What do you get when you mix a gourmet food shop with a restaurant, a bar, a vegan coffee shop and a plant store? Mekelburg’s in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Founded in 2015 by wife-and-hubby duo Daniel Mekelburg and Alicia Guevara, the restaurant started as a simple sandwich shop with four or five menu items. Now, with two locations, in Clinton Hill and Williamsburg, they’re serving up a mix of American comfort food with Sicilian, Jewish and Hispanic influence, as a nod to the couples’ collective heritage. The space is shared with Guevara’s, a vegan coffee shop that also sells plants.
In true hidden-gem fashion, it’s quite easy to miss the entrance to Mekelburg’s. Despite the address being on Kent Ave, you have to turn onto S. Third St. to get inside. Once you find it, head toward the back to find a comfortable, cushiony eatery with diner vibes.
I wanted to try a variety of dishes, so I didn’t hold back on ordering. As I waited for my slightly unhinged quantity of food to come out, I started with a maracuya, or passionfruit, margarita. Shortly after my marg arrived, plates of wings began to fill the table. Mekelburg’s wings are breaded and come in either BBQ, Buffalo, Nashville hot, or ginger scallion varieties. The standout flavor was the ginger scallion. The presence of lemongrass is evident, and that extra green zhuzh makes the bite complete.
Flavor aside, what’s perhaps most impressive about these wings is the price. An order of four costs $12 or you can get eight for $20 — and these bad boys are far from measly. During their happy hour, which runs weekdays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and all night on Tuesdays, wings are only a buck apiece. The only prerequisite is you must purchase a drink, but if the rest of their cocktails are as easy to throw back as their delicious maracuya margs, it’s an easy sell. You can also opt for an agua fresca if you want to stay alcohol-free.
After my wings, it was time to try what first put Mekelburg’s on the map: their sandwiches. I ordered the Nashville hot chicken (a best seller), the “Big Mek” (a dry-aged beef burger), a chicken parm sandwich, a porchetta sandwich, and a double butter burger (their smash burger, which is the best bang for your buck at $10). All of their burgers are made with a special Pat LaFrieda blend made especially for Mekelburg’s.
I started with the hot chicken after hearing it’s a top seller. While I did get that initial spice, I was then hit with a subtle sweetness that almost caramelized around the sizzling hot fried chicken, giving it an extra crunch. The chicken was incredibly tender and juicy, which is likely due to the three-day saltwater and buttermilk brining process. It’s then fried to a golden brown, topped with their own spice blend, and covered in hot honey.
When the porchetta sandwich came out, it was a real “Oooh, ahhh,” moment for the table. Its abundant pork, stuffed between crusty semolina bread with pops of green from the broccoli rabe makes this sandwich a 10 out of 10 in the looks department. Tastewise, the rating is equally high.
The meat, like the chicken in the Nashville hot, is given several days of love, with a four-day process before it makes it to the plate. First, a center cut pork loin gets rubbed with a blend of herbs and spices. It’s then wrapped with skin-on pork belly and goes into the oven to slow roast. During this process, the pork skin puffs up, giving it a crisp texture. Finally, the porchetta is sliced tissue-paper thin and piled high on a semolina roll from Bakery Boys out of Corona, Queens. The result is a textural, flavor-packed dream of a sandwich. The crunch from bits of pork skin resembles, both texturally and taste-wise, a salty kettle-fried potato chip.
The chicken parm and burgers didn’t miss, either. I particularly appreciated the extra stringy cheese on the chicken parm hero, and the funk of the dry-aged beef on the “Big Mek.” But I needed to save room for another Mekelburg’s staple: their babka.
The menu offers three babka desserts: “Tirameksu,” babka bread pudding, and babka poppers. I simply had to go for the Tirameksu, where the babka is soaked in espresso and whiskey. The portion is big enough to feed a family of four, but even after sampling five sandwiches it was hard to stop eating. (Word of advice: if you visit during happy hour, go for the babka poppers instead, which are only $1 each.)
Address: 319 Kent Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11249 and 293 Grand Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238
Phone: (929) 457-6676
Hours: Takeout window open daily 8 a.m.-3 p.m.; dinner service Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 5 p.m.-10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 5 p.m.-11 p.m.; closed Monday nights
Prices: Breakfast $12-$16, Soup $12-$16, Big Salads $20-$22, Sandwiches $10-$24, Shareables $7-$25, Wings $12-$20, Babka $12-$16
Takeout and delivery available; reservations accepted
Have a suggestion for a great hidden dining gem in your neighborhood? Reach out to Kaitlyn with your recommendations at nomannomad.net@gmail.com.
