Unsung Food Neighborhoods

[Chris Amirault]

I was in Brooklyn this weekend visiting friends in Fort Greene, and in pursuit of a foolhardy errand, we drove down Fifth Avenue all the way to Bay Ridge. In the 70s and 80s, we started seeing a slew of Lebanese, Turkish, and Greek shops and restaurants, and we got some mezze at a little Lebanese place before heading into midtown Manhattan. It was great: homemade pickles, wonderful kibbeh, dolma, zatar bread....

Driving off, I realized that I had never heard anyone describe Bay Ridge as a great food neighborhood of NYC, but I'd be thrilled to spend a week there shopping, eating, and cooking. Everyone knows about the touristy hot spots in your town, whether it's NY, London, Paris, or Munich. What are the unsung neighborhoods across the globe that are tucked away?

edited to clarify the scope of the thread -- ca

Edited November 3, 2005 by chrisamirault (log)

[MarketStEl]

I was in Brooklyn this weekend visiting friends in Fort Greene, and in pursuit of a foolhardy errand, we drove down Fifth Avenue all the way to Bay Ridge. In the 70s and 80s, we started seeing a slew of Lebanese, Turkish, and Greek shops and restaurants, and we got some mezze at a little Lebanese place before heading into midtown Manhattan. It was great: homemade pickles, wonderful kibbeh, dolma, zatar bread....

Driving off, I realized that I had never heard anyone describe Bay Ridge as a great food neighborhood of NYC, but I'd be thrilled to spend a week there shopping, eating, and cooking. Everyone knows about the touristy hot spots in your town. What are the unsung neighborhoods that are tucked away?

←

1) Lower Northeast Philadelphia.

This area has seen an influx of Russian immigrants over the last decade or so, and now boasts a slew of good Russian eateries. The city's only Armenian restaurant/take-out is also in this area. I'd love to get my hands on some lahmejune.

2) "El Zona del Oro" -- the stretch of North Philly that centers on North Fifth Street from roughly the 2700 block (Allegheny Avenue) to the 3700 block (Erie Avenue).

This neighborhood is home to the city's best Latin American restaurants. You're also sure to get a table many nights, as the only people who eat in them are the neighborhood residents and adventurous types who aren't worried about the area's unsavory reputation (one of the city's worst drug corners throughout the 1990s is located three blocks west of this strip).

[Chris Amirault]

Sandy, what sorts of Latin American food is available there?

[Milagai]

The Khan Market area in New Delhi.

There are more fancy restaurants in the main shopping area,

but in the little back alleys are the small, relatively unknown,

absolutely glorious kabab houses and small greasy hole

in the wall restaurants. Just a short stroll from the fancy

neighboring housing areas......

If only I had the stomach of my younger self, and the wallet

of my current self......

sigh.....

Milagai

[gaf]

Bay Ridge is described in Myra Alperson's Nosh New York as a culinary neightborhood with descriptions of some restaurants and food stores.

[MarketStEl]

Sandy, what sorts of Latin American food is available there?

←

Well, probably the "Zona del Oro" establishment that is best known outside the neighborhood is Tierra Colombiana (4535 North 5th, near Wyoming Avenue), a Cuban-Colombian restaurant that has gotten many good writeups. (I think the owners of this place have a stake in Mixto, a very popular Cuban-Colombian restaurant on Pine Street in Wash West.)

There are also Puerto Rican, Mexican and Brazilian/Portuguese eateries in the general area, which is roughly where North Philadelphia meets West Kensington. I haven't been up there to eat at any of these, so I can't give you specific names; sorry. (I have been to Mixto, which is a couple of blocks from me. It's pretty good, but I've been told Tierra Colombiana is even better.)

[rlibkind]

I was in Brooklyn this weekend visiting friends in Fort Greene, and in pursuit of a foolhardy errand, we drove down Fifth Avenue all the way to Bay Ridge. In the 70s and 80s, we started seeing a slew of Lebanese, Turkish, and Greek shops and restaurants, and we got some mezze at a little Lebanese place before heading into midtown Manhattan. It was great: homemade pickles, wonderful kibbeh, dolma, zatar bread....

←

You forgot to mention Norwegian: two grocery/delis and one bakery remain from this once teeming Norwegian neighborhood.

[Arianna]

If you live in Seattle, you definitely know about Little Saigon and Columbia City...but if you are a tourist, you sadly never get beyond Belltown, which has some fancy nice spots but is mostly mediocre-land.

Little Saigon is an eastern area of the International District. Tourists make their way to the ID, but they rarely get past 7th Avenue, and east of there is where a lot of the good stuff is. Cheap, too! You could live off of $20 a week eating out every day.

Columbia City is a new rising district with all sorts of yummy eateries and the best bread in town.