Clinton Hill's Maggie Brown, replete with velvet Victorian wallpaper and retro chandeliers, is designed to make you feel like you're at your grandmother's old house. Somehow that aspect works.
Home-spun food, with an international twist, is the name of the game at Maggie Brown. Sometimes this can be just what you want on a Sunday night when the thought of returning to work on Monday puts butterflies in your stomach. And sometimes home-style cooking can be, well, too homey, which was my experience this past Sunday. Don't get me wrong the taste was there -- from the crispy fried chicken to the coffee ice cream sunday with chocolate sauce and pecans. However, I wasn't pleased with the grains of sand and dirt left in the Swiss chard and the chunks of fat mixed in with the shredded short ribs. Did I mention the mashed potatoes were cold? That's something my grandmother would never do.
I want to like this place because we all have that need for comfort food. The fried chicken is a real treat, the short ribs are tender and tastey and they have a delicious organic brown ale on tap. Main courses are reasonably priced around $15.00. Now if they could just put that same love into food preparation that dear old grandmother does, we'd have something to write home about.
Maggie Brown is located at 455 Myrtle Avenue at Washington Avenue. 718-643-7001.
