Lori Jayne

"Lori Jayne is a restaurant inside of a bar in Bushwick, and it's making better burgers, chicken wings, and steak frites than what you'll find at a lot of full-service restaurants. The kitchen stays open until 1:30am Thursday through Saturday, so we like to show up for dinner, second dinner, or a late-night snack. If the steak frites aren't sold out, get them. The roughly 5 oz cut of chuck flap comes on a bed of golden brown fries, doused in a sichuan peppercorn-heavy au poivre, and served in a paper tray usually reserved for fries at a baseball game. " - willa moore, will hartman, neha talreja, bryan kim

"Some of the neighborhood's most exciting food isn't from a restaurant. It's coming out of a tiny kitchen in the back of the longtime, neon-lit dive bar Alphaville. There you’ll find just a couple of people cooking excellent steak frites doused in a Sichuan peppercorn-heavy au poivre sauce for $20 a pop. This little operation also does a great bar burger, chicken nuggets that taste like real chicken, and not-too-sweet frozen strawberry-basil margaritas. (Or a beer-shot combo.) If you're lucky, maybe you'll even learn how to line dance. " - neha talreja, hannah albertine, bryan kim, sonal shah, willa moore

"Forget under $40—the steak frites at Lori Jayne, a restaurant inside Bushwick's Alphaville bar, cost $20. The chuck flap is sliced paper thin, with a crisped crust and a ruby red center, doused in a sichuan peppercorn-heavy au poivre, and served on a bed of skinny, hand-cut, golden-brown fries—all in a paper food tray you'd usually receive at a baseball game. Add on a $10 burger or a $12 frozen strawberry-basil margarita, and your total check will still be lower than just the steak frites at most of the places on this list. Technically a special, this cult-favorite tends to be available every night (check Instagram to confirm)." - bryan kim, willa moore

"Lori Jayne is named after the owner Sam Braverman’s mom, who taught him how to fry chicken. (Thank you, Lori Jayne.) Sam's spot is basically just a tiny kitchen tucked into the back of Bushwick’s Alphaville bar—but the cooking coming out of there is better than what you'll find at a lot of full-service restaurants. Just try the $20 steak frites. They're doused in a sichuan peppercorn-heavy au poivre, draped over a pile of fries, and served in a paper tray usually reserved for fries at a baseball game. With chopsticks. If they put this on an artisanal plate made in the Hudson Valley they could probably charge double, and we’d probably still pay. But we much prefer eating it perched at the bar with a frozen strawberry-basil margarita, or crowded into a wooden booth. We'd happily spend several hours here, even without the $10 burgers. photo credit: Alex Staniloff photo credit: Alex Staniloff photo credit: Alex Staniloff Food Rundown photo credit: Alex Staniloff Steak Frites Steak for $20 could be totally average and we'd still find it notable. But the steak here is anything but average. Thinly sliced with a hard crust on the outside and a ruby red center, the roughly 5 oz cut of chuck flap comes on a bed of golden brown fries, smothered in an au poivre sauce that tingles with sichuan peppercorn. They’re technically a special, but it’s the sort of special that's such a cult-favorite you can depend on it being available almost every night. photo credit: Alex Staniloff Burger The burger here is $10, with $1 more for cheese, and we’d recommend going for with the cheese. It’s served on a potato roll, with an inch-thick patty of impeccably seasoned beef, tangy dill pickle chips, and onions caramelized in bone broth, so that they lean more salty than sweet. photo credit: Alex Staniloff Chicken Nuggets The chicken nuggets at Lori Jayne are made out of real chicken, and actually taste like it. Momentous. They’re a great drinking food, especially when you order them doused in housemade Buffalo sauce. photo credit: Alex Staniloff Cocktails Alphaville is the kind of bar where you might ingest several beer-shot combos and then learn how to line-dance, but it also has great cocktails. Things that sound like they could be sickeningly sweet—like that frozen strawberry-basil margarita, or a raspberry whiskey sour—are perfectly balanced, and highly drinkable." - Willa Moore