If you read Edible Queens, our fine sister publication to the north, then you already know M. Wells is not in Brooklyn. But this tiny Long Island City restaurant, which opened last summer in an old shiny diner car, is just across the Pulaski Bridge and a mere G stop from Greenpoint. And hell, it would be worth a trip for the Kings County meat-lover even if it were in Hoboken.
That’s because its beautiful young owners—Sarah Obraitis and her husband, Canadian chef Hugue Dufour—have impeccable protein pedigree: Obraitis helped grow Heritage Foods USA, the Brooklyn-based outfit that sources and sells some of the country’s best-tasting animals; Dufour cooked at Montreal’s world-famous restaurant Au Pied de Cochon, home of foie gras-topped poutine with duck-fat gravy and other meaty wonders. Love for Obraitis lured him to her native Queens, where the newlyweds’ meatforward menu is Montreal diner meets farm-to-table: foie-gras soufflés; crackly fried frog legs; pastry-topped savory Quebecois meat pies called tourtière stuffed with game; pickled pork tongue with flaky house-made soda crackers—all featuring flawless flesh. Their produce is pristine, too: In warmer months, some comes from the nearby rooftop farm launched by Roberta’s Pizzeria called Brooklyn Grange. Of course, like M. Wells, that’s also technically in Queens.
Photo credit: Molly Donahue.
