l got a fab write up in " The Strong Buzz" this past week!
pot luck
“A Garden Grows in Brooklyn and Up Pops a New Restaurant”
Dining out in Brooklyn is often a fantastic food experience--that is if you can score a table. Those few restaurants that take reservations often only have the 5pm or 10pm time slots open, and otherwise you are left to muster the fortitude for hours and hours and hours of waiting (see Roberta's, Colonie, Prime Meats). Makes you want to stay in and eat at home. Well, thanks to Beth Gibson's fantastic new pop-up restaurant in her Carroll Gardens home, you can pretty much do that.
Beth Gibson was born to get people together. After years of hosting monthly parties for dozens of friends, she knew she was onto something. “To say I’m social is an understatement," she said. "So the thought of meeting new, interesting, diverse people is something I’m a tad addicted to it. Pop-ups were the perfect solution.”
Beth worked in kitchens and restaurants while growing up in England, and her passion feeds her skill. Luckily, her skill doesn’t stop in the kitchen. As the owner of a garden consulting and cocktail party business, Beth’s love of entertaining has blossomed into a pop-up restaurant that incorporates great design in a cozy garden setting.
All the elements of a relaxing getaway can be found in her Carroll Gardens retreat: an elegant garden, a blazing fire pit, warm lighting and Beth’s personal collection of eclectic table settings and glassware. There’s even a farmhouse table in her kitchen for rainy days.
Dinner includes seating for up to 8 guests with a choice of wine pairings or BYOB. Each menu offers 5 courses with surprises in between, such as an amuse bouche to start and a palate cleanser before the main course.
The menu on May 7th started with a chilled beet soup garnished with crème fraiche and caviar, followed by fresh fava bean salad with fennel, mint and Serrano ham. For the main course, Frenched lamb chops were served with pistachio tapenade and shoestring potatoes. Finally, for desert, elegant pavlovas were topped with fresh berries and drizzled with yogurt and chamomile lavender syrup. There was even an individual cheese plate. Beth completed the meal with an espresso and bite of chocolate.
Jennifer Hanlin, a Manhattan food-venturer who attended a recent pop-up dinner at Beth’s, has promptly booked a second one for June. She chose the pop-up scene as an ideal setting for her group of friends who are adventurous eaters and appreciate good food.“Beth was a cheerful, calm presence who presented dish after dish with perfect timing, temperature, and presentation," she said. "She seemed to really sense what we needed at every turn of the evening—whether it was light, or volume, or the next course.”
Hanlin scheduled another dinner as a unique way to entertain out-of-town guests and trade in the loud restaurant for a relaxing atmosphere. As Hanlin explained, “Dinner at Beth’s feels like a dinner at your extremely talented friend’s home.”
Beth’s ultimate goal is to host one dinner per week, either Friday or Saturday evening from 8:30 pm – midnight. Summer slots fill up us fast, so book soon. If Carroll Gardens is one too many subway stops away, she’ll bring the party right to your door. Prices vary. (The May 7th menu above was $75 per person, or $138 with wine pairings.
To reserve a dinner, call Beth at 917-543-8710 or visit Plotbrooklyn.com.
—Andrea Branchini