It's almost as if you can hear the cogs turning in Char No. 4 owner Sean Josephs' brain: "Here I am in Cobble Hill, where now people buy organic cribs and there are stores that sell only nuts (the Nut Box). So what other totally normal things are people willing to pay lots more money for if someone just dedicated a store to them? There must be more things..." And yes, the answer is Char No. 4*, a fancy whiskey bar and Southern restaurant offering more than 300 whiskeys from around the planet—but mostly from Kentucky, America's golden whiskey belt. Whiskey belt buckle?
*The term "char number 4" refers to the pleasantly smoky and aromatic process of heating (charring) oak staves to make bourbon barrels, the fourth char being the hottest.
Digs: Tubular and uneven. The front is lovely, with a cluster of wooden lanterns hanging over the marble bar and the golden, glittering wall of whiskey bottles. But the dining area is more of a chocolate-pudding-colored airplane belly (with more of those admittedly gorgeous marble tables), ending in a cute (tiny) outdoor space.
Drinks: The booze is excellent and well-priced, but it's a little ridiculous that you're expected to deal with the 300-whiskey menu on your own. Sure, you can just order a $3 ounce of something with an interesting name (or a $200 glass of something else) and see if you like it, but it'd be more helpful if the barest of advice were offered before it was requested—even just printed on the menu. The four bourbon cocktails, like the Kentucky Sparkler ($9), with Henry McKenna bourbon, champagne, bitters and a sugar cube, are a tasty mix of feminine and masculine, although whiskey aficionados shouldn't bother. Beer and wine drinkers will be pleasantly surprised if not confused. Who is ordering a $14 bottle of Orval?
Food: Aiming for gourmet comfort, but often missing. Expensively. Some of the more intriguing and Southern-leaning dishes, like the cornflake-crusted fried oysters with bacon remoulade ($10) and the crispy cheddar curds with spicy pimento sauce ($7), tasted like forgettable ballpark fare and were easily eclipsed by the less-Southern standouts, like the perfectly seared scallops with pumpkin, smoked chanterelle mushrooms and house jam ($20), and the juicy and ridiculously tasty grilled hanger steak ($22 for not quite enough meat). Best of all was the house-cured lamb pastrami with coriander aioli and rye-carraway toast ($12).
Vibe: The kind of place someone might merrily celebrate his 34th birthday with his wife and their two married-couple friends and be home by midnight.
The bottom line: Lots of terrific (if unexplained) whiskey and some standout (if diminutive) dishes set the stage for success, but high prices, little guidance, small portions and weirdish décor bog it down. Or, as one patron put it, "It's comfort food in an uncomfortable place. And if I wanted to pay $22 for comfort food, I'd expect portions so big they might make me die." Well, that's gross but not untrue. Our recommendation to Char No. 4: Hold free whiskey-tasting sessions that require an RSVP. We would go.
The net result: What people are saying online
[NYMag] "You can sample over 300 whiskeys here but probably not in one ecstatic sitting, although, borrowing a page from the wine world, every tipple is available by the one-ounce pours."
[Yelp]: "...it may grow into its promise as an upscale meat n bourbon haven, but for all its bells and whistles up front, it was simply ok"
[ABrooklynLife] "...the restaurant makes its own bacon--an authenticity that can't be doubted thanks to the decidedly bacon smell eminating from the wood-toned, modern interior"
[BrooklynPaper]: "You don't need to be a bourbon lover to enjoy the restaurant..."
Char No. 4
196 Smith St, between Warren and Baltic Sts.
718-643-2106
Photo by Jori Klein
