Do Or Dine Restaurant
Do or Dine, a new comedy coming to dinners near you
It could be a scene out of a Judd Apatow film: Dissatisfied with their corporate jobs, four young men imagine a restaurant devoted entirely to deviled eggs (substances are involved in the brainstorming session). Hilarity ensues.
Although the deviled-egg shop may never exist, what actually happened is far better.
After cutting their teeth at the Modern, Justin Warner, Luke Jackson, George McNeese and Perry Gargano decamped to Bed-Stuy to open the cleverly dubbed Do or Dine. Deviled eggs still get face time on the menu (as "E666s") alongside equally impetuous dishes such as Nippon-Nachos (dumplings enveloped in nacho trimmings).
Funny, yes. But comedy doesn't guarantee good food. Luckily, Do or Dine has both. Those eggs, for instance, laced with bacon and shiso leaf, are given a perfect tempura crispness thanks to a dunk in the fryer. They're meant to serve as a drinking nosh, but they are equally addictive to dead sober diners.
The fryer strikes again in the fantastic Fish and Chips, in which whole branzino gets a delightful crunch. But the tangy vinaigrette is the dish's best virtue: The yuzu-based mixture reads like refined sweet and sour, soaking the fish as well as its accompanying thick-cut fries. "Like sexed up boardwalk fries," says Warner.
Every dish is less than $20. Cocktails, forthcoming, will remain under $10. With Girl Talk blasting and the proprietors outfitted in ripped-up cargos and kicks, the place is a dare to have fun. And the food is a double dare to keep from licking the plate.
Do or Dine, 1108 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn; 718-684-2290 or facebook.com/doordine