Park Slope's Talde Gets a Star

[kara zuaro] Dale Talde, David Massoni, and John Bush are neighborhood guys. At the root of their partnership and business model is a shared desire to provide good food and a casual dining experience. Dale Talde recently became a partner at Thistle Hill Tavern, Massoni and Bush's first restaurant in Park Slope, where he is now in charge of the menu there. Talde, the trio's most ambitious restaurant, was less than a year old when the team opened Pork Slope, an American Honky Tonk serving chef Talde's take on bar food. As for the restaurant, Talde's immediate success when it opened in January has given the Park Slope eatery serious culinary momentum, the likes of which has brought in Pete Wells, who filed a one-star review on the restaurant today.

"About a month into its run," Wells writes, "the dining room ticked along briskly, and the cooking, which could be called pan-Asian if that didn’t sound so alarming, was smart and skillful." That was before Talde was in charge of three menus, hard work to say the very least. The best way to deal with that is to be at three places at once, but science hasn't made that possible yet. In his review, Wells mentions how whenever Talde was in the kitchen, "The food was back to its old, confident self."

The review seems to suggest that had Talde been in the kitchen on each of the three visits Wells made before he could file his review, an unwritten (written?) Times requirement, he may have stamped it with a second star. Talde, no stranger to competition, is ready to do what it takes to right the wrongs. He had this to say about the review via Twitter:

Barclays Center is Opening in Two Months

Barclays Center is being built across the street from Atlantic Terminal, Brooklyn’s busiest transportation hub. The Brooklyn Nets will be calling the 19,000-seat stadium home when it opens in just two months. Park Slope, the neighborhood due south of the stadium, teems with restaurants and nightlife. It is a landscape that is changing now more than ever as Barclays Center readies to open September 28th.

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Here Piggy Piggy

The trio behind Talde are looking to open Pork Slope sometime in July.  The drink menu is inspired by the great state of Kentucky.  John Bush is the beverage director and he just got back from a trip to bourbon country, "I was drinking a lot of bourbon you can’t get up here—I was on the Bourbon Trail."  He will be behind the 35-foot bar when Pork Slope reveals its snout to the neighborhood.

Edibles will include pulled pork, brisket, smoked meats, and barbeque ribs.  Dale Talde, a native of Chicago, is also planning a Chicago-style Italian beef sandwich that he explains as a "French Dip sandwich meets a Chicago Beef Steak."

The tin ceiling and the walls have a fresh coat of paint and the pool table is already in place at 247 5th Ave, between Garfield and Carroll.

Either You're Slingin' Tom Kha or You Got a Wicked Jump Shot

"I had dreams and aspirations of being a ball player, then I topped out at 5'5. I have completely flat feet and every time there's a crack in the sidewalk, I turn my ankle. But one thing I've got is a jump shot." - Dale Talde on basketball.

If he was any taller than 5'5, we might not be enjoying the culinary fixings from Park Slope's much buzzed about chef.  Talde is busy every night of the week and Pork Slope, the team's next project, is set to open sometime this summer, bringing cheap eats and pitchers of beer to 247 5th Avenue (@ Carroll Street).

As a full-time resident of Brooklyn, Dale has a few places he likes to go on his days off.  David Koon and Jamison Blankenship are Dale's pals from when they worked together at Morimoto, and Chef Talde loves their ramen at little Prospect Heights gem Chuko.

Talde Starts Brunch this Weekend

The Talde Trio has announced they're starting brunch service.  You can get Dale Talde's Dim Sum Brunch menu starting this weekend from 11am - 3pm.  Sausage, egg, and cheese fried rice, Korean chicken wings and waffles, and everything bagel spring rolls can be washed down with watermelon margarita's and a "very excellent bellini #1."  Check out the tasty little spring rolls, with smoked salmon and cream cheese, being made in the video.

A Comic Book Look at the Guys Behind Pork Slope, Coming Early Summer

Nick and Adam Hayes are the brothers behind the graphic novel Dark Age.  They teamed up with the trio behind Talde, the white-hot Park Slope spot on 7th Ave and 11th Street that opened in January, and made this illustration talking about Pork Slope, the trio's latest venture.

Roadhouse + Dale Talde = Pork Slope

Talde was only one month old when we heard the trio behind the restaurant was planning another project together.  It's location?  247 5th Avenue, in Park Slope, in the space that housed Aunt Suzie's for nearly 30 years.  We learn this morning that the new space will be appropriately called Pork Slope, which suggests where the menu draws its inspiration.  Pitchers will also be an option to hold some of the 25 beers that will be available on tap.

Pork Slope will open sometime this summer and be open from 5pm - 4am seven days a week.  Expect an "off the chain rowdy" party to celebrate the night it opens.

Park Slope's Aunt Suzie to Become Uncle Talde

It was confirmed today that the team behind Thistle Hill Tavern and the 1-month-old Talde will be taking the space that was home to Aunt Suzie for 25 years in Park Slope.

No details as to the name or the menu, but the new haunt will serve as an after hours spot for many a Park Sloper, and with future neighbors opening a block away, the stretch of 5th Ave between 1st and Carroll stands to be quite the destination.