Welcome to the Eater Heatmap, focusing on the hottest new openings in Brooklyn this month.
The Best New Restaurants in Brooklyn, According to Eater Editors
From the Four Horsemen’s new restaurant to two Mexico City-influenced cantinas
Eater editors do thorough reporting on the most exciting restaurant openings to hit their city, as well as smaller openings worth having on the radar. Last month alone, New York saw around 50 new restaurants open their doors. In this map, we narrow the field to those places in Brooklyn that are drawing the most excitement, buzz, crowds, and early positive chatter, focusing largely on restaurants that have only been open for six months or less. When an Eater editor has already been to a place — even if it just opened — we share insider tips on what to expect and what’s worth ordering as well.
New to the list in August: I Cavallini, the Four Horsemen follow-up in Williamsburg, and two Bed-Stuy Mexico City-influenced cantinas, Dolores and Olmo.
For more New York dining recommendations, check out the new hotspots in Manhattan and Queens. And for an insider’s perspective on how to eat well no matter where you are in NYC, pick up our new book: The Eater Guide to New York City.
The Best New Restaurants in Brooklyn, According to Eater Editors
From the Four Horsemen’s new restaurant to two Mexico City-influenced cantinas
If you buy something from a link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.
Welcome to the Eater Heatmap, focusing on the hottest new openings in Brooklyn this month.
Eater editors do thorough reporting on the most exciting restaurant openings to hit their city, as well as smaller openings worth having on the radar. Last month alone, New York saw around 50 new restaurants open their doors. In this map, we narrow the field to those places in Brooklyn that are drawing the most excitement, buzz, crowds, and early positive chatter, focusing largely on restaurants that have only been open for six months or less. When an Eater editor has already been to a place — even if it just opened — we share insider tips on what to expect and what’s worth ordering as well.
New to the list in August: I Cavallini, the Four Horsemen follow-up in Williamsburg, and two Bed-Stuy Mexico City-influenced cantinas, Dolores and Olmo.
For more New York dining recommendations, check out the new hotspots in Manhattan and Queens. And for an insider’s perspective on how to eat well no matter where you are in NYC, pick up our new book: The Eater Guide to New York City.
Fish Cheeks
The beloved seafood-heavy Noho Thai restaurant Fish Cheeks has opened a Williamsburg addition with an airy new dining room on Driggs Avenue. Expect items like the duck curry, whole fried fish, and items distinct to this location, such as the marinated blue crab.
Connie Zhou/Fish Cheeks
JR and Son
JR and Son opened in May: a reborn crusty Williamsburg dive bar-turned-Italian American spot of the same name, only this time from an owner of Kellogg’s Diner. Italian American cooking is influenced by chef Patricia Vega’s experience working at Thai Diner. Fish and soy sauce give an unexpected umami boost across the offerings: from the onion rings sauce to its spicy chicken Parm. Meanwhile, an herbaceous arancini salad also has roots in her experience cooking Thai American food. Pastry chef Amanda Perdomo, known for that beloved strawberry pretzel dessert at Kellogg’s, made a very good cake slice version of the Italian rainbow cookie (it’s vegan, but you’d never know it!).
Nick Johnson/JR and Son
Birdee
At Crown Shy, pastry chef Renata Ameni served stellar desserts that cemented the restaurant’s success. Now, Kent Hospitality Group (Saga, Overstory) has opened its first Brooklyn spot in the old Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg: Birdee, with Ameni at the helm. Yes, it’s a bakery, with a rotating pastry case — but more than that, it’s an all-day cafe serving breakfast sandwiches and a tuna melt on a croissant.
Natalie Black/Birdee
I Cavallini
I Cavallini is one of the most anticipated Brooklyn openings of the year, from the team behind Michelin-starred and James Beard-winning Williamsburg restaurant the Four Horsemen, across the street. And like its sibling, expect lines out the door before the 5 p.m. opening. But the good news is the dining room is much bigger, which means walk-ins have more of a chance.
The food here, in a kitchen led by chef Nick Curtola, is straightforwardly delicious and showcases interpretations of lesser-seen Italian dishes, like the nervetti and onion salad or the fried eel toast with pine nuts. Pastas in particular excel: You can’t go wrong with the farfallone with the Calabrian chile butter, or the simple-but-stellar sungold pomodoro bucatini.
Emma Orlow/Eater NY
Rose Marie
The team behind New York’s Tex-Mex haven, Yellow Rose, hopped over to Brooklyn to open this new Williamsburg hangout. The somewhat Southern-ish food menu includes patty melts and saltine-crusted fish, paired alongside pickled rhubarb martinis and guava daiquiris.
Heami Lee/Eater NY
Disco Birdies
Matt Diaz, who opened For All Things Good in 2020, has added three more spots on Franklin Avenue between Greene and Lexington Avenues in Bed-Stuy over the past five years with various partners. Bar Birba, an Italian aperitivo spot; Disco Bottles, a new wine shop; and now, Disco Birdies, a fried chicken spot with Champagne. Also on the menu: a falafel smash burger and fried chicken bites. The new spot, like his others, is walk-in friendly.
Disco Birdies
Also featured in
Dolores
The couple behind wine bar restaurant Winona’s, also in Bed-Stuy, has opened Dolores on Tompkins Avenue — a beautifully designed space with Art Deco flourishes. The walk-in spot is already drawing a local crowd for its cochinita pibil, an order of three tacos with braised pork and pickled onions, among other dishes. Stop by for a snack or a full meal — frozen drinks in hand — on the early side since the secret’s already out in the neighborhood.
Teddy Wolff/Dolores
Olmo
Olmo opened recently in Ocean Hill, a New York take on a Mexico City cantina. While you can easily have a full meal here, ordering almost the entire menu, dish sizes are on the snackier side and are best enjoyed with one of their truly excellent cocktails. Some favorites included the chicharrónes, with a creamy coleslaw-esque take on the side dish; the eggplant milanesa (make sure to order a side of their flour tortillas), and the sopes, made here with plantains, with a kick from the salsa macha. It’s best enjoyed with one of Olmo’s salty micheladas (we preferred the original one over the one with the more stunty Clamato paleta), or, for shaking up a rum-and-Coke order, try their version with Mexican Coca-Cola and tequila.
Emma Orlow/Eater NY
Hungry Thirsty
When news circulated that Ugly Baby was closing in Carroll Gardens last year, fans — including Eater — rushed for a final taste. But good news followed: the keys were passed on to former employees. They’ve since opened Hungry Thirsty, a new restaurant with an entirely distinct menu, save for a few homages to its predecessor, like the beef shank curry. While Ugly Baby was known for its extreme spice warnings on the menu, Hungry Thirsty is ever so slightly toned down but still heat-forward. Dishes include items like a shrimp-and-mushroom curry or fried branzino with Thai tea slushies served in cartoon mugs.
Hungry Thirsty
Pitt’s
Jeremy Salamon had a hit when he opened Agi’s Counter in Crown Heights, focused on modern Eastern European cooking, in a nod to his grandmothers. Now, he’s turned the attention back to his upbringing with a Southern-ish menu, in a much larger dining room in Red Hook. It’s decorated like a country store, replete with a goose lamp and charming art throughout. There’s pimento with fried saltines, deep-fried veal sweetbreads, cold meatloaf tea sandwiches, and for dessert, options like the popular pancake souffle.
Pitt’s
Bong
Chef Chakriya Un and partner Alexander Chaparro have transformed the pop-up Kreung Cambodia into one of New York’s hottest new restaurants that’s still, technically, not fully open yet (the restaurant is reservations-only right now). Taking over a former breakfast burrito spot with no indoor seating, they’ve transformed the space to squeeze in several indoor tables in a colorful space where every detail has been created by a member of their community, from the art to the lampshades.
What Bong is, ultimately, is an ode to Khmer cuisine: Dishes coconut milk-cloaked corn, fried squid with salted duck egg, and crispy whole fried fish make the restaurant a singular experience. But it’s a family affair: from the herbs grown by relatives to recipes passed down.
Confidant
Confidant opened in March in Industry City from Brendan Kelley and Daniel Grossman, two Roberta’s alums. It brings way more ambition and creativity than you might expect of a full-service restaurant for lunch and dinner in the same zone as Costco and an outlet of Design Within Reach. That is to say, Confidant is impressive: from its trout mousse toast to prawn pot pie, plus more splurgey large-format dishes, meant to share. Mariah Neston, a Le Rock alum, has developed a can’t-miss dessert menu with options like rhubarb upside-down cake and a mille-feuille.
Andrew Bui/Confidant
