Constant Eater

Lori Jayne, Bushwick bar food and then some

I made my first (long overdue) visit to Lori Jayne yesterday, the restaurant tucked inside Alphaville run by an old friend, Sam Braverman. Lori Jayne serves bar food, but bar food as prepared by a Chef, not a fry cook. Everything, including a delectable array of dipping sauces, is made fresh and from scratch every day. The food arrives too hot to eat, but it's well worth the wait before you dig in.

Lori Jayne's signature dish is the steak frites, thin slices of marbled rib eye bathed in a luscious sauce and piled over hand-cut french fries. I'd seen this dish posted on Instagram and the reviews have been glowing, but I still wasn't prepared for how good it truly is. The steak is succulent and unctuous, but the sauce… oh, the sauce. It’s unlike anything I've had served with steak before.

Fryer food looms large here but what comes out of that fryer can be transcendent. The chicken nuggets and chicken fingers both rewrite the book on these treats; the nuggets are made of real chicken, not processed chicken meal, and the fingers come out moist and succulent, not dry, overcooked or rubbery.

Which brings us back to those dipping sauces. They’re a treat unto themselves, all made in the kitchen, not poured from a bottle. There’s a curry ketchup, an Asian barbecue sauce made with black garlic, a spicy sichuan chili-oil concoction, the house sauce, and my favorite, a horseradish honey mustard that tingles and melts in your mouth.

They do chicken wings too, crisp and hot and meaty. Try them in the house Lori Jayne sauce, a concoction of vinegary hot sauce, lemon, spices, and both grana padano and blue cheese. The grana adds a nuttiness, the blue cheese a twang, and for me, the heat is perfect, spicy on the lips but not so hot that you'll be grabbing for a glass of milk. (There are hotter sauces if that's your thing.)

I didn’t get to try the Lori Jayne burger, but check the reviews online and you’ll see it’s highly recommended. Also, check for specials, they do pastas and other surprises frequently.

The prices won't make you choke either. Everything is reasonable. Grab a generous $8 draft from the bar; if you’re into signature cocktails, they have those nightly as well. Try several items from the menu and make it a dinner, or just grab a bite on your way in or out of a show in Alphaville's back room.

Lori Jayne/Alphaville is located at 140 Wilson Avenue, Brooklyn, a short walk from the L or M trains. The restaurant is open from 6 p.m. to 11:30 weekdays, later on weekends. You can find them at @lorijaynebk on Instagram and Threads, or at facebook.com/sammy.braverman.

I've been meaning to visit Lori Jayne for two years. My bad for not getting there sooner. But I'll be back soon, and often.