Presidents Day Roast Beef Celebration

President's Day 2011: what's more American than drinking Budweisers and eating roast beef sandwiches for lunch? Probably blowing something up-- but I'm sure eating roast beef and drinking is at least in the top five.

As far as I know, he didn't have a moustache.

Steve, MW and I hadn't planned on a thematically relevant eating excursion, but it worked out when the picture of George Washington above stared down at us and our roast beef. George Washington founded a nation while slaughtering the British and eating roast beef (he also saved children, but not British children).

Brennan & Carr in Sheepshead Bay on the southern face of Brooklyn is full of little bits of presidential history. It's been around for thirteen presidencies. Yes, I counted in my head. Thank you very much B.A. in history.

I came with an empty stomach, ready to put down some roast beef. After placing our order (Steve and I got a single dipped sandwich and MW got jus on the side), I nursed my dirt-cheap beer while trying not to get over-excited for my sandwich.

Good thing Steve and I ordered the same thing, since this picture is of his sandwich. Mine was halfway eaten by that point. Much like this one:

Having no frame of reference, the single dip (as opposed to the double dip or non-dipped) seemed like the perfect choice, a Goldilocks of roast beef sandwiches. The roast beef was tender and rare, enlivened by the salty kick of beef juice. A simple, perfectly balanced sandwich.

Fries were as crispy as I like, but needed salt. This was solved by dipping in jus and swiping in ketchup.

We then toasted to George Washington.

With our nation's forefathers properly saluted, we made the quick drive to Roll-n-Roaster for more roast beef.

While Brennan & Carr evokes George Washington, Roll-n-Roaster has more of a Jimmy Carter aesthetic. It seems like a great spot to people watch while eating sandwiches and drinking milkshakes or lemonade over the course of a lazy day.

I probably would not get the pizza here (anyone tried it?)

Steve and MW split a roast beef sandwich ordered rare with onions, cheese sauce and jus. I ordered the same for myself. While the roast beef was slightly less flavorful than at Brennan & Carr, the rest of the sandwich proved slightly more interesting (and far messier). Still, I think I liked my first sandwich slightly better.

The fries are like the cottage fries at JG Melon, only not as good. Unlike JG Melon's fries, they're covered in temporarily molten cheese sauce. This is a huge plus. However, once the cheese is non-molten, they're best avoided.

Steve was somehow drawn to the corn fritters, and he said something about Asian people loving corn that I didn't quite get. Regardless, the fritters proved delicious-- like balls of breaded and fried creamed corn.

Two gut-busting sandwiches plus sides and beers meant we were barely able to leave Roll-n-Roaster upright. Even so, I demanded a stop at Georgian Bread. Unfortunately, it was closed. Since it was President's Day, I'll attribute that to King George III of England (but there also was a King George of Georgia) rather than George Washington, who surely would have opened his bakery on Mondays. 

Brennan & Carr

3432 Nostrand Ave

Brooklyn, NY 11229

(718) 769-1254

Roll-n-Roaster

2901 Emmons Ave

Brooklyn, NY 11235

(718) 769-6000