Here's Lake Trout, Williamsburg's Homage To "Any Old Crappy Restaurant In Middle America"
John Del Signore
Modified Aug 1, 2012
Williamsburg restaurateurs Joe Carroll and Matt Lang, the former grillmaster at the wickedly popular BBQ joint Fette Sau, have teamed up to open a defiantly lowbrow new venture called Lake Trout. Serving Baltimore-style seafood, the cozy restaurant operates like a seafood snack shop, serving a concise menu of mostly fried food. Carroll and Lang, who also co-own the Williamsburg steakhouse St. Anselm and beer haven Spuyten Duyvil, told Eater they envision Lake Trout to be "like any old crappy restaurant in middle America. Nothing too particular, just standard restaurant bullshit." Always with the hard sell!
And in an interview with Grub Street, Lang explained, "I'm a huge fan of crappy food." To that end, Lake Trout offers up its namesake sandwich with fried whiting on white bread with Velveeta cheese sauce, lettuce, tomato, and tartar sauce. There are also crab cakes, fried shrimp, corn on the cob, and fried chicken wings. The prices seem reasonable ($6.25 for that Lake Trout sandwich), it stays open late, and beer is on the horizon. We don't expect Williamsburg to put up much of a fight.
Lake Trout, located at 160 Havemeyer Street (near South 2nd Street) is open from Sundays through Thursdays from noon-10 p.m. and noon-12 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Lake Trout Menu
new restaurant and bar radar
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.