Restaurants in Colonia

You can’t rush perfection, but you can wash it down correctly. The DeMarco family explains why you won’t mind waiting for a slice at Di Fara Pizza and what you should bring to drink. Worth the Wait Dom DeMarco isn’t big on advertising. Probably because he doesn’t need it. Dom—owner, founder, and sole chef at Di Fara Pizza—knows he’ll have a crowd to feed no matter what. The masses waiting in line outside Di Fara’s modest storefront, next door to a 99-cent shop in Brooklyn, are evidence of that. So is the fact that they’re waiting for the chance to hand over $5 for a piece of pizza. Five bucks might seem a bit much for a single slice, but these devotees clearly don’t mind. Even Mayor Bloomberg weighed in on the discussion. “If you’ve ever had a really great slice of pizza,” he told the New York Times, “you know there are worse deals.” But the food at Di Fara doesn’t really need mayoral endorsements. Margaret DeMarco, Di Fara’s manager and Dom’s daughter, explained why the pies are their own best advertisement: “[The] pizzas are made with two cheeses and fresh, snipped basil and a drizzle of olive oil. The square is a slightly thicker crust, twice-baked, made with a richer sauce, and is a much heartier choice. The round is quite delicate in texture. We're famous for both." Margaret has worked alongside her father for more than 20 years now, and like the rest of her six siblings, she has, not surprisingly, developed cooking skills that she calls a “special art.” But dad is still in charge of all the cooking, and will be “as long as he has the strength and the desire.” He was born in Italy’s Provincia di Caserta, and he uses all imported ingredients for his pies—from the buffalo mozzarella cheese brought from Italy to the basil from Israel. While You Wait (and While You Eat): Take Advantage of Di Fara’s BYOB Option You won’t see mention of it on Di Fara’s website, but the pizzeria is also BYOB. In 2011, the Village Voice named Di Fara one of its 10 Best BYOB Restaurants in the city, encouraging guests to “uncork your best bottle of red and indulge in a marriage of gastronomic perfection." Margaret said that since the Village Voice article, they’ve noticed a lot of customers opting to bring along something to drink in the evenings. “Wine is usually the choice for most, but beer is also brought in,” she said. Margaret’s most important pairing recommendation for those settling in at one of the eatery’s coveted 19 seats? Try a slice of both the round pie and the square pie for the sake of comparison. After that wait, you’ve probably earned it. What Booze to Bring Serious Eats says: Czech Krušovice beer “Krušovice, with its sweet, almost caramel flavor, is a dark (basically black) beer, that's hardly found in the States … A cold Krušovice with a hot, olive oily, basily Di Fara's slice, is my idea of each food group at its best,” said writer Erin Zimmer, who suggests picking it up at Associated Supermarket directly across the street. Gothamist says: Italian red wines “Bring a bottle of chianti or a barbera.”

The dim sum lunch, or yum cha (literally “drink tea”), is the Cantonese answer to Spanish tapas. It is as much a tradition in New York City's Chinatown as weekend brunch on The Lower East Side. The bustling scene is all too familiar: packed tables, servers pushing metal carts while hawking their selections, the din of impatient, hungry diners. They wait for shrimp dumplings, steamed pork spareribs, roast pork buns, pork and shrimp shu mai -- the seemingly endless variety goes on and on. But for vegetarians, the choices can be few. When it comes to dim sum, seafood and meat dominate the menu. New York vegetarians need not despair, because there are two very appetizing dim sum havens for non-meat eaters, and they’re right in Chinatown. Buddha Bodai on Mott Street serves a completely vegetarian and kosher menu of dim sum favorites, ranging from shrimp dumplings to beef rice rolls. The restaurant is usually packed on weekday lunch hours with City Hall municipal types, while the weekend clientele consists of tourists, locals and the environmentally conscientious. An all-day menu of vegetarian iterations of Chinese standards is also on offer, with creative takes on dishes like roast pork and sesame chicken. Using seitan, tofu and yam starch (among other vegetarian and kosher-friendly ingredients) as substitutes, many of these plates will fool even the committed carnivore in appearance and flavor. The line outside the door on Sunday afternoons may be the best way to spot Vegetarian Dim Sum House on Pell Street. Crowds tend to gather on weekends, anxious for healthy vegetarian takes on traditional dim sum dishes. The array of vegetarian dumplings -- pan fried, watercress, snow pea leaf, monk dumplings -- draw in voracious vegetarians who want the variety of a full-scale dim sum restaurant without sacrificing their principles or lifestyle choices. The menu is comprehensive, full of inventive vegetarian fare using Eastern and Western-style vegetables, not to mention an exhaustive list of diced, sliced or sautéed mushroom dishes. At Vegetarian Dim Sum House, there’s no need to solely imitate meat dishes. Here, vegetables are allowed to take center stage.

Cutie Pies NYC is a one-woman show. “I do just about everything except churn the butter right now,” says Alice Cronin, the baker behind the Brooklyn-based confectionery. Cronin has been familiar with the ways of the oven since age 5, when she mastered her grandmother’s chocolate-chip cookie recipe. Since then, however, she’s moved on to more sophisticated desserts, having honed her skills while maintaining the cookbook section of a Montclair, New Jersey, bookstore. Working to a soundtrack of Cibo Matto, Los Amigos Invisibles, and fittingly, Cake, she now rolls cream-cheese rugelachs, laces peach pies with thyme, and gels vegan cream pies using agar. Of all the desserts that she makes, Cronin’s favorite is her coconut cream pie. She’s not alone: the dairy-rich dessert took home first place at the City Reliquary’s pie contest in 2011. “I’m not sure if it has anything to do with nostalgia—I watched loads of Gilligan's Island reruns when I was little—or the way it riffs on the rich, steeped-in-diner-chic desserts that harken back to old-school decadence,” she says of her fondness for coconut flavor. “It tastes rich and creamy, but the texture is surprisingly light.” Cronin crafts myriad variations on sweet and buttery flavors, and she experiments with savory elements, too. Soon, she’s set to unveil a savory guacamole and corn-nut-crust pielette. Taste Cronin’s gourmet baked goods for yourself by placing a custom order, or look for her at these New York City markets: Smorgasburg Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in East River State Park at N. 7th St. Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Tobacco Warehouse at 30 Water St. Bust Magazine Craftacular and Food Fair Saturday, May 4, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Pearl Street Plaza (Pearl Street at Water Street)