First there was Hanco’s, then Henry’s, and now there’s Home, the newest banh mi shop in Park Slope. Home opened in the space formerly occupied by Earth Tonez, and it’s been open for about two months. I visited on a chilly winter night a couple of weeks ago. Home makes sandwiches in the mold of those two other places, but not nearly as well crafted. My tofu sandwich, though a bit cheaper than even Henry’s, had way too much mayonnaise, not enough spice, and some limp-looking cilantro. If you’re down on 5th Avenue and you just have to have a Vietnamese sandwich it’ll do in a pinch, but I’d stick with the two places on 7th Avenue.

Home — 349 5th Ave, Brooklyn

At this point I think that Stone Park Cafe is the best restaurant in Park Slope. I’ve had three great meals there now, while I had one mediocre meal at the restaurant most people consider the best in the Slop, Al Di La. And to all of you thinking that I can’t judge based on just one meal, consider this: my meal at Al Di La was so thoroughly disappointing that I don’t really want to go back. On the other hand, I want to go back to Stone Park Cafe again, and again, and again.

On my most recent visit I brought my parents there for lunch, a time of day I hadn’t experienced at Stone Park Cafe before. My dad got the steak sandwich and my mom got the chicken paillard (minus the bacon), both deemed excellent. I got the brioche french toast, which was also great — flavorful but not too sweet, to make room for the warm berry compote served along with it. No syrup needed. We did have to wait a lot longer for everything than seemed normal, but when the food came out it was good enough to make us forgive them the delay.

Stone Park Cafe — 324 5th Ave, Brooklyn

I was reading through FIPS yesterday and came across a story about a new bakery that had opened on 9th St, just off of 7th Ave, called Almondine. I was surprised to read about it, because I walk past that intersection every day and had never seen it. So on my way to work I decided to stop by and check it out. It’s no wonder I hadn’t noticed it before — I was standing where I thought it was looking around for about a minute before I realized I was standing right in front of it. The bakery is set back from the street and the sign isn’t very eye-catching. According to the man behind the counter they’ve been open for three months at this location (they have another location in DUMBO). The bakery has one case with sweets, and another with savories. The sandwiches and quiches looked good but I just wanted a snack, so in honor of the bakery’s name I got an almond croissant. It was quite good — crunchy and flaky outside, with a creamy, almost custard-like inside (and at $2.65 a relative bargain). I’ll definitely be back, if I can find the place again.

Almondine Bakery — 442 9th Street, Brooklyn

For pure research and to blog more for Drink To Blog, Matt, Phae and I went to a beer tasting at the Beer Table recently. The guest talker was Chris Munsey of Murray’s Cheese. You can read about the stout tasting here.

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One of the reasons it’s good to be friends with Donny is that he occasionally sends out emails like the one he sent out last month, inviting people on a bakery crawl through Brooklyn. Of course we only ended up going to two bakeries, but the fun of it was walking through Brooklyn, and we did eat a lot of good food.

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Provini, which is coming to 8th Ave & 13th St in Brooklyn (the space formerly occupied by Pumpkin’s Organic Market), has been in the process of opening for a while now. They recently put up their window signs — does this mean they’re opening sooner rather than later?