Restaurant Spotlight: The Four Horseman
This small Brooklyn eatery has been on my list for quite some time now. And I’m so happy to finally have checked it off! I made a reservation far in advance and got lucky to find a table at 8 pm for 3 people available on a Thursday night. My fellow foodie gals Mel and Tonia were coming along and excited to try it.
Four Horseman can be a bit pricey, but I have to say the food and drinks are worth it. I hadn’t had any wine in over 5 weeks at that point, so I treated it like an occasion. I wanted to have my first glass to be something special.
Here is a bit more about my experience, and I definitely recommend experiencing The Four Horseman for yourself!
Dining
The Wine: One of the reasons this Williamsburg wine bar is so popular is for its truly unique offering of only natural wines. There wasn’t one brand or winery that I recognized, but I couldn’t wait to try them.
The best part about natural wine is you can have a few glasses without the hangover! That’s right, no hangover.
Four Horseman does wines both by the glass and by the bottle. They haven’t listed their wine list on the website so you’ll have to go explore it there for yourself!
The first glass I enjoyed was an orange wine, called Fabien Jouves from France. Orange wine (natural wine in general) has a bit of a different taste - very light and effervescent almost. I didn’t know what I was expecting, but this glass definitely tasted unexpected! Tonia related it to sour beer which isn’t to say it tasted bad! It’s like when Somms describe wine like fresh tennis balls you know?
Anyway, the second glass I tried was a red wine called i cangianti. Definitely not as rich and full bodied or flavorful as the reds I’m used to drinking. Again it was light and refreshing which you don’t normally associate with red!
I’ve been really interested by natural wines recently, and they are very hard to find, so if you are curious I highly recommend making a reservation and seeing what it is all about!
There are some cocktails on the menu as well :)
Food: I have to say, I fully came here for the wine and not for the food. In fact, I noticed how small the menu was and it didn’t bother me because I knew the food would likely fall second to the delicious-looking beverage menu.
First Course: We started with some fresh burrata in oregano oil, and warm sesame focaccia. This was my first time having cheese in a while and I forgot how heavenly it tastes! Proves the point that you do not have to rely on the Italian spots for great cheese!
Second Course: We were pretty blown away by the flavors in both of these unassuming dishes. I figured we would be getting some plain and simple greens but lord this was super tasty!
Celery salad with walnuts, medjool dates, and piave vecchio and the puntarelle salad topped with achovy and parmesan!
Third Course: We were all in agreement on getting the bucatini which is done sort of like carbonara style with colatura which is like the Italian equivalent to Southeast Asian fish sauce. Then topped with toasted garlic and egg yolk. Also very delicious, and did not disappoint!
Fourth & Final Dish: The heaviest of the dishes came out last but don’t worry, we saved room for it. Dry aged ribeye with chimichurri, and duck fat fried potatoes. Everything about it was delicious.
Overall Experience
Ambiance: The Four Horseman is a small restaurant, with a small outdoor dining section. So tables were moving slowly, but it made us feel comfortable enjoying our time as well and not feeling rushed through our meal. Nothing about this restaurant is over the top, it’s all pretty low-key. But the outdoor dining setup was still nicely decorated with wine bottles, some plants, and lights.
Covid safety: This was a particularly cautious restaurant so for those who feel safer to dine with these precautions, rest assured.
Tables are outdoor only, there is no indoor dining available.
There are both digital and paper menu’s depending on what you prefer.
Masks must be worn anytime the staff approach the table.
Bathroom outside of the restaurant so there is no close contact with the kitchen, need a key to enter.
Customer Service: In the spirit of being honest here, we were not impressed with the hostess and customer service we experienced at the beginning of the evening. We checked in about 15 minutes early, and we were sat almost 20 minutes late with no apology for the inconvenience.
BUT the waiter was lovely, knowledgeable, and helpfully guided us through the menu options. He made some good suggestions for wine as well.
The biggest bonus was that the food at The Four Horseman was far beyond our expectations and so delicious! And the wine was as unique, tasty, and as interesting as we hoped!
That’s it for this restaurant spotlight! Hope you go and check out the Four Horseman for yourself :)
Xx Gab