Food History of Brooklyn

Key eras

1. 1646 to 1664, Dutch Breuckelen

   Brooklyn takes its name from the Dutch town of Breukelen, and Breuckelen was established in 1646 on the East River shore of Long Island. The Dutch built North America's first tide mill in what is now Marine Park, before the English took New Netherland in 1664.

2. 1840s to 1890, German brewers and Brewer's Row

   German immigrants became the dominant population of Bushwick in the 1840s and 1850s and built a brewing industry there. By 1890 Brewer's Row held 14 breweries in a 14-block area, and dairy farmers collected the spent grain and hops for cow feed. The last Bushwick breweries, Schaefer's and Rheingold, closed in 1976.

3. 1868 to 1916, Coney Island and Brighton Beach resorts

   William Engeman built a resort at Brighton Beach in 1868, and the Brighton Line, built as a railway, became a subway line in 1920. Nathan Handwerker, a Jewish-Polish immigrant who had worked at Feltman's German Gardens, started a nickel hot dog stand on Coney Island in 1916, undercutting Feltman's, which charged 10 cents.

   Taste it todayNathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest

4. 1924 to 1950, pizzerias, roast beef and cheesecake

   Totonno's opened on Coney Island in 1924, Brennan & Carr has served roast beef in Sheepshead Bay since 1938, L&B Spumoni Gardens dates its 86th Street spot to 1939, and Harry Rosen founded Junior's in 1950. All four are still open today.

   Taste it todayNew York cheesecakeSheepshead Bay roast beef sandwichTotonno'sBrennan & CarrL&B Spumoni GardensJunior's Restaurant

5. 1965 to 1986, new immigration

   The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 removed racial restrictions on immigration, and new arrivals from Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean helped redevelop Sunset Park. Soviet Jews won the right to emigrate in the 1970s, and many settled in Brighton Beach. In 1986 the opening of Winley Supermarket in Sunset Park spurred widespread Chinese settlement along 8th Avenue.

6. 2000s to today, restaurant borough

   In the 2000s an influx of Fuzhou immigrants supplanted Cantonese in Sunset Park's Chinatown. Brooklyn Brewery converted a former matzo factory in Williamsburg into a brewery in 1996, Smorgasburg began in Williamsburg in 2011 as an offshoot of Brooklyn Flea, and the Michelin Guide's Brooklyn listing held 76 restaurants in October 2026, six of them with stars.

Immigrant influences

German

The breweries of Bushwick's Brewer's Row, 14 in a 14-block area by 1890, which made it the beer capital of the Northeast.

Italian

Pizzerias, bakeries and feasts: Totonno's, L&B Spumoni Gardens, the Giglio in Williamsburg and Santa Rosalia on 18th Avenue in Bensonhurst.

Taste it todayTotonno'sL&B Spumoni Gardens

Jewish

New York-style cheesecake, from Ashkenazi Jewish cooking of the 1930s, Nathan's hot dogs from Coney Island, and kosher barbecue at Izzy's in Crown Heights.

Taste it todayNathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest

Polish

Greenpoint's Little Poland: pierogi on Manhattan Avenue, white borscht on Greenpoint Avenue and Polish bakeries selling pączki before Lent.

West Indian

The largest West Indian community outside the Caribbean, concentrated in Crown Heights and Flatbush: jerk, oxtail and the Labor Day Carnival on Eastern Parkway.

Chinese

Sunset Park's 8th Avenue Chinatown, Cantonese first and Fuzhou since the 2000s, with Chinese residents also in Bensonhurst, Gravesend and Homecrest.

Mexican and Latin American

Bushwick is the largest hub of Brooklyn's Hispanic community, with Puerto Rican, Dominican, South American, Central American and Mexican communities, and Sunset Park's population is 42 percent Hispanic.

Russian, Ukrainian and Uzbek

Brighton Beach's Little Odessa, where Soviet Jews settled from the 1970s, with Uzbek plov and samsa and Georgian khachapuri.

Pakistani

Midwood's Little Pakistan on Coney Island Avenue, where Lahori Chilli is a halal restaurant and sweet shop.

Taste it todayLahori Chilli

Arab

Egyptians and Lebanese settled in Bay Ridge, where Middle Eastern restaurants, halal grocers and mosques line 5th and 3rd avenues; Karam on 4th Avenue and Tanoreen on 3rd Avenue are two of its restaurants.

Taste it todayKaramTanoreen

Signature innovations

• The five-cent Coney Island hot dog, sold from a Nathan's stand in 1916
  Taste it todayNathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest
• Coal-oven pizza by the pie at Totonno's, on Coney Island since 1924
  Taste it todayTotonno's
• The square Sicilian pie sold by the slice at L&B Spumoni Gardens
  Taste it todayL&B Spumoni Gardens
• Junior's cheesecake on a thin sponge-cake layer instead of a crust
  Taste it todayNew York cheesecakeJunior's Restaurant
• Hot roast beef dipped in pan juices at Sheepshead Bay's Brennan & Carr
  Taste it todaySheepshead Bay roast beef sandwichBrennan & Carr
• Smorgasburg, the open-air food market that began in Williamsburg in 2011
• Craft brewing in Williamsburg from Brooklyn Brewery's 1996 matzo-factory brewery
• Brisket smoked 18 hours under kosher supervision at Izzy's in Crown Heights
  Taste it todayBrisket