Pirosmani - Georgian Food: LTH-New York Excursion

Hungryrabbi and I met for our LTH-New York contingent's excursion in Sheepshead Bay, out in South Brooklyn, at Pirosmani, a Georgian (Soviet-diaspora) restaurant. One of the treasures of living in New York is the range of cuisines. I admit that the subway travel time from Manhattan to Avenue U in Brooklyn is approximately my driving time to downtown Milwaukee.

Avenue U was in the heart of Old Jewish Brooklyn, out near Ocean Avenue. Now it is a highly diverse community with a large contingent from the former Soviet Union.

Pirosmani is a quite pleasant establishment with waiters who could speak sufficient English for us to get by (with some help from Hungryrabbi's Russian). We admired the folk art murals on the wall and enjoyed the stylings of a Georgia chanteuse who, given the few diners, was almost singing for us alone.

This was honest middle-class Georgian food as best I could judge. Not peasant dishes, and not as elegant as the Georgian meal that I was served in Jerusalem. We particularly enjoyed the roasted eggplant with walnuts and a very flavorful lamb soup (Kharcho) with rice (the selection of herbs and the subtle broth suggested that this was not the hearty chowder of Georgian workers). Also quite good was warm cheese in a bread that tasted much like a puri (the name of the dish was Khachapuri, which might indicate a connection). We also enjoyed a Pork Shish-kabob, Pirogi, and slices of a hard, mozzarella like cheese called "Suluguni." The only disappointment was Kuchamachi that was advertised as Chicken Liver with Walnuts, but included something chewy like a beef tendon. The closing Chocolate Cake was sweet, but not particularly rich. We also had a robust, semi-sweet Georgian red wine, Khyanchkara.

The evening reminded me that just because a restaurant is "exotic," it need not be outstanding in all details. However, we had enough tasty dishes that we both left well-satisfied and sated. By Manhattan standards, the dinner was not very expensive, but compared to other ethnic dining, the bill of $65/person suggests middle class diners are the audience.

Pirsmani
2222 Avenue U (at 22nd Street)
Brooklyn (Sheepshead Bay)
718-368-3237

GAF wrote:Avenue U was in the heart of Old Jewish Brooklyn, out near Ocean Avenue. Now it is a highly diverse community with a large contingent from the former Soviet Union.

Hi!

I will admit to not knowing my NYC geography very well. How far is this location from Brighton Beach?

Maybe 8 years ago, I drove to NYC with friends from Moscow who beelined to Brighton Beach. As we turned onto Coney Island Blvd (I could be dead wrong but its what I recollect), there was an Aeroflot sign entirely in cyrillic. There were a number of restaurants under elevated tracks with the dominant signage in cyrillic and almost as a courtesy the minor text in English.

Thanks!

Regards,

These neighborhoods blend into each other - Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend and Homecrest. Sheepshead Bay is Northeast of Brighton Beach and is on Sheepshead Bay (of course), while Brighton Beach is on the Atlantic Ocean. These are all more-or-less Soviet diaspora areas. The Soviet diaspera did something very smart in moving to New York, choosing the areas along the beaches and boardwalks of South Brooklyn, creating a little Odessa/little Crimea out of a decaying neighborhood. The only problem is its distance from Manhattan if anyone were to work there.