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Queen's Hideaway Chef Resurfaces At New Williamsburg Restaurant Potlikker
By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 3, 2012
Modified Jul 3, 2012
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 3, 2012
Modified Jul 3, 2012
Share
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Back in the mid-aughts, long before foodie Greenpoint saw the likes of Paulie Gee's, Calyer, and the Lobster Joint, there was Queen's Hideaway, an acclaimed, seasonally-minded restaurant on what was then a semi-isolated little corner of Franklin Street. The humble but earnest restaurant, operated by the titular chef Liza Queen, became a very big deal after a slam dunk review in the Times in 2005. In 2008, the restaurant was forced out by an "astronomic" rent increase. Four years later, the talented chef is back on the scene with an exciting new restaurant in Williamsburg called Potlikker.
Operating out of the space formerly occupied Bonita (and briefly by the dead-on-arrival Coco), Potlikker picks up where Queen's Hideaway left off, with a constantly evolving menu that follows the lead of whatever fresh seasonal ingredients Queen finds on her regular trips to the city's Greenmarkets. "The Hideaway was a pirate ship," Queen tells us. "This is a merchant ship with a shady past. A more grown-up version." And with a 14-year lease, she plans to put down deep roots at the Bedford Avenue location.
Named for the nutritious liquid left over from cooking collards or other greens, Potlikker serves regional American cuisine from "each and every region," as Queen puts it. After closing the Hideway, Queen spent a couple of years in Saigon, and she says she was particularly influenced by "how much joy they take in food, and the sharing of food." She also says that she's been eating some of these dishes "since I was a little girl, and I've been fine-tuning them for years."
The eclectic menu is split up into apps, small plates, and mains, and currently includes such options as Fresh made cannelloni stuffed with summer squash & ricotta, grilled radicchio, mixed bell pepper, tomato and fresh herbs in a Caciotta de Capra broth ($17); Diver scallops in a lobster brodo with chorizo; cherry tomato, beans and corn tortilla chips ($24); Flank steak marinated in orange, cumin & garlic, with hoecakes and early summer veggies in buttermilk dressing ($23); and Dutch pancake with wildflower honey, goat cheese, and thyme ($8).
Potlikker [338 Bedford Avenue] is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., then from 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. The wine menu is carefully curated, and there are currently three beers on tap: Captain Lawrence, Prohibition Ale, and Radeberger, as well as Sangria.
Tagged
new restaurant and bar radar
queens hideaway
williamsburg
original
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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