Robert Sietsema / Eater NY
June 7
Chicken fried steak tlaycoyo at Parklife
Three years ago, Denisse Lina Chavez and her son Johnny Rosas were running El Atoradero Taqueria out of the Gowanus bar Parklife, centered on Chavez’s luscious pork carnitas wrapped in handmade blue tortillas. Nowadays, the dining is limited to the outdoor yard, which catches the breeze off the Gowanus on summer evenings, and the menu is a mash-up of Mexican, Texian, and Persian cuisine under chef and co-owner Scott Koshnoodi. Tlaycoyo is a thick masa flatbread stuffed with beans, and at Parklife in one of several permutations it comes with a chicken fried steak on top drizzled with gravy ($12). This is not your typical tortured minute steak that usually makes its way into chicken fried steak, but a block of tender beef cooked medium rare, and every corny, meaty, avocado-ey, and gravy laden bite is a pleasure. 636 Degraw Street, between Third and Fourth avenues, Gowanus — Robert Sietsema, senior critic