Thistle Hill Tavern
441 Seventh Ave., at 15th St., Park Slope; 347-599-1262
David Massoni and Rebecca Weitzman worked together at ’inoteca, where he managed and she cooked. At Thistle Hill Tavern, slated to open by early May in Brooklyn’s South Slope, they’re partners, along with longtime East Village bartender John Bush and San Francisco–based punk-rocker Michael “Fat Mike” Burkett of NOFX, whose namesake burger (the Fat Mike) is made from house-ground grass-fed beef. Other items on Weitzman’s seasonal menu: mussels with hot cherry peppers in Brooklyn Brewery Pennant Ale, milk-braised pork belly with fava beans and pickled ramps, and the aptly named “Breakfast,” a morning-food medley of housemade sausage, pancake, egg, and peppered maple syrup. The 42-seat space melds old (original brick walls and mahogany floor) and new (a pressed-tin ceiling, a Brooklyn-themed collage), and so does the brown-spirits-heavy beverage program, which revives the Thistle, a classic cocktail made from scotch, vermouth, and bitters.