The Columbia Waterfront District—it’s an awfully unwieldy name for such an oddball, somewhat ill defined neighborhood. Half of the time, the 22-block parcel of land just gets lumped in with Red Hook or the westernmost tip of Carroll Gardens. But it’s very much its own quirky community, where hundred-year-old row houses share space with converted industrial buildings, and the sheltered hush on one cobblestoned street gives way to the roar of overhead traffic from the looming BQE on another. It’s close to the water but not really…effectively cut off from its namesake by a series of working piers. It’s also got everything you’ll need in terms of dining and nightlife, although the crowds are effectively thinned by inconvenience. Because who wants to cross the underbelly of the creepy expressway (there’s no subway nearby), when the F/G will deliver you safely to Smith Street?
But that’s exactly what makes the Union Street stretch of the CWD ripe for one of our drink-to-dessert neighborhood mini crawls, where we tackle one gastronomically blessed block at a time by spreading the love—and your dollars—among some of the tastiest restaurants within them. And yes, if you insist on bending the rules, you can always schedule a stop at Pok Pok Ny and Whiskey Soda Lounge on nearby Columbia Street too.
