NYC Hidden Gem #2

Food is everywhere in New York. On the street, atop the highest towers and underground. And you can’t consult a single medium without being overwhelmed by food tips. Yet you’re always still searching for that one place that has it all: atmosphere, good food and personal (but not overly familiar) service. Stop searching: Food editor at large Marjan Ippel found it in Greenpoint, an up-and-coming neighborhood in Brooklyn.

Name Five Leaves
Type Neighborhood hipster spot
Service Friendly, relaxed, full of character
Cuisine American – from oysters to burgers and kale salad
Interior Warm, wooden, as cozy as a Dutch neighborhood café
Extra Sunny sidewalk terrace, just as you always hope to come across
Price $$

Hipster neighborhood spot

If you arrive at your hotel straight from the plane at ten in the evening and ask where you can eat nearby, that is, to put it mildly, a gamble. But it’s late, you’re tired and you’re hungry. So when the concierge says, ‘go there,’ you don’t argue.

This is where people come together until very late to share a single dessert, or a handful of oysters.

What a surprise, then, to end up in this buzzing place, where everything is just right. Besides the food and atmosphere, perhaps the most remarkable thing is the friendly and relaxed staff. After all, you aren’t asked every day whether you’re really comfortable sitting under those speakers and whether you’d like to follow them to a much better and quieter table farther inside.

Colorful New Yorkers come together here until late to share a single dessert, or a handful of local oysters. Then they linger even later for a cocktail. When the weather is reasonably pleasant, they sit on the lively sidewalk terrace of this characteristic Brooklyn corner building. You couldn’t imagine a better start to your food trip.

Image: Five Leaves