Food, Fire & Friendship: Lore

Park Slope’s Lore celebrates the universal appeal of dining together, and it is the perfect sanctuary from the cold this winter.

What does it mean to live well? Philosophers have been dashing themselves against metaphorical stones for millenia trying to answer this question. Their appeals have been passed down by their disciples, often through word of mouth. The noiseless cacophony of long dead sophists form universal themes and motifs that become woven into the fabric of civilization. That ancient lore, drapes and adorns the bedrock of empires, and those themes help to shape the collective zeitgeist of each successive age.

The oldest verified archaeological site currently being studied is Gobeckli Tepe in Southeastern Anatolia. Dated to around 9000 BCE, It consists of magnificent T shaped columns, and a series of concentric stone walls, forming an oblong circular foundation in the sandstone. We don’t know for certain what the beliefs and practices of those who inhabited the ruins were, but we imagine that the site may have served some religious significance to the people who built and maintained it.

There is an older site, though officially unverified, the example is simple enough to make for an uncontroversial metaphor and lead into this story.

Inside Theopetra’s Cave near Kalambaka, Thessaly in Greece, there exists a stone wall, dated back to 21,000 BCE. If the wall was indeed made by modern humans, that would make it more than twice as old as any other structure still in existence today, and unlike Gobeckli Tepe, its purpose is easily inferred. It was built simply to keep the cave’s inhabitants warm, and sheltered from the icy winds of winter. 

What does it mean to live well? For those people, it meant staying warm.

The ancient Stoics had an answer to the question “what does it mean to live well?”. To them the Ideal life was one spent in harmony with nature, and an attitude of calm indifference toward external stimuli. We can be charitable to the Greek Stoics for they lived in an age before man-made climate change, and atomic weapons, but perhaps their advice can still apply to nature’s adversities. 

Here in Brooklyn, Summer’s youthful kiss has diminished, Fall in her aged dignity has come to her cold and withered end, and we all must now face the biting and barren cold of another city winter. There are of course those (like this writer) who love the cold air in their nostrils, and the brisk silence that many consecutive winter mornings will bring; the austere stillness of each first snowfall. But In fairness I must acknowledge that for many of us, the winter is a time to hunker down, and to cozy up close in warm, safe man-made structures.

Whether you are among those for whom WInter is a yearly test of mental health, or you are a cold blooded child of the ice and snow, we should all agree that a flickering yellow light peeking out from a window is inviting contrast to the darkness and cold of the exposed winter night. This image is a romantic and primordial appeal to our innermost comfort. And in our chilly neighborhood this season there is perhaps no more romantic and inviting example of such a place, than Lore.

On the southeast corner of fifteenth street and seventh avenue, and framed on both sides of its corner entry by a black painted crown molded stone edifice, Lore evokes a moody kind of elegance perfectly suited for intimate gastronomic gatherings. We will certainly be getting to the food soon enough, but before we do we need to spend some time discussing Lore’s atmosphere. When you first enter beneath Lore’s dark awning, and crescent moon Signage, you enter a warm interior furnished in the best of taste. 

The space is small, with perhaps only a dozen tables, and enough bar seating for eight to ten more patrons. But for those fortunate patrons, the space delights the senses. The exposed brick wall on the far side of the dining room, adorned with a single high-spanned wooden shelf and a collection of blue glass bottles, evokes a rustic comfort we are perhaps used to in Brooklyn these days. But Lore is not just trying to be another neighborhood rustic chic boutique, instead choosing to embrace the eclectic. The emblematic tin lined ceilings support elegant pendant lamps, and a glorious mid century modern chandelier adorned with ten warm circular lights, ties the look of the dining room together.

The space was designed with care in mind, and certainly with the intention to evoke a vibe, perhaps even a theme. That vibe, I imagine will be a little different to each guest that finds themselves wandering in from the cold night air, but to this writer, I would describe it simply as “romantic and moody”, perfect for the time of year.

Much like Lore’s thoughtful interior design, its food also embraces collaboration and fusion, and much like its atmosphere, they pull off that exercise spectacularly. Chef Jay Kumar is very talented and seems to have embraced the role of chief food pioneer. By focusing not on one particular kind of cuisine, but instead on what is possible when we embrace variety, Chef Jay hopes to make Lore an embodiment of Brooklyn itself.

To quote directly from their website “Brooklyn is truly a confluence of cultures, kept vital by storytellers and community leaders, many of whom hail from far-flung places around the globe. So many of these diverse traditions are both preserved and born around a dinner table with friends and neighbors.” Simple, unpretentious, two sentences summarizing tens of thousands of years of human history and distilling it into a mission statement that says to me ‘look at what great living is made possible when we embrace diversity, and marry cultures and traditions together with care’.

The result of that culinary boldness is the perfect place to take your date on a cold winter night, to experience for a few brief hours, something warm and altogether unique. Lore’s cuisine marries a multitude of cultures, and its menu changes seasonally, but some of the defining elements are strongly rooted in Indian, Middle Eastern, perhaps east asian as well. It is truly impossible to concisely define (and perhaps that’s the point), but it is certainly ALL very good food.

This author has had the pleasure of dining at Lore on several occasions, and has had the opportunity to try out a number of their menus. The first time dining there we had the pleasure of tasting warm home made naan accompanied with spiced honey, fresh thinly sliced radishes, and uncultured butter. We also sampled a delicately smoked trout, and a particularly flavorful Sea Bream. I think my biggest takeaway from that first visit was how their homemade Dessert stole the show.

It deserves its own little paragraph. Lore makes a SPECTACULAR cashew baklava, which they paired on this occasion with a delicate rosewater ice cream. I am not in particular a dessert person, and it is rarely the most notable part of the meal for me, but this occasion was an exception.

On a more recent visit I was delighted by a perfectly spiced fermented dosa, and a crispy, deeply savory Hen-of-the-woods Uttapam dish. For the uninitiated, Hen-of-the-woods is a meaty and tender kind of mushroom, and Uttapam is a crispy sort of pancake.

My guests on this more recent occasion wanted to splurge on Lore’s wide spectrum of gastronomic variety, which included both a perfectly cooked specimen of Steak Bavette, and a perfectly classic fish and chips that would have made the grade across the pond.

I think my favorite part of Lore’s eclectic menu, aside from its perfect execution, might just be how easy it is to please everyone at your table. Despite having a relatively narrow seasonal menu, it always seems precisely engineered to impress every pallet in a different way; whether that be through a cultural marriage of tastes, a showstopper dessert dish, or a perfect embrace of classic European dishes.

And maybe that is what good living really is, just the art of being happy and of making other people happy in your company. Throughout the many biting plutonian winters nights we have ahead of us, I hope my fellow Slopers will deign to visit Lore’s mysterious inviting facade, and each embrace that great historical tradition; the primordial gathering of people, from out of the cold, and into the warmth of enriched company.