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Hey New York Foodies! Brooklyn Restaurant Week is Extended!

While we all love our local and sustainable upscale dining establishments in New York City, it's sometimes hard to afford eating at them as often as we'd like. Sure, Restaurant Week gives us the chance to fully indulge (without financial guilt) our cravings for grass-fed cows from upstate (seared and served dineinbrooklyn2atop a New Jersey-grown parsnip mash) for seven straight days. But what happens when Restaurant Week is over? Well, as it so happens, we won't have to think about that for a while.

Brooklyn's borough president and unofficial borough mascot, Marty Markowitz, has announced that our prayers have been answered: Brooklyn's 6th Annual Restaurant Week (a.k.a. Dine In Brooklyn) will be extended a full four weeks, to April 30th. That's right. Restaurant Week is now Restaurant Month. As with the original dates (March 23rd-April 2nd), participating restaurants will be serving up 3-course meals for $23 (and in some exceptionally fabulous cases, 3-course meals FOR TWO for a total of $23). And, while not all the original Restaurant Week eateries will be participating in the extension, plenty of our favorite local, seasonal, and sustainable dining establishments will. Below, some of the best:

Rose Water 787 Union St. Park Slope, Brooklyn, 718.783.3800 Committed to "working with as much local, regional, organic, and sustainably raised food as the seasons will allow," Rosewater serves up the kind of food that makes many of us go home afterwards and quietly weep over the fact that we can't eat every meal there for the rest of our lives. Smoked cod hash is my favorite item on their brunch menu. And I'll eat just about anything on their dinner menu, though I'm especially partial to their unique soups (like green garlic) and side dishes (which often include happy-sounding ingredients like nettles and fiddleheads).

Stone Park Café 324 5th Ave. Park Slope, Brooklyn, 718.369.0082 If you want to go the sort of place that feels like Brooklyn, yet still manages to get stellar write-ups from The New York Times, Crain's and New York Magazine, mosey on down to the Stone Park Café. For the highfalutin types there's roasted marrow bones and braised octopus. For the more down-home, roasted chicken, butternut squash soup, and savory biscuits and gravy. Like Rose Water, they rely on an upstate farmer for much of their produce, but unlike anywhere else in the neighborhood, they aren't afraid to experiment a bit. beansIci 246 Dekalb Ave., Fort Greene, Brooklyn, 718.789.2778 "Fresh, seasonal, and local" is their motto, but my friends prefer to use the words "amazing," "unique," and "best place to eat in Fort Greene" when they talk about Isi.

The New York Times tends to agree, describing the menu as "full of unpretentious pleasures." Among their offerings: poached eggs with Anson Mill's grits and truffle dressing for brunch; and ginger confit chicken with red pepper sauce and pecans for dinner. Num! Written by Kristen Meinzer