Vinegar Hill House

Vinegar Hill House has been tucked away in the quirky, quiet, Dumbo-adjacent nook that is Vinegar Hill since 2008, and for nearly that long, it has been the most wonderful restaurant around. The cocktails are bespoke Manhattan and Negroni-types, always handsome and artful. Dinners usually include the juiciest pork chop or a hearty homemade pasta with kill-me-now ragù. Brunch is greasy enough to cure a hangover — those home fries, a.k.a. “wood-fired potatoes”! — but there’s a nagging sense that the food is somehow a little too serious and the ambience a bit too intense for what purports to be a casual neighborhood spot. Despite appearances, it’s not the kind of place you feel able to just swing by. That said, the food is consistently great, especially the dramatically two-toned signature dessert, a pitch-black chocolate Guinness cake with a stark white cream-cheese frosting. It’s the classiest cake to completely inhale.