Reviewed 4/25/20009

When my mom and stepdad made a pitstop in Brooklyn as they were driving back up to MA, I decided we should take advantage of the car and go to a restaurant in a nearbyish neighborhood that’s a little awkward to get to on foot or on the bus. I’ve wanted to try Picket Fence for a while, so that’s where I directed us. As soon as we pulled up outside, I knew we had made the right choice. Look how charming:

Restaurants with homey charm and cozy glows are always instant hits with me. They could have fed me dog poop at this point, and I wouldn’t have noticed. OK, maybe I would have noticed a little bit.

We requested a spot in the garden since it was still in the 70s, even at the late hour!

And they brought free plain popcorn (the perfect whole grain pre-dinner snack) to the table while we waited:

Mom and I shared the apple salad with Granny Smith slices, arugula (my favorite green!), red onions, grape tomatoes, blue cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette on the side:

I ordered the special: blackened red snapper with pineapple glaze over ratatouille.

This was perfect! Geez, I’m sorry I’m being so positive. If there was one drawback to my dinner, it was that it made me think of Rudolph with that half of one grape tomato sitting on top.

I also had a teeny bite of mom’s pan-seared scallops.

Scallops are my favorite seafood, but things often go wrong in preparation. Not so with these. They were brilliantly crisped on the outside!

And a teeny bite of John’s crab cakes:

Also verrrrrrry tasty.

So, it’s safe to say we were pleased with our food (even though it took forEVER to come out):

We picked one dessert to split three ways. We almost ordered two but then decided that one would probably suffice. Take a look at these “picket fence” dessert menus. Can you guess what we got?

We actually ordered the special: banana bread pudding with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.

Mmmmmmmmm, it was warm and gooey (and melty by the time I finished photographing and let the vultures have at it!):

Mom and I had a spoon Olympics battle at the end for all the drips:

I’m not used to having to compete for my plate-cleaning title! Mom did claim, however, that she is the original plate scooper, and I guess she has a point there. She did come first 😛

You must eat here!