New York City has slowly become a barbecue town, and one of the destinations that continues to deliver is Hometown Bar-B-Que. Despite its location in Red Hook far from subway stations, the restaurant regularly has long lines extending out the door. We showed up on a warm September Saturday in the late afternoon before the dinner rush and still had a 40-minute wait time. But in the end, it was probably worth it.

We ate at Bonnie’s, a Cantonese-inspired, Chinese American restaurant embracing some Italian American influences.

We had lunch at Veselka’s newest location in Williamsburg.

We found ourselves liberated from childcare one random weeknight and decided to check out the new Thai restaurant that had replaced what had been our favorite local taco joint. We found a stunningly transformed restaurant with eye-catching food.

Mable’s Smokehouse opened in 2011 on the latter end of the New York City barbecue revolution. The restaurant brings Oklahoma-style recipes to the city in a rustic saloon atmosphere, which is the perfect place for my three-year-old.