Up in Smoke

Opening a restaurant is a Herculean endeavor, but on the scale of challenges faced, running out of food before the end of lunch service--as Mile End often did when it opened this winter--is a great problem to have.

Now out of its infancy, this Montreal-style restaurant has ironed out such wrinkles by expanding: Owners Noah Bernamoff and Rae Cohen rented additional space and hired a baker to help them make their own bread. Most importantly, they bought a second smoker.

And with successful equations for breakfast (St. Viateur bagels from Montreal) and lunch (indulgent poutine and smoked-meat platters) worked out, they've turned to dinner.

The addition of crispy burnt ends of the smoked brisket to a ground-beef blend from the Meat Hook elevates an otherwise standard hamburger to one with an alluring foreign parlance. And grass-fed rib eye steak is thinly sliced (a textbook Quebecoise preparation) and met with an onion marmalade deglazed with Stumptown coffee.

The coming weeks hold other delicious imports: Tortière and smoked pulled duck will keep the new smoker busy.

And although smoke may be the specialty here, meat will now have a rival in chomeur, a soon-to-appear dessert. The rich maple-syrup-infused pudding is the ideal tip of the hat to our neighbors up north.

Mile End, 97A Hoyt St. (between Atlantic Ave. and Pacific St.), Brooklyn; 718-852-7510 or mileendbrooklyn.com