There’s much more to Bushwick than the bars. This is obvious to those of us who live here, but perhaps less so to everyone else who may only know Bushwick by way of Carousel (36 Wyckoff Ave.) or Elsewhere (599 Johnson Ave.).
For Lee Knoeppel, who has lived in the area for the last five years, and in Williamsburg for around a decade prior after moving to the city from Fishkill, opening a new business in Bushwick has been what he calls the “culmination of [his] entire career.” Enter Extra Sauce (1495 Dekalb Ave.) his new bar on the corner of DeKalb and Knickerbocker, sporting smash burgers, fried chicken sandwiches, and cocktails.
“I know the people that I’m serving. I know the food is gonna be fucking on point,” Knoeppel told me. “So I just want the music to be right, the lights to be right, and the service is going to be impeccable.”
Knoeppel was working as a chef for Barcade’s Manhattan location, and later the Long Acre Tavern, an Irish pub near Times Square, when the pandemic hit, leaving him unemployed; months later, he and his friend Chris Hargitt decided to start Extra Sauce as a weekly burger pop-up outside Ore Bar (277 Graham Ave.) in East Williamsburg. After popping up in some other locations, they were approached to set up shop at The Hungry Pearl, a casual food hall in FiDi, where they plan on staying too.
Now, they’re also going to be less than a block down from both Turbo Pizza (1540 Dekalb Ave.) and Carmelo’s (1544 Dekalb Ave.), a spot where Knoeppel has set up a mini basketball hoop in the back patio area (he has a Knicks tattoo and tells me he wishes that he could have been open for their historic championship win), and also brought an arcade machine next to the bar.
Myself, I moved to this area about a year ago. By “this area,” I’m not just referring to Bushwick as a whole, but specifically what I’m calling the upper-middle Bushwick Trapezoid, bordered by Wyckoff to the north, Wilson to the south, Maria Hernandez Park to the west, and Myrtle to the east.
It’s somewhere on the frontier of gentrification, and still dominated by Afro-Latino and Ecuadorian culture and cuisine. It’s also home to some excellent bars. Consider Mi Bella Dama, (296 Knickerbocker Ave.) a Dominican restaurant that turns into a cocktail bar with dance lights and karaoke after dark, across the street from Palmetto (309 Knickerbocker Ave.), that perfect first date spot, with one of the best dirty martinis in town.
Compared to the area on its west, the Trapezoid is more laid back, more authentic and charming. It has focal points around fun, unpretentious cocktail bars like the recently rebranded Merv’s (266 Irving Ave.) and Boobie Trap (308 Bleecker St.) near Myrtle Avenue, and Abe’s Pagoda (108 Wyckoff Ave.) and Left Hand Path (89 Wyckoff Ave.) up on Wyckoff. It’s one of the best—and most underrated—parts of the city to bar hop.
When Turbo opened last year on DeKalb and Irving, it joined Carmelo’s in fostering a lively bar atmosphere on that corner. Turbo is first and foremost a bar, but its Detroit-style slices are truly some of the best I’ve had in the city. In a similar way, Knoeppel told me that Extra Sauce is also a bar (“a bar that plays sports, but not a sports bar,” he clarified) that is particularly proud of its food, especially given his long background in the culinary industry.
When Knoeppel was 18, working in a restaurant in upstate New York as a dishwasher, his father bought him Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain’s memoir. About a decade later, Knoeppel was competing on The Taste, the ABC cooking show Bourdain was a judge on. Knoeppel was by far, the youngest competitor on Bourdain’s team, and he choked up while telling me about his relationship with the late TV star.
“He was my mentor,” Knoeppel said. “He called me his TV son, and he was my TV dad.” Knoeppel made it to the season finale.
A few years later, Knoeppel won an episode of Chopped and almost made it to the final of a champions-only episode of Beat Bobby Flay. Outside of TV, Knoeppel attended the Institute of Culinary Education and later worked under Tom Colicchio and Justin Smillie, the celebrity chefs behind Gramercy Tavern and Upland, respectively.
“I used to put everything into the food, saying to myself, if the food is good, then nothing else matters,” Knoeppel said. “But I learned the lesson at a young age that that is the complete opposite. The food better be good; it’s everything else that matters.”
Knoeppel’s culinary background shines through in what is a relatively simple menu.
Extra Sauce had an informal opening last week celebrating Knoeppel’s 40th birthday, and as one of his first customers I got to try his au poivre burger, with gruyere and caramelized onions and crispy potatoes, paired with a black pepper sauce to dip it into. It was messy as hell, but one of the best burgers I’ve ever had.
More than anything, Knoeppel wants to make this a place where anybody can come and hang out. And, honestly, if there’s one area in which the Trapezoid truly shines, it’s Hanging Out. Knoeppel himself tells me that he likes to vibe out on the stoop with his neighbors and play ball at Maria Hernandez.
“There really is a community here, and I’m opening this for everyone,” he said. “I met this woman who has lived here for 40 years, and she was like, ‘I’m throwing a baby shower for my daughter, can we rent out the back?’ I was like, ‘Fuck yes! You can have the backyard!’”
I asked Knoeppel if he considers places like Turbo Pizza competitors in the local food and drink business. He told me that he’s actually been talking to the guys at Turbo since he planned on opening Extra Sauce, and they’ve been very supportive.
“A rising tide lifts all ships,” he laughed.
Casey Wetherbee is a freelance writer and reporter based in Bushwick. You can find his essays on his Substack, Meanderings, or follow him on Twitter or Instagram.
Photos taken by Casey Wetherbee.
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