Barker
Restaurant · Bedford-Stuyvesant ·
Rotating soups, sandwiches, salads, and pastries
Rotating soups, sandwiches, salads, and pastries
"In its first week, this new daytime Bed-Stuy cafe had customers snatching focaccia sandwiches the moment they hit the shelves. The versions here are particularly ethereal: crispy yet puffy bread slathered with roasted onion mayonnaise and zesty zhug, piled with fresh chicories and tender, Moroccan-spiced sweet potatoes that make a sweet potato sandwich taste unexpected but perfectly balanced. Shaped by co-owners Gracie Gardner and Henry Wright’s shared kitchen experience and love story—and named for Wright’s late mother—the place turns out unfussy, extremely simple food with nearly everything made in-house daily, from bread and ham to mayonnaise and tart dough. Beyond the star focaccia, sandwiches like roast beef with horseradish, ham and cheese, and salmon rillettes share space with sharable plates such as creamy chicken noodle soup, bulgur porridge, and savory, cheesy tartiflettes, plus a Dad Plate of smoked ham, vegetables, bread, and spicy Hungarian cheese. The broccoli spoon salad, with charred florets and chickpeas, smooth tahini, and a hint of chile paste, was a standout when I visited, as was a lightly sweet currant scone served with generous spoonfuls of blueberry jam and clotted cream. A frequently changing blackboard menu and counter ordering set the tone; you can sit at a casual front bar or on an upstairs platform with larger tables and a view of the skylit open kitchen, or opt for full-menu takeout and online ordering. The space is warm, minimal, and unpretentious, with white brick walls, natural light, a Jake Coan lamp, a colorful Egyptian tapestry, and family heirlooms—from a grandfather’s serving station to an enormous jam pot—plus a photograph of the Salish Sea in the dining room." - Jess Eng
"A polished daytime newcomer offering a chalkboard of rotating soups, sandwiches like cold roast beef or ham and cheese, and pastries such as pistachio torta caprese and apple turnover, set in a stylish white-washed brick room with sleek wooden tables and silver bar stools for dine-in." - Tierney Plumb
"In Bed-Stuy, Barker Cafeteria is a daytime spot run by a couple who’ve worked at places like Blue Hill Stone Barns andSuperiority Burger. On the menu there are sandwiches, like a cold roast beef number with horseradish, watercress, and hickory sticks, soups, salads, and pastries, like currant scones with clotted cream and jam." - Willa Moore
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