Prime Meats

What’s the magic formula for opening a restaurant in this economy? Old-timey décor and bartenders in handlebar mustaches and suspenders? Gourmet burgers on the menu? The people behind several successful inexpensive-but-charming restaurants at the helm?

Prime Meats, the new German-inflected Brooklyn restaurant by Frankie’s Spuntino owners Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli, has doubled down on previous winning elements to come up with a seemingly foolproof recipe for success. And so far, everyone’s loving it: the wait for a table on an August weekday night was almost an hour. In the roomy bar area, the ceilings are pressed tin, Victorian brass lamps hang over the bar, and a vintage butcher shop mirror with “Prime Meats” etched on it reflects the grown-up, very Brooklyn crowd. (About three out of five men in the place had beards, including owner Frank Falcinelli, who was sitting in the corner.) Seeing this kind of steampunk setting yet again made us wonder if Freeman’s Taavo Somer and Milk & Honey’s Sasha Petraske are wringing their hands somewhere, wondering what they hath wrought.

But at least at Prime Meats, unlike at some faux speakeasies, the interior design doesn’t reek of phoniness. The pressed tin ceiling is original to the building, and the rewired gas light fixtures are antique, not Restoration Hardware. Blessedly, Prime Meats’ bar is reserved for drinking; dining is only feasible at the tables. The mustachioed barkeeps serve up pre-Prohibition cocktails like the Mayenne fizz ($11), made with gin, Campari, sweet vermouth, sparkling wine and strawberries, plus a selection of local Sixpoint beer on tap ($7).

Let’s call the food High German: it’s radically more sophisticated than old school beer houses like Rolf’s, since Prime Meats also has creative salads and lots of organic, local produce from Red Hook Farm, but not so elevated as the Austrian fare at DBGB. This can work to the restaurant’s advantage and play to the ongoing Frankies value theme, since options like the gamey “farmer’s sausage” come off as food of the people, not the bourgeoisie. With an Alpine tasting board, the Vesper Brett ($13), the Frankies branch out into choucrouterie, with an airy, mild bologna that puts supermarket bologna to shame and a hunter’s sausage from Germany, the landjager, with a sharp edge of mustard and a thin, perforated texture.

Mustard also plays a part in the herb and wild mushroom spatzle ($6 appetizer, $11 entree), where a hint of it in the white wine sauce is a creative counterpoint to the meatiness of earthy, juicy mushrooms over the springy spatzle. (It made us miss the risotto with mushroom fricassee at Café Gray, RIP.) It’s served alongside the Surkurt Garnie ($14), another meat platter with ridiculously fatty, indulgent slow-cooked pork belly, two kinds of wursts, and a calf’s tongue. The boudin blanc type sausage was artfully done, though the other was overcooked, and the calf’s tongue was just too strange and oddly hard. This platter begged for comparison to Daniel Boulud’s, and it came up short.

The Black Angus strip steak from Creakstone Farms with watercress salad specked with radishes ($19), however, was a knockout. The intensely flavorful meat was seasoned only with salt and pepper, maybe a little garlic, had a great char and juicy interior. It went beautifully with the Vicien Malbec ($8), a great find for the price. Now Prime Meats just needs to up the ante on the lackluster French fries ($5) to go with that steak.

We regretted not ordering the burger ($13), since it was a popular choice at tables all around us. Consider it a reason to go back—as many people in the neighborhood already have.

Prime Meats
465 Court St
Brooklyn, New York
718-254-0327
No reservations
Cash only