Borough Food & Drink.(Restaurant review)

Borough Food & Drink is a quizzical twist on the "locavore" movement, whose adherents insist on eating food grown close to home. Borough's co-creator and contributing chef, Zak Pelaccio, has assembled a menu that relies primarily on products found in the five boroughs--those raised, assembled, or imported by local purveyors--and that also finds occasional inspiration in various neighborhood or ethnic mainstays, such as the deep-fried pickle or the knish. It's a nifty conceit, but also in some respects a fraught one, since anything this Borough can do, someone in a real borough can probably do better. It's not so much an all-star team as it is a fantasy-league squad.

Still, you root for the place, out of both civic patronage and civic pride. The sight, by the entrance, of a deli counter stocked with various delicacies (Di Palo's ricotta, De Lillo's biscotti, olives from the Pickle Guys) and then, ringing the dining room, of shelves arrayed with canned and jarred exotica (fish balls, mushroom ketchup, pickled thyme) bolsters that allegiance. (All these condiments are for sale.) But there's something about the space that feels distinctly un-New Yorky. Despite all the reclaimed wood and the vintage fixtures, the atmosphere, as well as ...