RESTAURANTS • First Word
The reincarnated historic restaurant is a rich subgenre of New York City’s dining scene. Be it Minetta Tavern, Gage & Tollner, or (more recently) Le Veau d’Or, it’s clear that New York remains infatuated with its past. To wit: Recently opened Lundy Bros. in Red Hook is a reinterpretation of the original Lundy’s, which operated in Sheepshead Bay for several decades beginning in the 1920s.
That restaurant’s years were flecked with condemned buildings, shootouts, fires, embezzlement, and a couple of murders. It used to be one of the largest restaurants in the United States, having fired about a million seafood plates a year at its peak. The reborn Lundy’s is not quite as large or, hopefully, colorful.
The bar-side entrance tracks more tavern-y than most (the space having been previously Irish pub Rocky Sullivan’s). Walking into it from the Ikea across the street, you might think it was an exposed brick and distinguished wood mirage. Around back, the dining room feels (and looks) like a wedding reception for someone you neither hate nor love enough to have any drama with. (It’s carpeted!) Lundy’s incongruous marriage of unvarnished intentionality is refreshing.
Lundy’s food also achieves textbook comfort. Imagine fried calamari — that’s precisely the one on offer here. Raw bar notwithstanding, seafood isn’t overrepresented, though there’s also a market-price catch of the day on the menu. As for the rest of it, conjure the image of a creamed spinach, the leafy green’s most decadent preparation. They have that, too, and it’s delightful. Likewise, the enormous porterhouse ($125 per), a winning medium-rare, and the chicken, an herbaceous, lemony half bird that might be among the best in the borough.
Lundy’s isn’t exactly a Minetta Tavern-level revival. Lesser-known, lower-profile, and of a lineage from far deeper New York, it’s imbued with its own spirited nostalgia. Its pleasures may not be particularly distinct or surprising, but maybe that’s the point: The familiar is an indulgence on its own. –Amber Sutherland-Namako
→ Lundy Bros. (Red Hook) • 46 Beard St • Wed-Mon 5-11p. • Reserve.