Out on the Town with Ruske (Moody Pics Below)

With Ruske at Greenpoint's Black Rabbit Bar. Good to know: BR has an expanded food menu and - rarest of rare - more than a handful of quality wines available by the glass. Ruske and Cafe Drake chose a dry Rose to sip in the back garden.

And later, after a cozy opening at Kill Devil Hill's back gallery (complete with cocktails of Hendrick's gin and blackberry brandy), Cafe Drake had a memorable meal at Williamsburg's new destination dining spot, The Bedford. Along with more good cocktails and a bottle of brisk Alsatian Riesling we supped on a sort of fritto misto starter of tiny whole fish and melting-tender calamari served with aioli and a Gaeta olive paste, followed by luscious fish and steak (grass-fed hangar atop caramelized potatoes and lemony, rich stewed broccoli rabe) entrees. Cafe Drake joins the general consensus that The Bedford is a huge asset to our local dining landscape and a welcome relief after far too many overpriced slop house startups, blossoming like toxic mushrooms following the Billyburg housing boom deluge.