Fort Defiance - Brooklyn, NY

After visiting Fort Defiance I felt like I should be living near this restaurant so I can go there for breakfast, lunch and dinner... After visiting that famous build-your-own-furniture store in Red Hook we decided to get late lunch / early dinner before taking the water taxi back to the South Street Seaport. After a ten minute walk we were front of the Fort Defiance around 4:30 in the afternoon but at that time they already finished their brunch (which is a great deal $20) service and they were getting ready to start their dinner service at 5:30 but they were still serving the cheese/meat platter with drinks from the bar so that's what we settled for.

Fort Defiance offer some great drink combinations made with premium and exotic brands around the world as well as fresh juices. We went with the Breakfast Martini, Barbados Buck (variation of the Dark and Stormy) and the Cucumber Collins. at $8, $8 and $9 each. They drink menu changes for brunch and dinner but there are always some amazing concoctions for any taste.

After finishing our drinks and cheese/meat platter and couple of cappuccinos we were still hungry for more but it was still not the dinner time so we decided to go and explore the neighborhood and come back for dinner in about half an hour.

This is a really nice area of the Brooklyn and it still quickly developing to be the next Williamsburg or Dumbo with old warehouses being converted to residential lofts, new cafes, bars and restaurants popping up around the area.

We returned for dinner at 5:30 and even at that time half of the restaurant was full. It looked like crowd was half and half with locals and those made the trip from Manhattan. When you are at the door daily specials are marked on the outside with chalk which was kind of cool and unusual at the same time. We were seated in the back of the small dining room which holds about twenty tables. There is also the bar area which is the main attraction of the restaurant.

Menu changes weekly but there are few items seem to remain like the side dishes, desserts, etc. From what we were told chef always picks out what's fresh, local and in season. That day's special was roasted red snapper, pork chop and a steak dish so we both picked the red snapper at $21 which was a generous portion along with a side of Hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, with bottle of Alsace at $26 to go with our meal. We finish the dinner with chocolate pudding with home made whipped cream on top which I thought it was the best pudding I've ever had for a long time.

I am looking for reasons to go back to Red Hook either for lunch, brunch or dinner so we can try some of the other options in the menu. This is such a great place that once you go, you want to keep going back because of the comfortable atmosphere, friendly service, delicious food at very reasonable prices and amazing cocktails.

Fort Defiance

365 Van Brunt Street
(Between Sullivan & Wolcott Streets) 
Brooklyn, NY 11231
(347) 453-6672 
http://www.fortdefiancebrooklyn.com/