Tuesday night was blustery and frigid in Bushwick. The kind of night that makes you count your blessings, and your toes. Storefronts were gated and happily dark. The neighborhood was in for the night – taking solace indoors from 33 mph winds and teen temperatures – but soon emerged the bold and the hungry. Those few brave souls ventured out towards the warm glow of a familiar place. Fritzl’s Lunch Box has become a neighborhood go-to for those seeking love and warmth and good food. What better temporary home for a shawarma pop-up shop? Furn Shawarma creator/chef and Momofuku vet, Scott Garfinkel, met the frosty night with hot shawarma and cold beer in the backyard of Fritzl’s.
Walking through Fritzl’s, you can always feel a sharp anticipation as you push aside the magic curtain, do a smell-by of the well-tended kitchen, and pass through the portal to patio paradise. Tuesday’s paradise held a new sight to behold. Stepping up to the main level of the concrete patio you were slapped silly by your own senses. String of garden lights hovered overhead, the warm-weather herb garden was now a retaining wall frame for a spitting fire pit, and the dirty genius of the Wu-Tang Clan body-slammed your memories of simpler times to the present. Clamp flood-lights lit a familiar Smorgasburg-type set-up for shawarma, shawarma, shawarma.
