Lonnies is located at 112 Bond Street, at the corner of Pacific Street, and is currently open from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily.
Sean Rembold and Caron Callahan really know how to delight a neighborhood. Their first restaurant together, Ingas Bar in Brooklyn Heights, opened in the spring of 2022 in the longtime Jack the Horse space and quickly became a community mainstay, luring in the locals with things like housemade mortadella, beautiful seasonal salads, and a first-rate burger.
Not really a surprise: Chef Rembold spent years working the kitchens at some of Brooklyn’s favorite restaurants, including the hall-of-fame trio of Diner, Marlow & Sons, and Reynard, and Callahan is an accomplished designer and affable host, so the room looks great and feels fantastic.
Dry-aged burger with fries, $26 (Photo by Scott Lynch)
But the couple was not done with charming this part of Brooklyn, and last month opened their second restaurant, Lonnies, in nearby Boerum Hill. Judging by the packed house on a recent Friday right at 5:00 p.m., a line forming outside by 4:30 to snag the walk-in seats, they’ve once again done things exactly right.
The space sprawls, with one bar (the “walk-ins-only” bar, reportedly) and a number of tables in the boisterous front room, a dining area with more tables and a couple of cool, curved banquettes in the middle, and a more intimate, slightly more grown-up-feeling nook in the back, where you’ll also find a second bar, with reserved seating. Basically, respectively: kid-friendly, catch-up dinner with friends, date night. A true neighborhood restaurant should be a useful go-to for many occasions, and by that criteria, Lonnies definitely delivers.
Eggs mayonnaise with trout roe and ham, $13 (Photo by Scott Lynch)
The menu, too, seems designed to suit different moods, whether you’re feeling snacky or sophisticated or celebratory, or if you don’t want to think too hard and just chill and enjoy a burger. As he did at Ingas, Rembold serves up a banger at Lonnies, a dry-aged double-patty beast fully loaded with onions, pickles, melted American, lettuce, and an indulgent amount of special sauce. A pile of good, thick-cut fries spills over the sides of the plate, and it’s all yours for a these-days-very-reasonable $26.
Smoked mackerel rillettes with green garlic, $23 (Photo by Scott Lynch)
There’s an eggs-on-eggs-on-eggs situation here, a blob of mayo topped with a deviled egg topped with roe, with bonus bits of ham adding to the fun. The smoked mackerel rillettes is colored an amusingly vibrant green, thanks to ample amounts of green garlic, and the curried chips on top, while too small and fragile to function as dipping vehicles, do bring a bunch of crunch to the party. This might have been my favorite dish here.
Fried green tomatoes with boquerones, $17 (Photo by Scott Lynch)
The fried green tomatoes with boquerones were good as well, mostly because just about anything paired with boquerones is good. Other options large and small include homemade tagliatelle with asparagus, a brick chicken, a prime rib, octopus skewers, and an English pea salad. Expect changes, though, as Rembold is committed to using seasonal ingredients.
Cocktails cost $18, cans of beer are $8, and the wine-by-the glass list ranges from $15 to $19, or $64 to $80 for a bottle.
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