Tastes of Flatbush: Food Crawl
This past sunday afternoon, day 2 of my no Instagram usage but I am allowed to use my business page to expand TaurusxFoodie, right? I strategically ensure that I am only following food pages so that I don’t get sucked into the wormhole of spending hours on social media. Around 3 pm, I spy this flyer,
I see that a food crawl was happening in my neighborhood; I must support! See, I am native to Flatbush and grew up a few short blocks from Prospect Park so you know Flatbush is home.
So I brush my wig and put on my flyest sweats.I head over to Awesome Brooklyn and purchase my tickets. Crawl participants could purchase 4 tastes for 20 bucks or 11 tastes for 50 bucks. I opted for frugal and after purchasing my 4 taste pack, I had a hard time narrowing down my selections as:
Can’t eat meat on Sundays and
Only purchased the 4 taste pack.
So the most logical first stop for me was right outside of Awesome Brooklyn. Breuklen Rub was cookin up a mean serving of vegan rasta pasta. The penne pasta was al dente and sautéed in a coconut based sauce with a few veggies; there was also a steak option but couldn’t have because of reason 1 above.
After that, I had a plethora of options to choose from on Flatbush but opted to check out Nostrand Ave. Within in the past few years, Nostrand Ave from about Fenimore to Lincoln Rd has experienced a huge transformation. I’ve noticed that this strip particular stretch of Nostrand is littered with small business store fronts from event spaces to flower shops. Also a bunch of new bars and restaurants but the staples still there like Culpeppers and Allans Bakery (which was part of the food crawl!).
I first stopped at a sweet little Italian spot, Camillo’s, where the tastes said and but when I got there, I was offered one or the other (please refer to highlighted below)
I didn’t make an issue of it and opted for the tiramisu (not pictured). It was fresh but you know my bougie self, I felt a way that it wasn’t made in house but was told that it came from a very reputable bakery. The staff here was very nice and the vibes were good. Camillo’s usually opens around 5 pm on most days and serves a lot of very Italian things if you ever in the mood for Italian food and don’t want to stray too far from Flatbush!
After leaving Camillo’s, I checked out a new, what was new to me at least, a sandwich spot about a block away from Camillo’s called Bishop Wells and Sandwich Shop. There really gave you a nice sized taste for Sandwiches that on average cost around 11 bucks so for that I am grateful to them. There were two options to choose from a turkey sandwich and, hooray, a vegan option. I opted for the vegan option which was tempeh bacon, butternut squash, avocado and sprouts on multigrain. I felt the sandwich could have been a little heartier but it was good. I met a few more crawlers who shared their experience with me and at that point, I regretted not purchasing the 11 taste pack!
After leaving, I was at a crossroads and only had one taste left. It came down to:
Allans Bakery (cause I heard they gave out many tastes),
Salem’s Hour
The Gold Room
After crossing out Allan’s and not feeling the vibe at Salem, I opted to go to the Gold Room. (I had been wanting to go there for a hot minute) The Gold Room is literally a room painted in all GOLD (drip, drip)! The tastes they was offering was mac and cheese with chicken or they famed rum punch (note how they put or and not and). I asked for only the Mac&Cheese and I was pleasantly delighted with it. It was like when you show up every year diligently at your exe’s family barbecues cause auntie makes some really amazing mac n cheese. It was that type of mac that I don’t typically see sold in restaurants. I was also happy that the mac was seasoned with herbs, I’m a firm believer that many restaurants could gain customer brownie points with they mac and cheese if they add either a little bit of Italian seasoning or herbs de Provence not this bland shit. The Gold Room definitely spiced their mac and cheese with one of these seasonings because it was really good. Definitely upset that I didn’t take a photo but it was only a taste, so… I also wound up ordering the rum punch and used my yelp check-in discount (plug) and it was a bit underwhelming - strong but it tasted bland and didn’t stand out from any other rum punches that I have had before. The Gold Room was still serving brunch and it was 5 pm. A plus in my book because I don’t wake up until 2 pm on the weekends anyway! So if you are a late bruncher and want to stay local this may be a viable option for you.
At the end of the crawl, I introduced myself to the organizers and later found out the crawl is actually a fundraiser. All proceeds from the crawl benefit Seeds in the Middle, a 501 c charity dedicated to empowering students to access healthy foods no matter where they are at. I even volunteered to assist with them.
Tastes of Brooklyn just held another food crawl on 10.19.19 and will be putting on some other cool crawls this winter as well.
Will you be joining? Let me know!
