Mr. T's Birthday Weekend- DBGB

It was Mr. T’s birthday this past week and we celebrated by having three nights of good food and drinks.

Thursday night we I took him out to his favorite Japanese place in the city- Sushi Yasuda. We sat at the counter right in front of Yasuda himself and enjoyed piece after piece of utterly delicious sushi. I swear there is no better fish in the city and Yasuda’s laugh alone is reason enough to go!

Friday we braved the rain storms and made our way to Radegast in Brooklyn to celebrate with friends. If you know anything about me it’s that I love, love, love German beer and beer halls. Radegast is huge compared to my favorite Zum Scheinder and has a ton of fantastic beers.

It was too dark inside to get any pictures but they have one of the best additions to a brat I’ve ever seen- a pretzel bun. OMG!!! Why doesn’t Zum have this!! A buttery warm pretzel roll with nice big grains of salt was the perfect carrying case for my freshly grilled brat. All of the meats are done cafeteria style on the big grill at the back, ensuring each order is piping hot and super fresh.

If Radegast wasn’t such a trek from my apartment I would be hanging out there a LOT!

Saturday Mr. T’s folks came into the city and we decided to check out Daniel Boulud’s new restaurant DBGB Kitchen and Bar.

We arrived a little bit early for our reservation so we grabbed a couple of seats at the bar. I liked the décor of the front area. There were nice big windows for people watching and cute little phrases about food written all over the mirrors and wall.

I was impressed with the number of craft beers they have in stock and found it quite difficult to choose. I ended up trying a Hopf Hefeweizen that was pretty good. It came in a big bottle so they kindly put it on ice so it would stay cool.



Once everyone in our party arrived they brought us to our table and we set to ordering up some appetizers. DBGB is known for its’ varieties of sausage so we decided to check out four different types and compare.

The first one was my favorite of the bunch the Chipolata with pommes mousseline.



This was a long pork sausage that had a nice garlicky taste. I’m such a sucker for pureed potatoes so that might have tipped the scale of this dish a little as well.

There are actually two in this next picture- the one in front is the Toscane and the one in back is the Vermont. The Vermont is listed on the menu as smoked pork & cheddar link, hash browns and red onion crème frache. Sounds pretty good right?



Unfortunately the sausage wasn’t that great. The cheddar was more on top of the sausage than inside and the red onion crème frache really didn’t have that much flavor.

The Toscane fared a little bit better. I enjoy Italian sausage and while the garlic olive oil was a little too spicy for my tastes it still had a nice flavor.

Our last sausage was the Boudin Basque which I didn’t get a picture of. I had never had blood sausage before and I wasn’t exactly keen on trying it, but I had a little bite. I have to say it had an amazing rich taste that was unlike anything I have ever eaten. I just can’t get over the whole blood thing. It kind of grosses me out.

For my main course I ordered the Piggie Burger.



This was a 6 oz beef patty topped with BBQ Pulled Pork from Daisy Mae’s, Boston lettuce and jalapeno mayonnaise on top of a cornbread cheddar bun.

Quite a fun presentation I thought! Here it is close up.



Whoa. This was a good concept but it just didn’t work. The pulled pork had so much smoky bbq flavor that I couldn’t taste the beef at all! I mean not one bit! I would never have known a burger was lurking under there somewhere if I didn’t see it. I ended up taking the pork off and there was quite a tasty burger underneath. It was too bad the flavor had been completely overwhelmed in the beginning.

Mr. T ordered the Paleron Carbonnade.



This had tender pieces of Flatiron steak that had been braised in a dark beer with root vegetables, making each piece of meat incredibly tender and moist. I loved the big pearl onions and the whole dish was extremely comforting.

I was incredibly stuffed at this point but I knew that desserts were in order. Luckily Mr. T’s mom agreed to split with me so I was able to indulge. I’m a sundae freak and these looked amazing.

This is our Coffee Carmel Sundae.



Huge scoops of Coffee and Carmel ice cream had little pieces of chocolate cookie, brownie, candied pecans and chocolate sauce all topped off with a fluffy dollop of whipped cream.

This dessert was awesome!!! I was so happy just looking at it. I don’t know why more places don’t specialize in sundaes. A little bit of extra topping goes a long way!

Mr. T was the only one who didn't order from the sundae list and got the Crepe Farcie.



This was a French crepe filled with warm chocolate coolant, roasted cherries and a side of Chantilly. I have to say this dessert pretty much rocked the house as well. The chocolate sauce was absolutely decadent and the roasted cherries had a strangely wonderful sweet and sour taste.

And did you notice the nice Happy Birthday message on the plate. I think Mama T. had something to do with that!

Okay now service wise I felt things were only just okay. It seemed like everything took a little bit longer than it should have. There were extended periods of wait between each course and I couldn’t figure out if it was our waitresses fault or the kitchen’s. Our server was certainly friendly enough but I felt like things weren’t going as smoothly as they should have.

Overall I liked the décor and vibe of DBGB. I would like to come back again and try some of their non-meat items and see how those are. I know I will be coming back again for their sundaes but that goes without saying!!

Overall it was nice to enjoy some time together and Mr. T had a wonderful birthday weekend.

DBGB Website

Radegast Website

Sushi Yasuda Website