Take-out: Yes Accepts Credit Cards: Yes Good for Kids: Yes
Price range.
$ Price range Under $10
3 reviews
Leola Followell
Really good small khachapuri for $2.50, better than tone cafe's free one. More cheese inside. The big katchapuri are $7 and look delicious as well. The sign outside just read Georgian food and it's a tiny storefront with barely any room inside for customers. Service is gruff but that seems the norm around here.
I've only been to Brick Oven Bread once, and I was Bricking it, because I used to be in the Uzbeki Mafia, and the Georgian Mafia (who run this store) are, let's just say, not too friendly with the Uzbeks. In fact I think we killed several of their 27 children while I was second in command, and they probably killed a few of my boss' kids too, although not the ones she liked best so it was no biggie. Of course once the Kazakh and Latvian Mafia got involved and the majority of our elders had to flee to Moldova, that was the end for me. I got out while I was ahead (sort of) and fled to the United States of Former Soviet Mafia People and never looked back.
Okay I did sort of look back a few times but only to make sure I wasn't being followed by former-KGB hit squads.
What to get: Khachapuri. What else: Don't go if you're Uzbeki. You will be shot on sight. Unless you're me and know how to dress up like a Moldovan.
Brick Oven Bread is a hidden gem in Brighton Beach, way down near Coney Island and all that good stuff. The trouble is that you probably venture down here more often in the summer, and this isn't really summer food, it's winter food. The kind that will fill that little almost-non-existent Hipster tummy of yours in ways that you've never been filled before.
What you should order, as I said, is the Khacahapuri which is the Georgian Bread. It's dirt cheap (although dirt is becoming more expensive these days – but not in Georgia), it's enormous (and so am I), and it's indescribably delicious. Which means I'm not even going to start describing it because I wouldn't be able to do it justice. It manages to be charred and doughy and crusty and even a little moist all at the same time. It's big enough for 2 or 3 people to share and the price is shockingly low.
I'll be back to try other things one of these days. It's hard when you live 380 miles away from Brighton Beach.
If you've never had Georgian food, especially Georgian bread, make the trip down here to Brighton Beach and put some of this in your mouth. Don't worry about the Georgian Mafia. If you come here for their bread, all you've done to wrong Georgian people in your life will be forgiven. So come and break bread with them. But if you Break it: you buy it.
"It's very good", the owner tried to re-assure me as I pointed towards a box of cookies/pastries that resembled small croissants. She was struggling with the Georgian name (which I later googled as "Baddam Buri") but offered me the descriptor: "pastry with walnut… good with tea".
I'm pretty sure if the cardamom had been accentuated more, and the texture had been either crisp or soft (as opposed to neither, perhaps a victim of slow turnover?), it would have been an excellent pastry. But, instead the block of cake that I first pointed at instinctively (Smetannik: sour cream and walnut) turned out to be well worth the $5 price tag (and likely 5,000 calories from the 7 layers of cream!).
Located on a residential block in Brighton Beach, hard-to-find, Brick Oven Bread, is perhaps my favorite of the Georgian bakeries in the city -despite the disappointing (with both less crunch and char than at Georgian Bread) long bread (Shotis Puri) and the smaller Khachapuri (that I didn't understand at all – a cross between a Khachapuri Imereli and Penovani – but with no star turn from the vehicle containing the cheese). Beyond the selection of affordable sweets with quality that bests that at other Georgian bakeries (with the possible exception of Taste of Georgia), I really like the warm, Imeruli Khachapuri. Their version of soft white bread contains mozzarella and feta cheeses (again, not the traditional: Sulguni ) but they are blended together in a way not to remind one of the expected taste of either.
They too carry a large selection of dips, and salads – Pkhali (spinach) and Lobio (kidney beans) are excellent choices. There's also a lot more to discover here in terms of the selection of sweets. On my next visit, I tried the chocolate cream layer cake – another 12/14 layer cake that seems to be their forte. I really liked the chocolate, which gave a homemade feel to the experience, but unfortunately the succeeding layers of cake were not as soft and moist as I would have preferred.
That said, I did have a 5 star experience with the cookie: Nushis Namtskhvari (nut cake) which is made with almonds, and when warm (it was feshly baked on the tray) is the perfect balance of crisp exterior and chewy interior).
I will likely be back and hopefully round them up from the current 4.5 stars.
Unhappily, the Georgian bread and cheese binge is likely to ensure that I show up at nearby Brighton Beach wearing an exotic outfit in the warm summer months… the male version of a Burqa!!!
Really good small khachapuri for $2.50, better than tone cafe's free one. More cheese inside. The big katchapuri are $7 and look delicious as well. The sign outside just read Georgian food and it's a tiny storefront with barely any room inside for customers. Service is gruff but that seems the norm around here.
I've only been to Brick Oven Bread once, and I was Bricking it, because I used to be in the Uzbeki Mafia, and the Georgian Mafia (who run this store) are, let's just say, not too friendly with the Uzbeks. In fact I think we killed several of their 27 children while I was second in command, and they probably killed a few of my boss' kids too, although not the ones she liked best so it was no biggie. Of course once the Kazakh and Latvian Mafia got involved and the majority of our elders had to flee to Moldova, that was the end for me. I got out while I was ahead (sort of) and fled to the United States of Former Soviet Mafia People and never looked back.
Okay I did sort of look back a few times but only to make sure I wasn't being followed by former-KGB hit squads.
What to get: Khachapuri.
What else: Don't go if you're Uzbeki. You will be shot on sight. Unless you're me and know how to dress up like a Moldovan.
Brick Oven Bread is a hidden gem in Brighton Beach, way down near Coney Island and all that good stuff. The trouble is that you probably venture down here more often in the summer, and this isn't really summer food, it's winter food. The kind that will fill that little almost-non-existent Hipster tummy of yours in ways that you've never been filled before.
What you should order, as I said, is the Khacahapuri which is the Georgian Bread. It's dirt cheap (although dirt is becoming more expensive these days – but not in Georgia), it's enormous (and so am I), and it's indescribably delicious. Which means I'm not even going to start describing it because I wouldn't be able to do it justice. It manages to be charred and doughy and crusty and even a little moist all at the same time. It's big enough for 2 or 3 people to share and the price is shockingly low.
I'll be back to try other things one of these days. It's hard when you live 380 miles away from Brighton Beach.
If you've never had Georgian food, especially Georgian bread, make the trip down here to Brighton Beach and put some of this in your mouth. Don't worry about the Georgian Mafia. If you come here for their bread, all you've done to wrong Georgian people in your life will be forgiven. So come and break bread with them. But if you Break it: you buy it.
"It's very good", the owner tried to re-assure me as I pointed towards a box of cookies/pastries that resembled small croissants. She was struggling with the Georgian name (which I later googled as "Baddam Buri") but offered me the descriptor: "pastry with walnut… good with tea".
I'm pretty sure if the cardamom had been accentuated more, and the texture had been either crisp or soft (as opposed to neither, perhaps a victim of slow turnover?), it would have been an excellent pastry. But, instead the block of cake that I first pointed at instinctively (Smetannik: sour cream and walnut) turned out to be well worth the $5 price tag (and likely 5,000 calories from the 7 layers of cream!).
Located on a residential block in Brighton Beach, hard-to-find, Brick Oven Bread, is perhaps my favorite of the Georgian bakeries in the city -despite the disappointing (with both less crunch and char than at Georgian Bread) long bread (Shotis Puri) and the smaller Khachapuri (that I didn't understand at all – a cross between a Khachapuri Imereli and Penovani – but with no star turn from the vehicle containing the cheese). Beyond the selection of affordable sweets with quality that bests that at other Georgian bakeries (with the possible exception of Taste of Georgia), I really like the warm, Imeruli Khachapuri. Their version of soft white bread contains mozzarella and feta cheeses (again, not the traditional: Sulguni ) but they are blended together in a way not to remind one of the expected taste of either.
They too carry a large selection of dips, and salads – Pkhali (spinach) and Lobio (kidney beans) are excellent choices. There's also a lot more to discover here in terms of the selection of sweets. On my next visit, I tried the chocolate cream layer cake – another 12/14 layer cake that seems to be their forte. I really liked the chocolate, which gave a homemade feel to the experience, but unfortunately the succeeding layers of cake were not as soft and moist as I would have preferred.
That said, I did have a 5 star experience with the cookie: Nushis Namtskhvari (nut cake) which is made with almonds, and when warm (it was feshly baked on the tray) is the perfect balance of crisp exterior and chewy interior).
I will likely be back and hopefully round them up from the current 4.5 stars.
Unhappily, the Georgian bread and cheese binge is likely to ensure that I show up at nearby Brighton Beach wearing an exotic outfit in the warm summer months… the male version of a Burqa!!!