brook23 bar + kitchen review

brook23 knows the score. Actually, it knows all of them.

Long Island's newest gastropub is devoted to craft beers on tap, fare that goes with brews, major TV sports and the perpetual pursuit of a good time. The high-decibel spot delivers almost everything the short-lived Village Square didn't.

That includes competent service and a general sense of fun. The decor has a little flair, too, starting with the painterly ode to American flags. A carefully sectioned and stacked woodpile becomes a room divider. A statement declaring "Art & Rock High Voltage" illustrates the back wall, as if underscoring an unsaid motto.

Chef-owner Richard Soriano adds to the wattage. Soriano, who's cooked at Cedar Creek American Bar & Grill in Glen Cove and Cipollini in Manhasset, aims here at "higher-end tavern food."

That means a tasty series of snacks that takes in Chicago hot dog sliders, with peppers and pickles, onions and tomato, plus spicy mustard; and house-smoked pulled pork sliders with pickled red onion. Add the house-made potato chips, under a "fondue" of Danish blue cheese. The "hangover brunch" features a Bloody Mary for two, with a shrimp cocktail or hot dog or oyster po'boy sliders.

By the time you're dipping a warm pretzel into beer cheese or German mustard, examining a jar of pickles or contemplating twice-cooked pork belly with jerk seasoning, you'll want another beverage. But the starter that doubtless assures contentment is duck fries, or spuds fried in duck fat and capped with pulled confit of duck, gravy, garlic and Cheddar.

"Firecracker chili" doesn't quite ignite, but it's respectable, slightly sweet and finished with chive crème fraîche. A salad of red beets benefits from the now-familiar company of goat cheese. Soriano prepares a savory, very satisfying "crispy double cheese" sandwich, with Cheddar, Gruyère, mozzarella and roast tomato on buttery Texas toast.

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His tasty, twin lobster-salad rolls have a hint of lemon aioli. Burgers range from the lamb number with mint raita to the riff on a Big Mac, dubbed "1000 Island," with lettuce, chopped onion, tomato, American cheese and, of course, special sauce.

Roasted chicken arrives tender and juicy, with whipped potatoes and green beans. The spuds boost braised short ribs more than charred kale does. Sirloin steak gets a polite au poivre treatment.

This is filling stuff, so you may not mind that the desserts are poor, whether the Nutella crepe has the texture of waxed paper or the roasted peach tart, fruitless in almost every way.

But there's always that blueberry-wheat ale.