In one of the city’s best boroughs for natural wine, Winona’s has managed to make an impression. (And not just for its Instagram captions.) This all-day wine bar in northern Bed-Stuy is known for its European fare — “flawless” Scotch eggs, funky head-on prawns — and versatile, six-page wine list. A rotating guest chef series has featured Greenpoint’s popular Taqueria Ramirez and the tasting menu pop-up Hera.

Located at the border of Bed-Stuy and Bushwick, Ostudio is one of the most unusual places to dine in the city right now. It has a fixed cafe and dinner menu in tandem with dozens of pop-ups that are scheduled as one-night-only events or longer-term residencies spanning several weeks. The restaurant has featured chefs both established and lesser-known who work in collaboration with the Ostudio kitchen staff to create their own short-term menu takeovers. One night, customers might find baked Alaska with corn ice cream; another night, black sesame custard with chile peanut candy — meant to pair with a bottle of natural wine. That fixed menu features dishes like meat and cheese plates, beef tartare, chicory salad, and poached cod a la Neige.

Fany Gerson, the dessert pro who started La Newyorkina and Dough, is behind for this Bed-Stuy bakery on the corner of Franklin and Lafayette avenues. The recipe for her doughnuts is different here — it incorporates Mexican cinnamon and tea — and her pastry case is lined with sticky buns, braided and glazed doughnuts, and fan fans, (filled doughnuts that fall somewhere between an eclair and a Long John). The bakery is located in the building that housed the first location of the Dough doughnut chain, which Gerson stepped away from in 2020.

Heirloom corn is finally getting its due in the United States, and Brooklyn’s For All Things Good was among the first to the punch. The small Bed-Stuy cafe mills the masa for its yellow, blue, and corn tortillas on the premises, resulting in colorful tetelas and miniature tlayudas drizzled in salsa macha. Round out a meal with an iced horchata (as cinnamon-y as they come) or atole (a milkshake-thick beverage made from the versatile house masa).

The wine list comes scrawled on a piece of paper at this value-play Italian restaurant along Bed-Stuy’s happening Tompkins Avenue. There are usually a couple of antipasti and specials, but shareable portions of well-priced pasta are the main event. Meat eaters: Save yourselves some time and order the amatriciana — the ample pieces of pork jowl get better the more you chew — and oxtail ragu. Close out a meal with some amaro and a slice of the restaurant’s dreamy tiramisu.

Maya Congee Cafe offers playful interpretations of congee inside a colorful general store that highlights a variety of Asian pantry staples that are otherwise hard to find in the neighborhood. The menu, a collaboration between owner Layla Chen and chef Matthew Tilden of 7 Grain Army, features generous bowls of congee made from a mixture of jasmine rice, brown rice, and quinoa. Several vegetarian congees are available, including one made with peanuts and sambal.

One of two pizzerias on this list, Cuts & Slices is known for its less traditional pizza toppings like oxtail, jerk shrimp, and chicken and waffles. Slices range from $3.50 for plain pizza, to $15 for a piece with shrimp, lobster, and black truffle; most, like the chopped cheese and shrimp scampi slices, fall somewhere in between. The pizza shop from owner Randy Mclaren opened in 2018, but it turned heads during the pandemic for posting videos on TikTok of celebrities biting into its slices.

This casual cafe makes fried-fish sandwiches, plates with goat and grilled chicken legs, and Haitian patties, but the thing to get is griyo: The fried pork dish is marinated in Scotch bonnet peppers before being piled onto ciabatta with lime, pickles, sweet plantains, and a remoulade sauce.

Ma-n-Pop is a soul food landmark, where customers can order fish and grits for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This affordable restaurant where nothing costs more than $20 is outfitted with tchotchkes from bygone eras, including record sleeves, magazine cut-outs, and posters. It’s a happening place in the neighborhood around brunch and a lower-key alternative to Saraghina across the street for dinner.

Saraghina is essential to Bed-Stuy, providing the neighborhood with a top-notch pizzeria sandwiched between a sexy bar and a daytime bakery run by the same team. Pies, priced between $15 and $25 apiece, come with toppings like fennel sausage, spicy artichoke, and roast delicata squash.

Peaches Hot House was once one of the only places in the city to find Nashville hot chicken. It’s since been joined by a handful of out-of-town chains, including one backed by Drake, but we’re not sure anyone does it better than here. Fried chicken, shrimp, and catfish can be ordered at varying spice levels — regular, hot, extra hot — with sides like grits and collard greens. Other options include a burger and fried shrimp sandwich.

There might be better chicken in Bed-Stuy, but there’s few better places to eat them than the Fly. This fashionable, natural wine-slinging restaurant has been swarmed since opening in 2019, fueled by locals and destination diners vying for a taste of its succulent rotisserie chicken, served by the half and whole. Be sure to order the chicken sandwich, a “gloriously drippy” creation packed with crunchy celery and loads of white and dark meat.

Before restaurateur trio Nialls Fallon, Nick Perkins, and Leah Campbell opened the Fly, around the corner, or Cervo’s, on the Lower East Side, there was Hart’s. This unfussy neighborhood hangout has rightly earned a national following for its seafood-heavy menu — lamb burger with anchovies, clam toast with pancetta — and of-the-moment natural wine list.

Not long ago, Ali’s Trinidad Roti Shop closed for renovation without putting up much of a sign, scaring many ardent patrons. Now it has reopened with a flashier look, and products displayed in the new picture windows (roasted peanuts, soda, medicinal teas, pepper sauce, and such). The heart of the menu is still a vast range or rotis wrapped in a flatbread called dhalpuri, including conch, liver, kingfish, and curry goat. Don’t forget to add veggies like squash and spinach. Halal and cash only.

Follow your nose, or the gleaming red paint job of Abu’s, and a display case of cakes and pies awaits. This bakery from owner Idris Conry — who goes by Abu, meaning father in Arabic — specializes in bean pies, a staple for the Nation of Islam made by mashing navy beans and baking them under a well-spiced crust. While you’re there, look out for the bakery’s daily selection of cake trimmings, three-dollar boxes of cake scraps available in various flavors.

There’s nothing quite like a beef patty from Tastee Pattee, and thankfully, this Caribbean staple has a handful of locations across Brooklyn, including one on Fulton Street in Bed-Stuy. Burnt orange, deeply flavorful, and griddled with cheese, the beef patties served here are near-perfect on their own — and actually perfect when stuffed into a piece of coco bread.