For 60 years, an Italian gem has been treasured by cognoscenti
It’s a wintery night in Marine Park. The wind off Jamaica Bay rattles street signs and shakes the treetops of this low-slung neighborhood. But Mother Nature, even in a brutal mood, is no match for the fortress of stone, cleaved on the corner of Nostrand Avenue and Avenue R, where Italian cuisine and conviviality have reigned since 1964 at Michael’s of Brooklyn.
The spacious interior, aglow in chandelier light, features the old world charm of wood panels and white tablecloths. The waiters wear suits; the staff are in uniform. The vibe is that of a celebration, with laughter and camaraderie accompanying the live piano music, though romance is also in the air. In more prosaic moments, it’s a great space for power lunches, most notably those of New York’s Democratic party bigwigs who treat Michael’s like an unofficial headquarters (if those wood-paneled walls could talk…).
Ambiance aside, what has brought the people of Brooklyn into Michael’s for six decades is the food. It’s a family restaurant, owned all along by the Cacace family, now in its third generation, with father and son, Fred and Michael, up front and Chef John Cacace in the kitchen. In that kitchen are recipes handed down through the generations (including a heralded marinara sauce that is bottled on site to the tune of 60,000 jars a day and sold at retail), classics from the Italian-American cannon: hot antipasto, cold antipasto, pasta, chops, chicken, veal, steaks, seafood, sides, and desserts. Nothing unfamiliar here; all of it widely-recognized as exceptional.
