Diner

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Andrew Tarlow’s first restaurant is no longer the Southside loner it was when it opened in 1999. These days, it’s credited with creating and typifying the hip, seasonal, and Americana-mining New Brooklyn restaurant. The kitchen’s alumnus list is an all-star team of the Williamsburg restaurant scene — it includes founders of the Commodore, El Cortez, the Meat Hook, Pies ’n’ Thighs, and Saltie — and indirectly spawned a legion of admirers and imitators. Diner, though, at least pretends not to know it, even if the crowd is more well-heeled and maybe a little more foreign. The servers are still effortlessly cool, the floor remains uneven, and specials will forever be written out on a piece of paper tableside by a server who’ll sit down with you, if there’s room, and explain what’s up. That food changes more or less daily — there could be a peach and marinated-tomato panzanella one summer night, a rare trout steak with kraut on a colder evening — but always includes the restaurant’s famous burgers. That’s not to say Tarlow and his restaurants haven’t grown up. For a restaurant group, wine and cocktails are notably well-done, too, making Diner, like all Tarlow spots, a good place for a late-night eats. — Chris Crowley

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