Carroll Gardens

The co-chefs and owners at Café Mars, who have dubbed their genre “unusual Italian,” have something special here: The menu features riffs on traditional Italian entrees—garlic-knot monkey bread, extraordinary pastas, and meat and fish entrees that defy your entire table’s expectations (ciao, smoked pork-rib parm!). And the space itself—a former pasta factory and Italian grocer—is atmospheric, with deluxe banquets, a gorgeous bar, custom-made chairs by Studio Apotroes, and the prettiest al fresco courtyard where you can scarf down some of Brooklyn's best Italian food under twinkling string lights.

loot is a minimal-design-meets-maximum-inspiration museum, shop, and library of over 3,000 titles that kids can purchase or borrow. Loot also offers a monthly membership that lets kids borrow titles, plus take part in the shop’s art classes and workshops, all while meeting other kids who share their interests.

Denise Fasanello is a fine artist by trade, so it makes sense that her arrangements have a museum-worthy quality. She's particularly skilled in trimming arrangements with wildflowers and rustic elements, which creates a texture and volume that's as unexpected as it is beautiful.

Whether you head to the Carroll Gardens original or the West Village outpost, you can expect a home-style Italian meal in a casual, neighborhood setting from Frank Falcinelli and Frank Castronovo. We love their vegetable-centric offerings, house-made pasta, and hearty meatball parmigiana, which is pretty great for lunch.

While you won't walk out of Swallow with big case goods, you are likely to find something small and unusual, like a tiny brass bird or an opalescent vase. They also have really beautiful tabletop, from rough-hewn stone plates, to little salt cellars.

Owner and buyer Jen Mankins has built a bit of an empire out in Brooklyn, drawing Manhattanites out to shop in the process. Her eye is both quirky and cool, meaning that you’ll find a pretty irreverent (and bright) mix here, along with picks Alexander Wang, Zero + Maria Cornejo, and Tsumori Chisato. The racks for men are just as on point. She has three outposts in Brooklyn, including an outpost in Park Slope and Williamsburg.

This warmly-lit, cozy, wooden house offers an excellent selection of wines and a small menu of casual small plates. Brimming with charm, this is a great spot for a laid-back date or for meeting up for a drink (and then just never leaving).

While working at Momofuku in its early days, Christina Tosi—office manager at the time—started baking the occasional treat for the team; her insanely sweet, totally novel confections quickly took off. Soon, she had her own shop next door (and now many more all over NYC) where she and her staff crank out ridiculously complex layered cakes, the aptly named Compost cookies, and unusual soft-serve flavors—all simultaneously nostalgic and unlike anything you've ever tasted.

Blue Bottle is a top-notch coffee roaster and café with a sustainable ethos, in multiple locations throughout NYC. Our picks: The siphon filter and the New Orleans iced coffee. There's also a location in Williamsburg.

Arguably one of Brooklyn’s best pizza joints, you’ll find rustic, wooden tables surrounding a brick oven here, which is the perfect stage for the pie-throwing theatrics of chef Mark Iacono. Lucali doesn’t take reservations, so get there at around six to snag a table—the thin-crust pizzas and calzones are absolutely worth the wait.