The Esters — Restaurant in New York

THIS was one of the MOST INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCES of my pizza-loving life.

Walked in as soon as they'd opened (3p) on the hottest Tuesday of the 2024 July heatwave & welcomed by the most refreshing central air conditioning & the loveliest gem of a human named Tai.

I visited the washroom, it was just as beautiful as the rest of the space & cleaner than most Brooklyn people - smelled amazing. (I said what I said.)

The owner tinkered quietly over freshly molded gourmet bar pies, NOTHING FROZEN, particularly sourced ingredients & seasonal creations only available rarely & for short periods of time. An eclectic and eccentric delight for the senses ! I don't think I have EVER tasted a better pizza than the ones made by Jenny's hand.

We bantered for nearly 3 hours, enjoying delicious specialty cocktails & joyous laughter. The service is spectacular, the flavor combos were to die for but the best feeling for me was the attentive nature of the staff. These quality people were very carefully chosen by Jenny at no rush or despair & her bar is one of the most beautiful places filled with incredible energies I have ever had the honor & pleasure of encountering.

Cannot WAIT to go back!

🌞 SUNSHINE...

Is this place a restaurant or a bar? To most it seems like a restaurant that fails to provide table service and then tries to make you, the customer, feel as if it's unreasonable for assuming that there would be.

The note from the owner makes it sound like they couldn't decide on what type of establishment they wanted to make, ran out of money to hire staff, and decided to have the customers be the wait staff. And when you're in denial about your business, just blame the customers for "misunderstanding" what this place fails to deliver.

There are too many tables, and too many foods on the menu that require wait staff to serve, for this place to be bar service only.

My party ordered two gin and tonics that came out as gin and sodas. No biggie it happens, but had to maneuver through the tables to go back the the bar to replace them. The bartender failed on the replacements and gave us gin and sodas again...

The Esters doesn't provide table service and doesn't provide proper cocktails, what exactly do they provide? The whole experience makes you wonder what exactly are you paying for and what place are you going to next because...

Extremely disappointed, and left hungry. Starting with the good, it’s a beautiful spot and the fit out is very nice, great environment for a few wines and food. The wine was also very nice. BUT we had to wait an hour for a cheese board that never arrived. Our ticket got lost and nobody followed up to see how things were going. Clearly understaffed but also disorganised, nothing was prepared and everything took much longer than it should to come out. There was also no great sense for hospitality or urgency, staff that were there were busy talking to each other... I may come back for a wine, but if in the neighbourhood I would head back to Diamond Lil, great drinks, service...