Good Times at Good Fork

Last night was the first-ever Red Hook Adventure of 2006. My friends Tim, Jason, Scott and I decided we would bar crawl through the hook and end the evening at Good Fork.

We started with drinks at B61, carried onward to Moonshine, where two buckets of PBR were drained in the quiet, leafy back courtyard. From there, we passed a Rottweiler guarding a lot full of junked cars at sunset and pressed onto Hope & Anchor where we sat at the counter and had another round. Finally, we arrived at Good Fork. Jason had been to Good Fork with his wife last week and raved and raved about it. The NYTimes gave it an excellent review, and my hopes were high. Thankfully, I was not let down -- hurry up and get to Good Fork before everyone hears about it and it becomes impossible to get in.

For forty bucks apiece, we each had a cocktail to start, a glass of wine with dinner, an appetizer and an entree. The food was incredible. I started with the delicate, crunchy fried squash blossoms and had the slow braised Berkshire pork with polenta and grilled scallions as a main. The pork was unbelievably tender and well-spiced. I also got a bite of the Korean-style steak and eggs with kimchee rice, which was super tasty. Portion sizes were Just Right, which is rare. The main dining room of the restaurant is really lovely, with its curved wood ceiling, and the service was good, no complaints. We sat in the new backyard, which smells like flowers and is filled with candles and weird antiques like early-century refrigerators. It was a perfect date restaurant, and someplace that still feels relatively secret -- and yet cheap enough to be a servicable neighborhood joint. I'll be going back as soon as I can.

After dinner, we decided to walk down to the water. We walked out onto crumbling piers, just inches above the water, and watched a wedding reception across the way inside the old red Lehigh Valley boat. We considered swimming across, coming up like some creatures from the lagoon and asking if we could join in the chicken dance, but thought better of it.

Eventually we made our way back behind the Fairway building following the old trolley tracks. There we found a bunch of old abandoned trolley cars and our curiosity got the best of us. Though the doors didn't open, the windows were all gone so with a little climbing and scrambling we all hoisted ourselves inside the old cars by the water and poked around. TEchnically, I suppose we were "trespassing," but hey, there were no signs up, so....! The whole thing felt vaguely Tom Sawyer-ish but we marveled that there was a place left in NYC where you could go explore something creepy and broken down right on a beautiful waterfront with the moon shining on the waves, and have it all to yourself and not have it guarded to the gills by security. Afterward we walked around the other side of the building, only to be blocked by a huge, probably 15-foot iron fence. But being in the adventurous mood that we were, we opted to scale it instead of walk all the way back around.

I still have the bruises today, but I haven't had that much fun in a long time. Thanks to my partners in crime for a very memorable, totally weird and really wonderful night.