Bay Ridge Food in the News

No. 1: Bay Ridge is much more diverse than people think. Yes, the neighborhood is known primarily for its Greek and Italian residents, but people of Scandinavian and Middle Eastern heritage also have roots here.

No. 2: Bay Ridge has a lot of restaurants. A lot. I think I've read that we have the highest concentration of any Brooklyn neighborhood.

For those two reasons, I was excited when I found this article the New York Times recently published about the variety of restaurants not only in Bay Ridge, but on Bay Ridge's 5th Avenue, where we live.

(Our apartment building even got a cameo-- scroll down to the second photo on the left. That's our building through the window of Al Safa!)

Paul and I haven't been to as many neighborhood restaurants as you would think. When the weather is nice, or even when it's cold but I get cabin fever, we tend to go into Manhattan to eat or at least to another Brooklyn neighborhood. But as the weather has gotten colder, we're staying closer to home.

As for the restaurants mentioned in the article: We've tried Al Safa across the street, and Agnanti is next on the list.

I had to laugh at the first sentence of the article: "In the popular imagination, Bay Ridge is New York’s Midwest: more conservative, less diverse and distinctly unhip."

It's true-- that is the perception, but I think it's changing as people get priced out of Manhattan and the ritzier Brooklyn neighborhoods.

Yes, Bay Ridge is more conservative than New York as a whole-- it's decidedly Republican. No, it's not less diverse-- particularly compared to Defiance and even Columbus. As for the unhip? Pay me a visit and decide for yourself.