652 Union Street, between Fourth and Fifth Avenues, Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY 11215. Nearest trains: R at Union Street, 2 and 3 at Bergen Street.
The dining room is small and books up on weekends, so reserve ahead for dinner. The front wine bar takes walk-ins and is the spot for a cocktail and a couple of small plates without a full sit-down.
Palo Santo occupies the ground floor of a Park Slope brownstone on Union Street, and it has done since chef Jacques Gautier opened it in 2006. The format is unusual for the neighbourhood: a front wine and cocktail bar with exposed brick and handmade furniture, then a narrow back dining room that opens toward a kitchen garden. The menu changes daily around what is in season, and a good amount of the produce comes off the building's own rooftop.
This is a restaurant first and a bar second, but the drinks earn the visit on their own. The cocktails lean tequila and mezcal, anchored by the house P.S. Margarita, and The Infatuation has long pointed to the agave list as the reason to grab a seat at the front bar rather than wait for a table. Time Out files it under Park Slope's reliable date-night rooms. The trade-off is space. This is a tight brownstone, not a lounge, so it rewards a couple over a crowd.
Treat it as the sit-down anchor of a Brooklyn night and build around it. Start or finish with a classic at Clover Club in Cobble Hill, work through the natural list at The Four Horsemen in Williamsburg, or close late at Long Island Bar in Cobble Hill. Palo Santo is where you eat well and drink agave before any of them.
The house margarita is the signature pour and the drink the front bar is built around. Order it first and judge the rest of the agave list from there.
The bar keeps a deep agave selection beyond tequila. Ask the bartender to steer you toward a smokier build to pair with the kitchen.
A regular standout among the daily plates. Bright and citrus-driven, it is the dish reviewers name most often to start.