12/27/11

Elemental Dining

Williamsburg is fast becoming (or already is) the new awesome place to own a restaurant. To stand out and survive, each has to have something unique to draw people in and keep them happy hungry customers. Would a menu complete with Italian-style pizzas, South American seafood dishes and juicy burritos do the trick? I think so. 


On the border of McCarren Park, away from the hustle and bustle of Bedford Ave., you'll find Cu 29 Copper. Named to bring about thoughts of chemistry and harmony between different cuisines, the restaurant was decorated in warm hues of rust and of course, copper, with the center point being the large brick oven. I was invited by the owners on a nippy Sunday night to sample the menu and get a feel for this hidden gem.

We were seated in the large back room, with a view out to the good size outdoor patio. How I wished the weather was warmer so that we could have sat outside! When we arrived a family was finishing up their meal and a couple was canoodling/eating dinner on a cozy couch. There was a rather large elevated space in the corner and the host told us that they regularly have live music on weeknights. 


We started with the Roasted Garlic Shrimp. Talk about garlic. The sizzling dish packed a punch of flavor. I would watch out for this dish on a first date, but man oh man was it delicious. The shrimp were succulent, and my only complaint would be that I wanted more bread to sop up the remaining sauce. 

Roasted Garlic Shrimp

The next dish was Cu 29 Copper's Signature Pizza. The fluffy, slightly blackened (in a good way) crust was piled high with pepperoni, sweet sausage, peppers, mushrooms, red onions, black olives, hot cherry peppers and mozzarella cheese. With a slight kick, this pizza was super tasty. We came close to finishing it, but then the waiter reminded us we still had one more dish to try.

Cu Signature Pizza

The last dish, and my favorite, was the Seafood Moqueca, a traditional Latin seafood stew with coconut milk, lobster broth, cilantro and toasted pine nuts, served over rice. This dish came with lots of extra bread so as soon as we slurped up the mussels and found all the bits of calamari, we left no broth at all. The yellow rice was amazing as well after it had been sitting in the stew for so long.

Seafood Moqueca
Taking a look at the rest of the menu, I'm intrigued by the other pizzas (Italian Stallion anyone?), the tacos (especially the shrimp tacos with chipotle mole and the tuna tacos with sliced mandarin pico de gallo) and the banana nutella crepes (can't resist!). Drinks are reasonably priced with beers for $5 and signature cocktails ranging from $8-$10. They have a great lunch menu as well with specials around $8, and almost all the online reviews I've read about this place rave about its brunch.

Cu 29 Copper is located at 232 N. 12th Street (between Driggs Ave and Roebling Street).

Cu 29 Copper on Urbanspoon

No comments:

Post a Comment

Leave your awesome reply.

Awesome Reads

Awesome in New York New York restaurants

Awesome Keywords

art gallery art museum Astoria atlantic city awesome alert Awesome Deal awesome giveaway awesome savings bakeries bar bar crawl BBQ beach beauty beer beer event birthday Book Launch brazilian breakfast Broadway Brooklyn Brooklyn Bridge Brunch Bryant Park carnegie hall celebrity spotting Central Park cheap tickets cheese Chelsea Market Chinatown Chinese Food Choice Eats class cocktails coffee columbus circle concert concert in the park contest cookies cooking creativity crunch cuban dance Deals Delicatessen delivery designer clothing dessert. food dinner Dior discount spa treatments discounted tickets doughnuts Downtown drink specials drinks East Village Ebates Entertainment event exercise Facebook giveaway fashion film fitness Flatiron Flushing Meadows-Corona park Food Food event food truck free Free Champagne free coffee Free Concerts free cupcake free dessert free drinks free food free museum admission free stuff Free Ticket free wine French food fundraising gift Gilt City giveaway gourmet food store Grand Central Greek Greenwich Village Groupon Guggenheim Museum half marathon halloween health healthy living helicopter tour hell's kitchen historic site history holiday shopping hot chocolate Italian food jazz jazz club jewelry lincoln center local food Lombardi Long Island City Lower East Side lunch macaron Madison Square Park Manhattan margaritas MCNY memberships Met mexican food MOMA movie premiere ms walk museum music New Year's Eve New York new york botanic garden New York City Food and Wine Festival New York Magazine New York Times New York Wine Expo Nolita NYC Off-Broadway online shopping open bar out of towners outdoors pancakes party photos pizza public art publications Queens restaurant Restaurant Review Restaurant Week Riesling Crawl rooftop roosevelt running sake save money shopping shopping deals skincare social media Social Media Week Soho spirits summer Super Bowl sushi sweetery tapas taxi TDF Terroir The Jewish Museum Theater thrift store Thrillist Times Square travel Twitter giveaway upper east side video views Village Voice volunteer opportunity website West Village williamsburg win wine wine class wine event Yankee Stadium yelp yoga Ziegfeld Theater