We walked in through the enormous wooden doors into the comfortable, exposed wood interior. At the far end of the restaurant was the pizza oven, and standing in front of it was Paulie Gee himself. He looked a bit overwhelmed but quite happy, and he seemed glad to see us there. We took up a big table right in front of the kitchen space, and while we ate the restaurant very quickly filled up with other diners.

Delboy
Donny: Superb superb pie. I want one now!

Mo Cheeks
Donny: I got one of the specials that night was the Mo Cheeks which had slices of guanciale and mozzarella cheese. My second choice was The E & O. I never had guanciale before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The pie came out looking amazing and I couldn’t wait for the others and took a bite. OMG! The pie was so so so good and the guanciale was great too. Had intense porky flavor. I started looking into curing my own guanciale because of this pie.

The Greenpointer
Howard: This was a white pie topped with fresh arugula and lemon juice. This a the pie that really showcased the excellent crust; the milkiness of the cheese and the acidity of the lemon really complimented the dough in a surprising way.
Donny: I never had lemon juice on pizza before and this was great! A great summer pie.

Regina
Howard: We didn’t order the Regina, which is pretty much the standard margherita, but at one point during the meal the pizza arrived at our table. Apparently Paulie Gee thought it was a bit to charred to serve to the customer who had ordered it, so he sent it over to us. I thought it was excellent — I love char, and I love when my fingers get blackened by the crust, and though this pizza was slightly more charred than the others we got I didn’t think it was too charred at all.

The E & O
Donny: The second special that night was The E & O which had kale, guanciale or mushroom. Steph got it with mushroom. I am loving kale more and more these days and to have it on a pizza, it was just too damn good. Really loved the crunchy texture of the kale.

Arugula Shoomgala
Howard: A this layer of tomato sauce topped with arugula, this was another outstanding pie. The seasoning of the sauce was spot on, and the balance of ingredients was as well.
Donny: Our friend, Steph, voted this as her favorite pie of the night.

Spectacle
Donny: I mean who doesn’t love speck?! Another awesome pie that was devoured too quick for a photo. Boo.

Moby Grape
Howard: A layer of cheese topped with grape tomatoes and chopped fresh garlic; this could have used a little more seasoning but was quite good. In the 90 seconds or so this pizza was in the oven the tomatoes just barely burst open, and their sweetness made the pie something special.
Donny: Hahhaaa I can’t believe we all still had room for another pie.

There’s a lot to love about Paulie Gee’s. The pizzas are great, to be sure, and that is of course the foundation of any good pizzeria. Luckily there’s more than that. Paulie Gee has succeeded in creating a place where people can go to have fun and to be comfortable while eating those pizzas. A lot has been written in the food blog community about Paulie Gee and his becoming a pizzaiolo in his retirement. All I can add to that is that I am very glad he made his dream happen. Oh, and I’ll definitely be back for more.

I love it when I see something at the Farmer’s Market that I’ve never seen before. At first glance I thought this was just young broccoli rabe, but then I noticed the sign identifying them as kale flowers (it also said that you should cook them like you would broccoli rabe). I suppose this means we are nearing the end of kale season, which means that Spring really is around the corner.

So we went on a Thursday night and surprisingly we were all on time! Really rare that happens, eh I guess I’m always 30mins late to everything. We went in and got seated right away. The waiter quickly told us that they were out of the smoked half chicken and it was only 8:15pm. I took a lot longer than usual to finally decide what I wanted. But here’s what we all got.

Here’s what Howard thought:
Last year when I went to visit my sister in Wisconsin, I discovered the best bar food ever — deep fried cheese curds. I wished at the time that someone would bring them to NYC. Then a few months ago I read a blog post on Goodies First about Char No. 4 which serves deep fried cheese curds right here in Brooklyn. I immediately put Char No. 4 onto my list of places to go in 2010.

Photo by Howard

I didn’t really do any research into the place, so I assumed it was just a bar of some sort. When we finally decided to go I went and looked at the website and realized that Char No. 4 is a full-fledged restaurant, specializing in barbecue and bourbon.

I started my meal with the curds, but I was a bit disappointed. They weren’t nearly flavorful enough; in order to stand up to the beer, they should be salty and greasy. The “spicy pimento sauce” served with them tasted like thin ranch dressing with a spritz of hot sauce in it. Give me tiger blue sauce any day.

There is only one vegetarian option on the entree menu: crispy sweet potato gnocchi, served on a bed of mushrooms and spinach. While everything was pretty good, nothing really seemed outstanding. I did enjoy the textural component of the gnocchi — the crispy outside leading to the soft, pillowy inside — but the flavor seemed a little dull. I snagged some maple butter off of Donny’s plate to dip the gnocchi into.

We did have a bunch of good whiskey, so maybe it’s better to visit Char No. 4 as a bar, and ordering food if you get hungry.

Matt started off with the Smoked & Fried Pork Nuggets with char no. 4 hot sauce and had the House Smoked Brisket with pickled cabbage, beer cheese & side of potato salad.

Anh got 2 sides bacon-braised kale and brussels sprouts with parmesan cheese.

As for me, I got the duck special as the starter. Duck bacon, duck sausage and duck rillettes served with a salad and bread. Then I got the House smoked spare ribs with side of jalapeño-bacon cornbread and baked beans. After trying the “duck bacon” I think I’ll stick to regular bacon. Maybe I’m just so used to the great flavors of bacon that I was expecting the same from duck bacon. The sausage and rillettes were great, too bad it was a special and not part of the regular menu. The spare ribs were amazing. A little hard to eat with a fork and knife but I think the true winners were the honey butter and jalapeño-bacon cornbread. I would do anything ANYTHING for more.

So the other half of Char No.4 is their countless number of different whiskeys. We 2 flights, each flight had 3 different whiskeys. The Belmont Park flight had Woodford Reserve Master’s Seasoned Oak Finish, R1, and Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel. The Churchill Downs flight had Parker’s Heritage 27 Year, Thomas H. Handy Rye, and George Dickel #8. They all tasted the same to me so maybe Matt or Howard can tell you what was good or maybe not because we couldn’t figure which glass was which.

- Char No.4 196 Smith Street Brooklyn