july 8–21, 2019 | new york 51IF ANY OF THE CONCESSIONS on the Rockaway boardwalk have achieved
icon status, it’s the burger stand Rippers. Much as one shouldn’t go to
Coney Island without a stop at Nathan’s, a day at this beach wouldn’t be
complete without a Hard Body burger at Rippers: two juicy, crumbly,
American-cheesed patties on a Martin’s potato bun, as God and Danny
Meyer intended them to be. Excellent Meat Hook hot dogs, too.
A CHEESEBURGER
ON THE
Rockaway BoardwalkTAKE A SEAT ON A VINTAGE BAMBOO CHAIR at a communal table beneath a
festive string of lights, with the breeze ruffling the leaves of a tropical palm
and the moon in partnership with some candlelit lanterns providing extra
atmosphere, and you may begin to think you’ve stumbled into some tastefully
appointed Southeast Asian wedding party. And no wonder:
A co-owner of this new Thai restaurant on a gritty China-
town street has a day job designing nuptials and other highly
stylized events. It’s all so unexpectedly idyllic you’d be happy
with Cheez-Its and Gatorade, but chef Tom Naumsuwan’s
street-food-inspired cooking is as transporting as the setting. Get the
Isan-style pork sausages, the invigorating green-papaya salad, some tiny
meatballs wrapped in noodles like rubber-band balls, and especially the
fried chicken redolent of garlic and coriander. You may never leave.There have been
urban lobster shacks,
and there have been
floating restaurants.
It was brothers
Alex and Miles Pincus’s
special genius to unite
these two concepts,
transforming a
painstakingly restored
wooden schooner into
a permanently docked
oyster bar and cocktail
lounge. And it was
their chef Kerry
Heffernan’s brainstorm
to line the insides of his
lobster roll’s top-loading
butter-griddled bun
with pickled cucumbers
as a defensive measure
against the salad’s kelp
aïoli. The best time
to go is for a late lunch
just before the booze-
cruise crowd pirates
the ship. To reach the
1942-era Sherman
Zwicker, you stroll to the
end of the Tribeca pier,
past the mini-golf
and the surprisingly
professional beach
volleyball, where the
only thing between you,
the Statue of Liberty, and
the crimson sunset is
the Hudson River itself.RIPPERS
86-01 Shore
Front Pkwy.,
Rockaway
Beach; no phoneGRAND BANKS
Pier 25, West Side Hwy. at N.
Moore St.; 212-660-6312THAI FRIED CHICKEN
In a Chinatown BackyardALobster
Roll
ON A
PARKED
SCHOONER16
Cuban sandwiches taste
better when they’re served
out of a ventanita, or little
coffee window, as venerable
a form of outdoor dining as
rooftop bars and sidewalk
cafés. That’s how they do it
in Miami and, as of August
2017, at Gowanus’s
My Cuban Spot, a single-
espresso-size operation run
by two Miami expats. They
take their sandwich-making
seriously here: Pork butt is
marinated in sour-orange-
flavored mojo before it’s
slow-roasted to a tender tee
and layered with the usual
ham, Swiss, pickles, and
mustard on good Cuban
bread (theirs comes from a
secret Connecticut source)before it hits the sandwich
press. It’s great fun to eat
one seated on a metal stool
at a narrow ledge the
size of an ironing board and
eavesdrop on regulars
kibbitzing over cafecitos
and cortaditos. But if
it’s a full house, carry your
Cubano down the block to
the Gil Hodges Community
Garden, a beautiful little
pocket park rehabbed by
Bette Midler’s New York
Restoration Project into
a model of stormwater
management masquerading
as a dreamy pastoral refuge
well equipped with yellow
roses, fragrant herbs,
shady trees, and a planter
vegetable garden.15
A CUBAN
SANDWICH
OUT OF AGowanus Ventanita
WAYLA
100 Forsyth St.,
nr. Grand St.
212-206-2500MY CUBAN SPOT
488 Carroll St.,
nr. Third Ave., Gowanus
718-855-1941