Enduring Eats: 5 Brooklyn Restaurants That Have Stood the Test of Time
5 YEARS
Vinegar Hill House
One thing that all of our featured restaurants have in common is that they took a gamble on underdog neighborhoods, from gritty Crown Heights to industrial Bushwick to the foot traffic-deprived fringes of Park Slope. But no one pushed the boundaries of acceptable Brooklyn real estate more than Jean Adamson and Sam Buffa, who, in 2008, opened Vinegar Hill House, the first real destination restaurant in decidedly sleepy Vinegar Hill.
“We were driving around one day in Sam’s beat-up Astro van and ended up on Hudson Avenue. And we’re like, this is the best spot ever!” Adamson says of the Belgian-blocked enclave, lined with 19th-century carriage houses and discreetly sandwiched between DUMBO and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. “We immediately began plotting the restaurant.”
“It was lucky timing on our part. If we had opened two or three years earlier, I don’t think it would have worked, because people from Manhattan and beyond just weren’t traveling here yet,” Buffa adds.
“And yet, I think it would be the same if we opened two or three years later,” Adamson says. “Because the Brooklyn buzz was already well in motion, and we probably wouldn’t have made a ripple.”
Vinegar Hill House has certainly found its sweet spot: being relaxed and intimate enough to appeal to area denizens, and yet exciting enough to lure adventurous, outer borough diners willing to venture far from the nearest subway for a taste of Adamson’s storied Red Wattle Pork Chop or sizzling Cast Iron Chicken. And because of the way the neighborhood was zoned in the 1980s (mostly residential with only a few storefronts, of which Adamson and Buffa own two), the restaurant remains remarkably insulated from direct competition, even though Brooklyn-at-large has become breeding ground for media-approved eateries.
“We’re undeniably well situated and feel fortunate to have had successes, but that’s fleeting,” Adamson says. “We still work really hard to keep our integrity by constantly changing and staying relevant.”
“And we absolutely have a stake in the direction our dining scene is headed,” Buffa adds. “For instance, as things progress, we’re seeing a lot of big name Manhattan restaurants and chefs coming in.
“What’s always been great for Brooklyn is that there’s a sense of camaraderie and playfulness here; any time you eat out, you’re practically assured of running into one of the owners, or being able to talk to one of the chefs. And as rents rise, I worry about creativity being hindered, of everything getting too serious. I don’t want to see our restaurants get to a point when they stop being youthful and fun.”
72 Hudson Avenue, Vinegar Hill