Best Picnic Provisions And Park Locations In Brooklyn And Manhattan | Tasting Table NYC
Where to get picnic supplies for a city park near you
This weekend, NYC's parks are in full bloom, inviting you in for an urban picnic. But before you set off in search of a good spot, you'll need to stock up on snacks and properly camouflage your drinks.
Prospect Park
The lovely new shop from the 606 R&D team, two doors down from their restaurant, is the perfect place to hit. May we suggest a barbecue chicken sandwich to go ($10) on a massive soft onion roll from Orwasher's. For dessert, grab a salami of dark chocolate ganache dotted with candied orange peel from Olympic Provisions ($10), which won't melt in the sun. A genius S'well thermos ($45) will keep a whole bottle's worth of wine cool for hours.
Amy Weeks and Ilene Rosen, R&D Foods' chef-owners | Olympic Provisions chocolate sausage
Central Park
This one's easy and easy to order ahead: Bill Telepan's uptown restaurant, Telepan, offers pre-packed picnic baskets stuffed with all kinds of summery delights. Choose from a main (tuna-chickpea salad, Cuban sandwich), one side (farro tabouleh, spicy coleslaw) and a dessert. We love a trio of cold fried chicken, tomato and wax bean salad and crescents of blueberry pie ($21 a person; order by 5 p.m. the day before).
McCarren Park
Visit the dreamy Williamsburg butcher shop The Meat Hook for a pork sandwich pack–expertly sliced roast pork and house-made ham that's ready to plop onto buttered bread ($16 a pound)–along with deviled ham salad ($9 a pound), jars of Buffalo chicken rillettes ($8 for an 8-ounce jar) and, if you shop like we do, lots of other delicious cured and smoked things you didn't even know you wanted.
Brooklyn Bridge Park
Foragers City Grocer, a lovely specialty food shop in Dumbo, is still your best bet for snacks that carry well to the water's edge. Pick up some bread and a lot of things to have it with: tins of Concarneau sardines packed in olive oil ($8), Brooklyn Brine's crunchy pickled beans ($11) and blueberry jam from Anarchy in a Jar ($7.75).
Now, how about a wine-fueled nap on a sunny patch of grass? Tuesday is far away.