Here in the heart of urban Brooklyn, links to our agrarian ancestors however faint, two restaurants draw us in with the promise of local produce and farm raised animals. Flatbush Farm in Park Slope is a fairly new and welcome entry. If its decor is supposed to be farm-like it would seem to be a farm in the countryside of Transylvania with its black painted wainscoting and hammered on white molding; and the blurry silver stencils in the bathrooms lead you to wonder if perhaps that second martini was such a good idea.

We entered the restaurant and waited for someone to notice us. Finally the server appeared and motioned us to a table in the back, with his t-shirt and Custer-like beard he looked like an extra on Deadwood. He gave us our menus and disappeared. He would then appear for one task and leave, though every request was answered with a smile. The menu, comprised of a limited number of appetizers and entrees supplemented with some specials, seemed to have been printed by Lemony Snicket. The wine list is filled with moderately priced bottles. We ordered the celery root soup, which turned out to be quite nice though on the thin side. I had a lovely salad with frisee, grapefruit sections, toasted hazelnuts, and blue cheese that was beautifully dressed, freshly made and tasty. The other salad was a special of mache, beets, parmesan, and anchovies with an anchovy dressing, perhaps a bit overpowering for the mache but my friend enjoyed it. Then I noticed that there was no bread on the tables, anyone’s table and yet I could see a sideboard with what looked like baguettes. A still life perhaps? My husband asked if we might have some bread. He smiled and went over and sawed away and spooned out some butter and brought it to the table. It was quite fresh and the butter was excellent. A mystery. In any other restaurant this would have set me off but here no, we had entered into the spirit of the thing. The entrees came, the meal was perfectly paced as was the food perfectly cooked and in very generous portions. I had the venison special which turned out to be large chunks of venison grilled on skewers, flavored with cumin, cardamom and cinnamon. They were cooked medium rare, extremely tender and served on a bed of parsnip puree and sautéed red cabbage with a dried cherry wine sauce.