CT & I have been back for from our Panama trip for a little while now and already have a bunch of NYC based posts for you. Rather than let them get “stale,” we are gonna have a couple bonus posts at 12:15. Stay tuned tomorrow at 2:15 EST for the start of our Panama posts. Enjoy!
Recently CT’s Sister and Brother-in-Law(ML & TL) closed on their first apartment in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Congrats! As such, along with CT’s parents, we graciously offered to help them with the move and setting the new place up. CT and I were responsible for waiting for the various handymen coming to the place to fix a couple things, while CT’s parents got a head start with their car, bringing some of the more fragile things. Lucky for us the handymen arrived early, so we basically arrived and it was already time for lunch. ML & TL suggested a nearby bar with a “beer garden” called P.J. Hanley’s. Not only is it one of the oldest bars in NYC (est. 1874), they also serve pizza from the next door neighbor, South Brooklyn Pizza.
As you can see below, they have quite a large outdoor space. Fortunately, August has been relatively cool here in NYC unlike our previous months, so we enjoyed the weather and sat outside.
We started with some chips and salsa. Each of the salsas had good flavors, but none were very hot.
CT’s Mom had a craving for potato skins. I had half of one. While there was a lot of bacon on each, I would have preferred it to be crispier. It was pretty bland overall. The skins were accompanied with some ranch sauce.
With all of the calories burned running around, we also got some cheese fries for good measure. The fries were nice and crisp and held up well against the gooey cheese.
CT says: I really enjoyed these – super crispy under a perfectly gooey melted cheese whiz
We ordered three of South Brooklyn Pizza’s speciality pies($10-12 each). They also offer a “NY Style” pizza for $25, which was HUGE. The specialties were more “bar-style” pizza.
Margarita. The best measure of any pizza place. The sauce was nice and tangy. The crust was excellent. While it wasn’t as charred as some other artisanal pizza places, the dough used was quite special. The perfect mix of salty and crunchy.
CT says: WOW. This was a really really good pizza! The sauce had such great flavor; so fresh tasting! And the crust was so crisp on the bottom, while soft on top. Really just perfection in a pizza.
Upskirt.
The special of the day was mushroom and sausage. Another tasty pizza, but I don’t remember the toppings adding that much to an already good pizza underneath.
CT says: This is my favorite pizza topping-combo, so when I saw it as the special, I knew we had to get it. Again, a great pizza. Not too greasy either.
Finally, the quattro formagi. I have really begun to enjoy ricotta on my pizzas. It brings such a great cool creaminess to the pizza.
CT says: Also good, but I couldn’t stop eating the other two to really get a proper taste.
All in all, P.J. Hanley’s was a good bar that I am sure ML & TL will be frequenting often. Add on the fact that you can order some great pizzas from South Brooklyn Pizza next door makes it a great bar! I foresee this being our go-to place on the off chance we go back to Brooklyn to visit, hehe. Congrats to ML & TL on the new place and thanks for lunch!!
T.C. says
WOW. I want their bar-style specialty pie in my mouth now. Mushrooms and sausage look slammin’
Feisty Foodie says
Great photos!
hungry says
How was the beer selection?
TT says
pretty generic. I think I had a Sam Summer.
CT says
I thought they had a pretty extensive draft selection…weren’t we wondering where they kept all the taps? Or was that someplace else we went recently?
TT says
yea i am pretty sure they had a large selection, but pretty generic stuff.