"The intersection of natural wine and ice cream isn’t exactly a popular place to park a bar (though we loved the now-closed Bad Habit). But Lai Rai, which is partly inspired by Parisian wine and ice cream shop Folderol, pairs wine buckets with metal coupes of ice creams and sorbets on top of its wide, black-and-white swirl marble bar. You’ll find an approachable one-page selection of glasses and bottles, mostly French and Italian, as well as a few fantastic frozen desserts in tropical flavors: creamy avocado and toasty banana leaf ice creams, and a deliciously grassy, citrusy ambarella sorbet. Lai Rai is a collaboration between Mắm down the block and Greenpoint restaurant Đi Ăn Đi, and they’ve got some great Vietnamese-ish snacks too, like head cheese studded with peppercorns and cartilage." - bryan kim, will hartman, willa moore, neha talreja, molly fitzpatrick, sonal shah
