34 JULY 21 - JULY 27, 2017 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP
DINING OUT
Romancing the beet
BY HELEN KLEIN
HKLEINBROOKLYNREPORTER.COM
Baby Beet and Carrot Cappelletti from Beets & Carrots.
An unassuming new dining spot in
Bay Ridge is already making a mark
utilizing seasonal, local ingredients
in innovative ways.
Beets & Carrots, which opened in
June on upper Third Avenue, is the
brainchild of Russian-born Viacheslav
Khetagurov, whose love of fresh, seasonal
produce was born in childhood
when the family garden provided the
basis for daily meals, and who learned
his trade in the kitchens of such
renowned eateries as the Rainbow
Room and Daniel Boulud’s Restaurant
Daniel.
The result is a cuisine that is both
simple and elegant, refl ective of what
is most gloriously in season.
On our visit, my companion and
I tried a cornucopia of the eatery’s
dishes, and found them fresh and
appetizing, and arranged to be as
pleasing to the eye as to the palate.
From the separate bowls of deeply
colored and intensely fl avored carrot
and beet hummus which opened our
meal ($8) to the Beet and Carrot Cake
with walnuts and raisins ($6.50) that
was its coda, everything we tasted was
exceptional, with the essence of the
ingredients singing through.
Highlights included the Asparagus
and Quinoa appetizer ($9.50), which
featured crisp-tender spears of the
vegetable perched atop a bed of fl u y
grains, under slices of thin, salty
prosciutto and shavings of parmesan
cheese, and a perfectly poached egg
($2 additional).
Also mind-blowingly delicious was
the house-made Fettuccine Bolognese
BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/Photo by Helen Klein
($15), which was rich and seductive, as
well as deeply satisfying between its
long-cooked meat sauce, the toothsome
pasta and the shavings of parmesan on
top.
Khetagurov’s signature dish, the
Baby Beet and Carrot Cappelletti ($15),
also housemade, showcased pillowy
little pasta purses stu ed with a puree
of beets and goat cheese, artfully presented
with thin slices of green, pink
and white watermelon radishes.
The Risotto ($13.50) came to the table
studded with corn and peas and and
topped with fi nely grated parmesan
and bits of fresh mint. It was luxuriously
creamy and rich.
Beets & Carrots’ French fries, skinon
and fl ecked with tiny crystals of sea
salt, were a delight, subtly tru e-infl
ected, with a haunting fl avor that
was not immediately identifi able but
satisfying and addictive.
“I always liked vegetables,”
Khetagurov recalled, adding that his
“dream” was to create his own cuisine
“using seasonal ingredients, how it
was when I was a child living in the
mountains.”
The response, he added, has been
enthusiastic. “People love the food,” he
said. “When they come, they always
come back.”
BEETS & CARROTS
9905 Third Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11209
718-333-5011
Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-11 p.m.
Saturday-Sunday, noon-11 p.m.