I love sequels. Just ask my friend Tanya. (Yes, “The Veggie” Tanya.) This summer, she sat beside me on a Portland-bound flight out of Kennedy as I jabbed at a seat back screen, trying to decide between two of my favorite movies: the acclaimed wartime film “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” and “Paddington 2,” which was briefly the best-reviewed film on Rotten Tomatoes. (I watched them both and loved every animated minute.)
A good sequel can be hard to execute. And it’s just as true for restaurants. This year, the city is flush with restaurants run by owners and chefs who got it right once. This week, I’m taking a closer look at three of them to see how they stack up to the originals.
A rose blooms in Brooklyn
When Yellow Rose opened in 2020, I was instantly won over by its flour tortillas, carne guisada tacos and other Tex-Mex dishes. Over time, though, I found myself spending more time at restaurants from other Texans —Wayne & Sons and Los Burritos Juarez, for instance — in part because I stopped seeing the owners in the kitchen. (That came through, painfully, in the tortillas, which grew thicker each time I visited.)
Their new spot, Rose Marie, feels like a homecoming, although I have no idea how to describe it. It bills itself as a bar, though most people make full meals out of the saltine-crusted flounder or pork chops with grits. But it’s not really a restaurant, either, because no one would blink if you just ordered a Bud Heavy and a shot and walked out the door. I think my friend Andy got it exactly right this week when he called Rose Marie an exceptional place to catch up with a friend over an order of heavily battered cheese curds served (correctly) with tangy blackened olive ranch that cut right through, narrowly edging out my previous favorites at Long Island Bar.
524 Lorimer Street (Ainslie Street), Williamsburg
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