preview
Alíseo Osteria del Borgo
Priced out of his rental in Park Slope four years ago, commercial photographer Albano Ballerini bought a building in less-gentrified, nearby Prospect Heights. The vacant restaurant space on the ground floor made him nostalgic for the big café his family owned in Marches, on Italy’s Adriatic coast, and soon he’d abandoned his photo studio and started renovations. This weekend, after two years as “the messenger, the carpenter, and the cleaning lady,” Ballerini opens Alíseo Osteria del Borgo, a wine bar and restaurant. He’s also the chef, and plans to change the set menu “according to the market, my mood, the weather . . . it’s a very Italian way.” A typical meal might encompass olives, artichoke spread and focaccia, a bean or green or grain salad, cannellini soup, and pork loin stuffed with figs. If all you want is a glass of wine and a nibble, you’re welcome to sit at the bar and carve your own chunks off a wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano.
665 Vanderbilt Avenue, Prospect Heights
718-783-3400
· Cuisine: Italian

Moutarde
Park Slope’s Fifth Avenue strip may contain two Blue Ribbons, two exceptional Italian joints, a British chip shop, a beer geek’s paradise, even a loungey Thai restaurant run by an Australian and an Irishman, but—quel horreur!—only a single bistro. That was the shocking discovery made by Frenchman Arnaud Giberszcajn, who must have considered it his civic duty to turn the old Mike & Tony’s space into Moutarde. With a chef who’s done time at Soho Steak and Banania Cafe, you can count on moderately priced bistro food like snails, oysters, and hanger steak, plus, as the name says, dishes enhanced with mustard. And we’re pretty sure that doesn’t mean French’s.
239 Fifth Avenue, Park Slope
718-623-3600
· Cuisine: French