Whom You Know: Terrific Takeout Brooklyn

Tuesday, August 26, 2025

#InauguralReview #TerrificTakeoutBrooklyn #BeachyPeachy #TeUra Il Ponte Cucina Italiana Since 2023 by Elez Bucaj #1215SurfAvenue #ConeyIsland #Brooklyn #NewYork

Say Enchante to the Branzino!

If you are a Peachy Deegan, you nearly never go outside of the uber-competitive dining realm of Manhattan because why would you, and when we do go to an outer borough, it is because in addition to fine food, someone has a great history (Joe Bastone) or an established prior relationship in Manhattan (Dino and Edin Redzic). Elez Bucaj has defied both of these: we met him for the first time at TeUra, which means bridge in Albanian, opened only 2 years ago on March 19, 2023. He is the founder and owner and came to America in 2002 from Albania and opened his first restaurant in 2007. It derives its name because bridges connect people, and his cuisine connects people too.
Your first impression is that you will not think you are in Coney Island or Brooklyn with ten chandeliers surrounding you. If you haven't heard, we are pro-chandlelier.
We are also pro-carb, obviously.
We were graciously greeted with the super fresh bread straight from their woodfire oven, which is the genius behind quite a lot here. We absolutely adored the total freshness and the garlic on top. This is brought to every table we are told, and this is our first visit ever here and the first time we met Elez.
The entire restaurant was clean and spotless, which is really hard to achieve we'd surmise with all of the sand outside! We really loved the bathroom too from the green tile (Peachy's favorite color) to the soap and of course it was clean or we wouldn't be telling you about it. Note there are plenty of people online writing about restaurants allowing spin from the spinmasters who may paint a picture that is not reality and get paid to spin yarns; we publish the truth and tell the truth always. We celebrate intelligence and excellence. You will see the woodpile as you go to the bathroom for the oven, and it evidences how authentic this place is! We cannot believe more people aren't talking about it. Yet. Plus Elez has super exciting news that we reveal...
Peachy conversed with the chandeliers once she ordered.

Naturally, we started with salads; the salad section is convincing with six choices.
Shrimp Salad spells summer with mixed greens, corn, avocado, and grilled shrimp in a lovely fashion (and they put the dressing on the side as we asked), while Shop Salad in the traditional Balkan style, has outstanding cherry and regular tomatoes with cucumber, mixed peppers, onions, olives, feta and evoo, perfectly light. Fresh burrata cheese, cherry tomato and evoo teamed up for the perfect simplicity of the Burrata Salad which you should order.
Pizza is the real piece de resistance here, and you should put it on your pizza bucket list. Eighteen inches of glorious woodfire oven pizza await you and there are beaucoup de choices, nineteen choices we count in fact! We began with the Margarita: Fresh Mozzarella, San Marzano tomato sauce, fresh garlic, basil and parmigiano. And the Vegetarian Pizza was a glorious garden of nutrition: fresh mozzarella, tomato sauce, broccoli, mushrooms, peppers and onions. Normally, there are also olives but Peachy asked for the no olive version and they were happy to comply.
Chicken Parmigiana, traditional bread and pan-fried chicken with mozzarella and tomato sauce turned in a solid performance and we liked the ziti too that came to the party, especially the sauce. Five shrimp arrive in style (we chose to add the protein) to an amazing Fettuccine Alfredo, homemade with cream sauce, garlic and parmigiano. Note pictures are unedited always.
Other than the pizza, the Branzino was our favorite part and the flavor that emanated from the poisson was superior and the fish itself was fresh and properly super moist in the most delightful flaky fashion. Carrots, broccoli and asparagus balanced it out wonderfully.
We sipped on this spectacular Super Tuscan, and believe you should drink what you like, not what the world thinks you should pair with your food!
Note they also have their own wine which we may try another time.
It was a hot day.
Panna Cotta finished the experience on a sweet, positive note and we were tremendously impressed overall! Note that in mid-September, Elez Bucaj will be opening Elia's Casa Bianca on Manhattan's First Avenue in Midtown at 398 East 52nd Street so stay tuned.

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#InauguralReview #TerrificTakeoutBrookyn #CourtStreetBagels by #AdamAlsoora #Bagels #181CourtStreet #Brooklyn

Peachy says the Tuna Melt, crafted with Albacore, is to-die-for and you must take a trip to Brooklyn!

It's not who you know, it's WHOM YOU KNOW and we know Adam and he came highly recommended to us by someone who achieved Peachy's Picks status and his business's culinary feats lived up to our food expectations! Remember, once in a Blue Moon Peachy actually does go to Brooklyn like when Paul McCartney had his exhibit there, but we couldn't meet Adam that day. So we spoke to him remotely before and after the review and he has bagels you must meet! This review was in the works for well over a year! We have been talking to Adam that long....

You KNOW they must be really something special if Peachy says you should go all the way to Brooklyn! Actions speak louder than words, readers!

The bagels are truly extraordinary and worth the trip, and if you take the green train it is only one stop beyond Manhattan. Pictures are unedited as always and the bagels you meet are uberfresh and really do look this gorgeous in real life. They don't even need hair and makeup and Adam Sr. tells us their human expert bagel roller is their secret to success. Adam Jr. told us that these exact bagels were baked thirty minutes prior; he can reference the cooking time on his phone. This is how important freshness is to them we can see!

Mohammed graciously greeted us and showed us he has the best social skills there of anyone -he takes pride in his work and is a six-year veteran he tells us- and Anjelica pleasantly and diligently took our order. Adam Jr. and Abe were delightful to meet later in the review.

There are a lot of bagel places that think they are great and rest upon their laurels that we do not waste our time with. It is shocking to us how many people must love to wait in line for a product that is hype without quality. This is not one of them because of the care of the owner and the quality of the food. This is our first and only visit so far so we hope they keep it up!

Adam took over as owner of Court Street Bagels on January 28, 2024 and he also owns Smith Street Bagels, so hold your horses until we get there. These are both in Brooklyn.

No, it's not a stop light.

Only pay attention to green since you have to GO!

Life is too short to not be drinking watermelon juice, particularly in July.

You're not going to find better watermelon juice in the five boroughs than this.

This is just what you need and will cool you down in this 100+++F humidity and you'll be Chillin like a Villain in no time as Peachy's friend that favors slang says. Of course, she says Chilling like a Villain because she is an Anglophile.

Of course, fresh orange SHOULD be the only thing in orange juice!

Note they make all juices fresh every morning.

You can obviously taste it.

Adam is making anyone that dares to serve us concentrated juices look not so good.

You are going to feel like a million bucks after drinking the Green Juice. It's truly amazing for your digestive system and completely refreshing. As much as we like coffee usually, you cannot beat having these juices with your bagel endeavors and they are a total must in your Court Street Bagels experience. It is too bad we don't want to go to Brooklyn every morning because these juices are that good.

The bagels are winners and in tandem these juices are totally spectacular and equally our favorite part of the review. We loved all three equally although probably the Orange Juice a little bit more because Peachy is a classicist. The fruit salad was also perfection and well-cut and fragrantly fresh. In particular, the flavor of the honeydew and strawberries was spectacular. We would like to see more salad ambitions here! Of course they did not scare Peachy with dressing because you know she likes all her salads au natural.

Meet the Lox Deluxe! Red onion, capers, salmon, and plain cream cheese strike a pose on an everything bagel, obviously fresh. Every bagel we ate here was perfectly fresh and we never want them toasted. Anyone trying to serve you toasted anything is more than likely serving you something less than fresh. This classic winner was adorably delicious.

Not all Tuna Fish is created equally.

Some is just superior.

The Tuna Melt might be Peachy's favorite. It was totally triumphant with provolone, onion, lettuce and sensational white albacore. Every bite was sophisticated savory flavors of victory.

You have to get this, if you like tuna fish.
And if you think you don't maybe you will after you try it.

Why on earth would you bother ever having Avocado Toast when you can have AVOCADO BAGEL?!!!! Elevated splendidly with incredibly fresh, flavorful salmon, cream cheese, cucumber, red onions and tomato as well, the superlative Brooklyn Way is a winner all-around. It reinvents the lox standard which is also delicious, and this edition is particularly coveted during the hot summer months we'd surmise.

The eggs are so spectacular here and in our experience they are among one of the best we've had recently. Everyone knows that Jacques Pepin uses The Omelette as a standard of one's ability. The Western Omelette hit the spot with its signature onions, peppers, tomatoes and mozzarella. We also loved the peppers and potatoes, in a chunky home fries presentation.