Red Hook

I'm a little bit obsessed with this neighborhood, and most of that is due to the food.

Red Hook Lobster Pound: Lobster rolls. Amazing. Delicious. I go with Connecticut style (warm and with butter) rather than Maine style (cold and with mayo). At $15, its not a cheap snack but there is a hefty portion of lobster on a perfect bun, and they bring in fresh lobsters from Maine weekly. You can also buy live lobsters there. They have a food truck that is in a different neighborhood everyday, so check their website for that.

Brooklyn Ice House: This bar is on the same block at the lobster pound, with super affordable drinks and a lovely outdoor garden. Their sweet potato fries were great.

The Good Fork: cozy restaurant, local / organic sourcing, and really great food. the surprise winner was the vegetarian steak and eggs- consisting of the best tofu ever + eggs + kimchee and rice. But, everything was really good.

Baked: a bakery with YUMMY cupcakes. My favorite: chocolate with a caramel and sea salt frosting.

Steve's Key Lime Pies: erratic hours, check their twitter feed. Delicious key lime pies- including small ones dipped in chocolate served on a stick.

Sunny's: awesome divey bar, open just a few days a week.

Botanica: nice bougie bar, but no fan or A/C and expensive (artisanal, fresh) cocktails- seems to be closed often though.

The Red Hook Ball Fields: each weekend in the summer, a range of food trucks with foods from various latin american countries park here and you can sit in the grass and eat your heart out. My favorites: the barbacoa (goat) tacos from the truck on Clinton, furthest away from Bay St. I also love the quesadillas from the truck on the corner of Bay and Clinton. Get a fresh agua de fruta from the neighboring truck. Or, pupusas Bay St. at the corner.

Sol Goldman pool: kitty corner from the Ball Fields is an awesome, huge, free pool. There are strange hours and rules to get in, so check their website. A good swim is nice to work up an appetite for the ball fields.

Transportation: getting to and from Red Hook can be a pain unless you are on bike. There is the Ikea ferry from Wall St. to Red Hook (free weekends, $5 otherwise, runs every 40 minutes- see website). The F train is a solid 20 minute walk. Or the B61 bus runs erratically.

Other sights: Walk along the water to the pier near Fairway- in the summer check out the Rube Goldberg machine near the Barge Museum.