Fairway Café

Profile

Compared with its Upper West Side counterpart, the seasonal Fairway Café and Steakhouse, Red Hook’s Fairway Café’s lunch offerings may disappoint hungry shoppers: Unremarkable sandwiches, barely cheered by sides like Terra chips and fresh mesclun salad. Skip the plasticky mini-pizzas for a real slice street side; this is Brooklyn, after all. A lobster roll offers some redemption, with chunks of fresh lobster meat in a slightly toasted brioche bun—but Fairway Café’s real saving grace is its wow of a view. City dwellers who make the trek to Red Hook will be rewarded with a sweeping sight of the New York harbor, distant barges and sailboats gliding by. The Statue of Liberty looms giant, a Goliath’s stone’s throw beyond. The concrete promenade deserves a wander, too: Follow a tangle of trolley cables, tracks still embedded in the sidewalk, to where two old green Red Hook trolley cars sit preserved near the entrance to a water taxi. With elderly Brooklyn locals rubbing shoulders with young parents, tots in tow, and fortysomething foodies on Fairway Café’s dining deck, the outer borough’s beauty seems to satisfy all, even if the café’s food does not. — Laurel Fantauzzo

During winter months, an outdoor enclosure with wide windows and heat lamps preserves the view without subjecting visitors to the wind.

Lobster roll, $8.99

Related Stories

Best of New York Awards

• Best Under-the-Radar Kid Hangout: Red Hook (2008)