Restaurant Review: Vineapple Cafe

A Brooklyn Heights treasure that is so worth checking out.

One thing we absolutely love about New York City is the abundance of delicious dining options sprinkled across every single neighborhood.  And one place that we added to our lists of spots to hit is Vineapple Cafe.  Located in the beautiful neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights, Vineapple Cafe is a beloved local spot that serves everything from brunch to dinner that you can pair with some of the best coffee around or pick one of their delicious cocktail offerings.

Upon first entering Vineapple Cafe, the entrance resembles that of a regular coffee spot where you can get your coffee and go.  But if you look in the back, there are plenty of spots where you can take a seat and order some food.  And in the warmer months, they have a beautiful garden/backyard area that is the perfect spot for a weekend brunch.

What makes Vineapple Cafe so special is that on top of their food menu, they also serve some fun cocktails that you can enjoy at any time.  We tried two drinks – the Golden Harvest and the Brooklyn Heights.  The Golden Harvest is made with mezcal, ancho reyes, turmeric syrup, passionfruit, lime juice, paprika salt, and an egg white.  To be completely fair, we love any drink that comes with an egg white since that little addition makes any drink extremely creamy and fluffy – and the Golden Harvest is no exception to that rule.  With the first sip, you are met with a pillowy foam that coats your palette.  And then as you let the flavors sit, you get some of the smokiness from the Mezcal that blends nicely with the paprika salt rim.  There is a slight sweetness that also comes out from the turmeric syrup, and folds in nicely with the smokiness of the drink.

The Brooklyn Heights is for the people who enjoy dark liquor.  Made with Ragtime Rye, China-China, cherry heering, dry vermouth, and a luxardo cherry, this drink can only be described as stiff.  The natural oakiness from the rye marries beautifully with the subtle sweetness from the cherry and actually leaves a wonderful lingering cherry note on your palette that only makes you want more.

Moving on to some of the small plates, we opted to try the Burrata with Roasted Beets, because who doesn’t love a nice burrata dish?  This dish is made with Burrata, roasted beat puree, pistachios, salsa verde, and paired with some toasted bread.  We broke the burrata and the creamy cheese oozed out all over the plate, incorporating nicely with the roasted beat puree.  We found that the roasted beet puree paired nicely with the salsa verde, allowing for the puree to not be overbearingly sweet and actually adding some savory notes to it.  That paired with the creamy burrata made for a delicious combo of subtle sweetness and savoriness.  The addition of pistachios to the dish was great as the nuttiness from the pistachios cut through the sweetness and also added some nice moments of texture to the dish.

 We also decided to try the Butternut Squash crostini which is paired with goat cheese, maple syrup, and topped with walnuts.  This crostini was one of our favorites, granted, butternut squash is one of our favorites.  The butternut squash itself didn’t have much added frills to it, which we actually liked since it allowed for the natural sweetness of the squash to come through.  The goat cheese does a great job of adding a creamy tartness that cuts through the sweetness of the squash.  The walnuts on top added a nice crunchy texture and with the maple syrup on top almost made it into a candied walnut.  Each bite started out with a burst of sweetness that then is mellowed out by the goat cheese and finishes into a sweet and nutty walnut note.

For our main course, we tried the Hangar Steak which was paired with a red wine reduction, celery root puree, and roasted seasonal vegetables.  We got this steak cooked medium rare as well.  When first served this dish, we couldn’t help but love how much food was on the plate and how vibrant the dish looked.  The steak had a beautiful medium rare cook on it and had such a beautiful crust as well.  The steak itself had a lot of flavor and was so moist and juicy too.  The celery root puree added creaminess to the dish while also adding a bit of earthy, savory notes to it.  The roasted vegetables paired with it and added some notes of sweetness such as the addition of roasted carrots which we loved.  This is definitely a solid steak dish that has plenty of components to it that make it one of our recommendations.

Lastly, we tried the Apple Pie Bread Pudding for our dessert.  This was made with baked bread pudding, apple compote, and a salted caramel gelato on top.  The bread pudding itself was so soft and moist on the inside while still having a golden crisp exterior to it.  The salted caramel gelato was the perfect combination of sweet and salty where the little bit of salt added worked wonders for the dish.  And it was great when the gelato started melting and all the goodness there incorporated into the bread pudding.  The side of apple compote was a good combination of sweet and had a hit of acidity to it which helped cut through all the sweetness in the dish.  This was definitely a fun take on a deconstructed apple pie and we would definitely recommend this dish to any sweet tooths out there.

All in all, we absolutely loved Vineapple Cafe.  It is no wonder why this cafe is such a beloved cafe in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood too.  We are definitely planning our next outing here and so should you.