives in the place. Only plastic forks. I ended up pulling most of the meat apart with my hands, which was fine, but a knife and some wet naps would have gone a long way here. People around us were raving about the meat (the guy in front of us in line was already in line for 2nds) so I was ready to tear into it. And you know what? It was good but my mind and stomach didn't explode from joy. The lean meat was indeed lean and the fatty meat fatty (almost a bit too fatty - and not in the good kind of pork belly fatty) but the outside of the brisket had too much black pepper flavor for me - it was very in your face. And while I know this may be sacrilege, I wanted some BBQ sauce to go with it. It just seemed to be missing something that I couldn't put my finger on and I think it was the sauce. While I appreciate that the pace was focused on one kind of meat that they did well, the reason I love Fette Sau is because not only can you get brisket but you can get ribs, pork belly, sausage and all kind of other delicious meats at the same time. As they say, variety is the spice of life. As for the potato salad, it was a nice side dish to help cut some of the meatiness of the main entree. And the 1/2 lb per person was the perfect amount of food for 2 people as I was definitely more than full when we left.
For now the restaurant is BYOB which actually isn't so bad but it is nice to have some whiskey with your meat and it's a bit hard to go down to your local deli and buy a small size of whiskey. So we opted for wine but a lot of people brought their own tall boys or 6 packs. I will say that the waitstaff there was awesome (shout out to Alex for helping us in a wine bind) and really friendly. Location-wise, it's a bit out of the way (it's in South Williamsburg - which I know is the new hot spot of Brooklyn so I guess it does make sense to be where all the action is these days). Even though I thought the meat was good, I just didn't have the come to jesus moment I was expecting based on all the reviews. But if you're a BBQ freak like me, I do think it's worth a try at least once. To quote Cicily "It's good but I wouldn't go out of my way to come back here". Knowing that Fette Sau is so much closer, I would tend to agree. Total bill: $42.
Photo Credit: Free Williamsburg
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