"Under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is about the last place we ever imagined eating pizza topped with pork belly and bottarga. But then, everything about Farina, a Southern Italian restaurant on the edge of Red Hook, is a little unexpected. This place makes pizza “irregolare”, baked in an Irish oven from the mid-1800s. And even though New York City has a surplus of restaurants that put cheese on bread, somehow, when Farina does it, cheese on bread feels extraordinary, like being suddenly transported to a small, warm kitchen in 19th-century Naples, to bear witness to the marriage of dairy and carbohydrates. The irregularities start with the dough, which incorporates seven types of flour, and gets topped with apricot jam, or mashed potatoes, or tuna in olive oil. Then, there's the oven, which is built right into the back wall of the kitchen, where it's been responsible for baking a wealth of different bread products since before you were even a twinkle in someone’s eye. A server will mention this as if the oven is a human being—a wise one that has life advice to give, as well as a knack for pizza cooking. The pizzas are slightly heftier than a classic Neapolitan, and smaller than a regular pie. Funkily shaped and perfectly charred, they come with a chewy, blistered crust. And if you sit at the large communal table in the center of the dining room, you can take note of everybody else’s order—essential research for your next visit. But there’s more to this cozy restaurant than the pizza. On any given evening, you might encounter roasted chestnuts, or an off-menu calzone, overflowing with cheese. And if, blinded by the mystifying mash-up of seven grains, you fail to notice the chalkboard with a handful of specials written in nearly illegible cursive, you might miss out on the frutti di mare, or a candele with deeply savory meat sauce. You never know what, or who ( ), you might encounter here. There will be at least one Carroll Gardens-born baby who is saved from a tantrum by a slice of pizza, and at least one person who asks for a side of marinara sauce. But everyone who comes to Farina ends up lingering in the presence of that age-old oven, as if they've just rediscovered what it feels like to relax around a fire. Come here with a group and drink carafes of montepulciano way past your normal weeknight bedtime. Or stop by on the weekend, after a full-day , when sitting for a while sounds like a novel concept. Through the haze of a bread-and-cheese-and-wine-induced glow, even the illuminated gas station across the way looks strangely beautiful, framed by Farina’s large front windows. " - Willa Moore
