Bwino

We are currently on holiday in New York and having a wonderful time. Our plan for tomorrow (Saturday) is to take the hop on / hop off bus from Manhattan and spend the day in Brooklyn. We would like to have a look around Dumbo, eat pizza and take in other sites. Would love to hear your suggestions on what to see and where to eat.

Thanks

ekscrunchy

I'm not sure how long Dumbo can keep you occupied--it is quite small--just a few blocks-- so you are right about extending your Brooklyn time. I am not a fan of Grimaldi's--it is packed to the gills with tourists and the pizza is not as great as the reputation might lead you to believe.

Brooklyn Heights has great architecture and you can walk there from Dumbo, but that is but one option. If you are willing to get on the train again, there are many options in Brooklyn depending on your interests.

Bwino

Thanks ekscrunchy, we are happy to use the train, the hop on hop off bus was really just an idea to allow us to have a look around. We are interested in architecture, history, galleries, parks, shopping and food. Any suggestion for pizza? We are open to any suggestions at all on what to see.

SueNYC

The hop on hop off bus doesn't let you off in Brooklyn these days - you just ride around - take the train and/or Brooklyn buses when you are in Brooklyn - Do go to the Brooklyn Museum and/or the Botanic Gardens.

http://thestarryeye.typepad.com/expl...ey-to-nyc.html

starrs

I really enjoyed the Brooklyn Slice of Pizza tour. It's a long tour (6 hours) but that's why I took it. I had a long day before a flight out and it worked perfectly for me. The bus leaves from Union Square so I could start by wandering the vendors in US. The first stop over the bridge is a fabulous photo op of the city and then on to Grimaldi's pizza. The bus has television monitors and when we were at certain locations, they played clips from movies. We followed the path of the famous chase scene in the French Connection and John Travolta's strut in the opening scene of Saturday Night Fever. We drove past the beautiful homes on the water (they also have a holiday lights tour that is shorter than takes you on a tour of hte lights and stops for cannoli). The second stop for pizza introduces you to the opposite kind of pizza from the first. Someone has commented before "only two pizza stops?!" but the servings are full regular portions and it's hard to find room for both. I picked the tour because 1) I needed to fill time on my last day of a trip and 2) I thought, what the heck, I'll go see Brooklyn. It's one of my favorite guided tours ever. The owner/creater of the tour is a hoot. It may be problematic when the business grows so much that he is not the guide. In any case, it may be pricier than you want but I'd recommend it on any day of the year but especially on a cold winter's day. I love it. Check it out online and read the reviews.

starrs

http://www.asliceofbrooklyn.com/

4.9 stars out of 5 from over 800 reviewers. It's a good tour
http://www.zerve.com/BKNYpizza/BKNYtour/Rating/1

mclaurie

In addition to starrs' great idea about the pizza tour, there are other walking tours of Brooklyn if you're interested like
http://www.brooklynwalkingtour.com/
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/brooklyn-walking-tours
http://www.bigonion.com/description/index.html

or many self guided online like
http://nymag.com/visitorsguide/neigh...s/brooklyn.htm
http://www.galttech.com/research/tra...lking-tour.php

If I were going to Brooklyn tomorrow, I'd probably head to the Brooklyn Flea http://www.brooklynflea.com/map/index.html perhaps visit the Brooklyn Museum and/or Prospect Park and then wend my way back toward Manhattan with a walk around Brooklyn Heights (make sure to hit the promenade), maybe hit Dumbo and then walk back to Manhattan over the bridge.

ggreen

As a Brooklynite, here is what I'd suggest for a full day in the borough. (Note, though, that I'm biased to my general area of BK! Others might suggest going out to Coney Island or wandering Williamsburg...)

- IF there is something specific at the Brooklyn Museum you'd like to see, take the 2/3 train to Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum. (IMO, it's not really a destination museum in itself, though architecturally speaking I do happen to like the recent Polshek Partners renovation of the original McKim Mead and White building.)

- Otherwise, get off the train one stop earlier at Grand Army Plaza. This puts you near the corner of Prospect Park (where there is a farmers market on Saturdays at the base of the historic arch). From here, you can wander in the park a bit: go along the Prospect Park West side to 3rd Street, double back along 8th Ave to Union Street to see Brooklyn brownstones (all of the side streets here have gorgeous examples). 7th Ave in Park Slope has cute shops; 5th Ave is more hipster but also has good small shops. The annual PS 321 Holiday Craft Fair is this Saturday from 11a-5p: very high quality stuff.

- You can return to Flatbush Ave for pizza at Franny's. While not your "classic" NY pizza, this is one of the hottest places for pizza these days.
http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/frannys/

- Next, you can walk down (the rather unflattering) Flatbush Avenue - you'll pass the construction site for the contentious Atlantic Yards development - or take the 2/3 at Bergen one stop towards Manhattan to Atlantic Avenue. The Brooklyn Flea is in their indoor location here at this time of year; again, more great crafts (mixed in with antiques, second hand stalls, and plenty of yummy foodstuff). While there, you can't help but note the architecture: the former Williamsburg Bank building is literally an early 20th-century cathedral to capitalism(!), and for now still the tallest building in Brooklyn.

- Walk over to the nearby C train and take it a few stops towards Manhattan to High Street. This will put you right under the Brooklyn Bridge, on the border between Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO and quite close to Grimaldi's. While in DUMBO, I highly recommend getting hot chocolate from Jacques Torres (mrchocolate.com): take it to the riverside Empire State/Fulton Ferry State Park, or over the bridge if you have any energy left! If you'd like dinner options in the neighborhood other than pizza, try Superfine or the pan-Asian restaurant Rice. Rebar is great for a drink and a delicious bar menu.

ekscrunchy

Here is some info on old-school eating spots in Brooklyn from today's newspaper:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/di...ef=today's paper

While the article mentions Spumoni Gardens, I think the pizza is far better at DiFara and you could not ask for a more authentic New York experience.

panecott

>>> We followed the path of the famous chase scene in the French Connection and John Travolta's strut in the opening scene of Saturday Night Fever. >>>

You were in my old neighborhood, starrs.

Bwino

Thank you so much for such detailed responses.

Starrs - Thanks so much for the suggestion - I actually read your review on the pizza tour before posting as this was something we considered doing, also looked at the video on the website, just not quite what we are looking to do - thanks though.

mclaurie - thanks for the links, will check them out tonight after the hockey at Madison Square Garden. Will probably do The Flea and self guided tours are our kind of thing so will have a good look at that link.

ggreen - thanks for the lengthy post, I have read through your suggestions but will take a closer look later and we are sure to take up some of your suggestions.

ek - thanks for the link and the pizza suggestion.

I am sure we will have a great day in Brooklyn.

Bwino

We may have to change our plans for a day in Brooklyn to Sunday or one day next week - is everything open on Sunday or would you recommend going during the week?

Sue878

What about Juniors Cheesecake Restaurant and Bakery? Never been there but I have had their cheesecake and like it.

386 Flatbush Avenue EXT
Brooklyn, New York 11201
Phone: (718) 852-5257

Aduchamp1

Sunday is big brunch day in the areas of Brooklyn you want to visit. Junior's cheescake is wonderful, everything else is just OK.

I wrote a longer review about the restaurants in Brooklyn on the Lounge.

ggreen

Junior's cheesecake is yummy - bit no reason to go to BK for it, just pop into Grand Central Terminal! (The flagship location is on an otherwise uninteresting stretch of Flatbush Ave in downtown BK between the Williamsburg Bank building and the Manhattan Bridge.)

As for day of the week in the areas I described: There's not much of a difference in going to BK either weekend day or on a weekday, except as Aduchamp noted, weekends are big brunch days, especially Sunday. And the Brooklyn Flea and any holiday fairs will be weekends only... (So basically the opposite of what you'd asked!) Farther out in BK, you might experience closed shops on a Sunday, I don't know...

K_brklyn

At Franny's you can easily spend $100 and walk away wondering how. Pizzas cost around $15 and many complain about the portion size and the long waits, sometimes an hour on the weekends. With that, the pizzas are tasty but I wouldn't go on the weekends. The original juniors offers a nice breakfast I go for the bread basket, on sundays there will be lots of people from church dining there after the morning services. It's a different experience than grabbing a slice of cake at grand central. The Brooklyn flea at 1 Hanson pl is a nice option to explore and the walking tour that ggreen suggested will give you some of the highlights. I prefer 5th ave in Park slope for walking around. Miriam's on 5th ave is a good place for Sunday brunch.

Bwino

Hi all, we spent the day in Brooklyn today and really enjoyed it. After 8 days in Manhattan Brooklyn felt really 'open'. It was a very cold day for us -2.7C at midday, the coldest day we get would be about 15C in the middle of the night in the middle of winter.

We took the subway to Prospect Park and started with a walk around there. Lovely park and lots of people making good use of it for soccer, football, jogging, walking dogs etc. We also found the buildings around the park interesting.

We wandered down Flatbush Avenue to Franny's to take a look and decide if we wanted to eat there, we were too early, only 11am and as we were hungry decided to just look around. We ended up at Flatbush Farm and quite enjoyed it. They had a brunch menu and my husband had chorizo and egg stew and I went with the biscuits with sasuage gravy. I chose this because it was 'American' and because I have never eaten a biscuit, well actually I have eaten plenty but what I call a biscuit you would call a cookie. Anyhow, the biscuits were delicious and the sasuage gravy was tasty but the appearance of the dish was a bit unappealing for me so I had a few spoonfuls and was happy just to try it and leave room for a late lunch of pizza later.

We then walked down the main street stopping here and there and ended up in Brooklyn Heights which looked like a gorgeous area. We enjoyed just looking around the neighbourhood. From there we kind of got a bit lost looking for Dumbo even though we were right in it or next to it. We stumbled on to Grimaldis, there was a queue of about 50 people outside and we didn't for a second think about joining it, just kept going and walked around the park on the river front.

Again for us, it was really cold and we were keen to get indoors. We ended up at Ignazios and really enjoyed it, great view, friendly service and the peperoni pizza was delicious if a little oily.

We decided it was too cold for us to walk accross the bridge, yes I know! but understand we live on a tropical island. We had noticed a sign for a water taxi that comes on Sundays every 30 minutes so decided to wait for that, along with a number of other people, that was until my husband noticed that it only runs June to September . So we walked back to the subway and back to Manhattan.

As I started with, we really enjoyed our day, we really like just wandering through neighourhoods and finding our own way which is pretty much what we ended up doing.

I am really sad to say we missed the hot chocolate, forgot to write down the name of the place .

Thanks for your help, we really liked the little bit of Brooklyn we saw.

ggreen

I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed your day! Flatbush Farm definitely has yummy food - and I certainly can see how biscuits and gravy looks mighty unappealing... glad you at least got to taste it. (You can imagine Americans' surprise when we first find out what British biscuits are LOL.)

And I'm sorry you didn't get to try the hot chocolate. The shop is called Jacques Torres. He also has a location in Chelsea; maybe you'll get another chance to try it out!

This weather today and yesterday is by far the coldest and windiest yet this season. Makes me wish *I* was visiting *your* country!

Bwino

Put Mauritius on your list ggreen and let us know if ever get to our part of the world.

We had Flurry in NYC today, my first glimpse of snow - well almost snow

Aduchamp1

Bwino

We were planning a trip to your area of the world to visit Madagascar and Sri Lanka. And if they ever stop killing one another there, we may yet go.