The Place
Time tried to forget Red Hook, but it’s not the neighborhood’s style to go down without a fight. It keeps a low profile, figuratively and literally: the closest thing you’ll find to a tower is the Red Hook Grain Terminal, a 12-story waterfront grain elevator at the foot of Henry Street Pier.
Bypassed by subway construction in the 20th century, today’s Red Hook is a last stand of the low-rise industrial waterfront that helped fashion New York as a global economic powerhouse. Its main drag, along Van Brunt Street, feels more like a sleepy New England fishing village than a business district within a global city. The streets here go quiet earlier than most, leaving Red Hook’s cobblestone lanes with a surreal level of tranquility — especially on weeknights. A lack of high-rises affords unobstructed views of the starry night sky, not to mention the lights of bobbing tugboats and Staten Island’s hillsides twinkling off the water.
Much of Red Hook resides in buildings that have stood since its heyday and accordingly retain sought-after period details — think exposed brick, woodwork, concrete floors, etc. — that can never be recreated. Among Red Hook’s more distinct vintage structures are its three “stores,” or storehouses, some dating to before the Civil War. The extant brick buildings — the Beard and Robinson Stores, the Merchant Stores, and the Red Hook Stores — are almost hypnotic in design, sporting infinite-seeming rows of extra-large arched windows. Today, this triad has been spun off into numerous functions: loft residences, studio spaces, a winery, and more.
The name Red Hook is a near-literal translation of what the Dutch called Roode Hoek. They settled on that moniker due to the area’s distinct red clay soil and because part of the land jutted into the water — you know, like a hook. Far before Europeans arrived, the Lenape called it Ihepetonga, or “a high point of sandy soil.” All of which is to say, Red Hook has long been a noteworthy piece of land.
No close examination of Red Hook can begin without diving into the area’s relationship to the water beside it. Red Hook’s seaside environs played a role during the American Revolution. Here, General Nathanael Greene (the eventual namesake of Fort Greene) constructed Fort Defiance, one of multiple defensive positions on Upper New York Bay meant to repel the feared Royal Navy. The outpost notably rebuffed British advances amid the Battle of Long Island, the war’s first major conflict after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. And though the British would take Brooklyn soon after and occupy New York City for the war’s duration, Fort Defiance’s — for lack of a better word — defiance in the face of the seemingly inevitable carries through to Red Hook’s unshakeable character. While the garrison is long gone, a plaque commemorating it on Valentino Pier is part of the state’s Revolutionary War Heritage Trail.
Ebbs and Flows
Fittingly, the most convenient way to get here on public transit — not to mention the most fun — is by boat. NYC Ferry serves Red Hook with its South Brooklyn route, connecting Bay Ridge to the Lower East Side. Unless you’re catching Battery Tunnel or BQE traffic at the best possible flow, the ferry is your surest bet to reach Red Hook from Lower Manhattan or elsewhere in Brooklyn. Additional dockings include Atlantic Avenue, DUMBO, and the Financial District’s Pier 11, where you can transfer to four other routes.
The nearest subway service is on the F and G lines at Carroll Street or Smith-Ninth, either of which is about a 15 to 20-minute walk from Red Hook’s waterfront. By land, your most direct option is hopping aboard a bus, specifically the B57 or the B61. Red Hook is one terminus of the B57, which connects the neighborhood to Carroll Gardens, through Downtown Brooklyn, and all the way to Maspeth, Queens, via Williamsburg, East Williamsburg, and Bushwick. For the B61, Red Hook rests in the middle of the route — a waypoint between the Columbia Waterfront and Park Slope along Prospect Park West.
Another option, on weekends only, is the IKEA Ferry from Manhattan, which cruises free of charge from Midtown West and the Financial District right into Red Hook’s Erie Basin. Don’t worry about buying that BESTÅ or MALM — purchases aren’t required, and nobody checks receipts. Besides, who wants to haul back a gargantuan box on a ferry? You’re great, but 19th-century Red Hook longshoreman you are not.
Getting There
Aquatic proximity made Red Hook a linchpin of the 19th-century American shipping industry, a rising tide that lifted all ships and deposited them on the neighborhood’s New York Harbor shores. In 1825, the opening of the Erie Canal linked the Great Lakes to the Hudson River. The subsequent introduction of the Atlantic and Erie basins — artificial breakwaters protecting the ports against natural hazards — cemented Red Hook as the canal route’s go-to location for offloading goods. Sugar, grain, and more floated through Red Hook on upwards of 26,000 ships per year at the port’s apex. As tens of thousands maintained maritime-related employment during those times, Red Hook blossomed with an industrial sailor’s town identity that still endures. Red Hook’s surviving historical landmarks predominantly recall its most prosperous era. Containerization, however, sank Red Hook’s hold on shipping, with most of the port business crossing the river to more modern, bigger-berthed terminals in New Jersey.
Red Hook’s changing identity coincided with the rise of Robert Moses, whose controversial highway projects — in this case, the Gowanus and Brooklyn-Queens Expressways, as well as the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel — isolated much of Red Hook from the rest of Brooklyn. As a result, areas previously considered Red Hook proper now share a gray border with parts of Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, and Cobble Hill, with the “Red Hook” portion of the latter two rebranded as the Columbia Street Waterfront District.
Though many argue it should, Red Hook has no historic district, resulting in vestiges of its peak getting outright erased from the map. Revere Sugar Factory, once a symbol of Red Hook’s Willy Wonka-like hold on the sugar industry, was replaced with a “last-mile” distribution center. Right next door, the c. 1869 Todd Shipyards — builder of numerous watercraft, including the historic John J. Harvey fireboat — was paved into a parking lot. It’s a reality Red Hook is all too familiar with, yet one it faces head-on. As such, a sense of reclamation pervades Red Hook, an attitude of taking back spaces left behind.
Meet Agents
Search Homes
Explore the Neighborhood
Drop anchor in Red Hook.
The streets here go quiet earlier than most, leaving Red Hook’s cobblestone lanes with a surreal level of tranquility.
Although the commercial spaces largely share a common brand, Red Hook’s housing stock is eclectic and varied. Townhouses here are often revitalized interpretations of familiar forms, renovations of 19th- and 20th-century builds that bring things into the modern era yet remain aesthetically true. Many of these are Red Hook originals, pleasantly quirky and imbued with nautical themes interwoven into the area’s vernacular. Gleaming modern condos add a further dimension to the offerings, frequently housed in new developments offering many amenities.
There are a few certified, capital-H Historic parts of Red Hook. Van Dyke Street is the site of the city-landmarked, c. 1859 Brooklyn Clay Retort and Fire Brick Works Storehouse. If you can’t decipher that mouthful, know that this place was instrumental in manufacturing illuminating gas (pre-Edison developing his electric light bulb) and flame-resistant industrial material (eventually utilized as an architectural component in areas like Ridgewood around the early 20th century). It’s another visually striking edifice, sporting a dark gray schist facade and basilica-inspired elements like a trio of arched entrances and a bull’s-eye window overlooking Van Dyke.
Befitting Red Hook’s water-reliant history, the neighborhood’s two landmarks on the National Register of Historic Places are currently asea. The Mary A. Whalen is a c. 1938 bell boat tanker — controlled from its engine room via telegraph signals from the bridge — perma-docked near the Atlantic Basin, a rare find surviving in its original configuration. Meanwhile, the Lehigh Valley Railroad Barge No. 79 is, well, a barge. This flat-bottomed vessel was part of the Erie Canal’s lighter fleet, steered by workers with long oars to transfer goods to and from moored ships.
Red Hook’s tight-knit community has become synonymous with its art scene. In 1990, artists Florence Neal and Scott Pfaffman opened one of the neighborhood’s first contemporary creative venues, Kentler International Drawing Space, inside a c. 1877 haberdashery. Today, Kentler hosts five annual exhibition cycles and provides educational programs and workshops for local youth and families. Likewise, Dustin Yellin founded Pioneer Works in 2010 in the former Pioneer Iron Works, a red-brick structure once responsible for fabricating components for railroad tracks and large-scale machinery. Three interconnected floors comprise the cultural center, encompassing dedicated spaces for musicians, scientists, community organizers, and more. Like Kentler, Pioneer Works holds numerous learning opportunities for Red Hook residents of all ages. It also maintains a half-acre garden, a certified National Wildlife Habitat that’s a food and shelter source for over 250 species.
Creating Community
In recent decades, Red Hook has also laid roots in urban agriculture. Columbia Street Farm and Red Hook Houses Farm — plotted on a former concrete baseball field and public housing land, respectively — harvest a combined 20,000 pounds of crop per year. Both serve as outlets for youth empowerment and seek to realign inequitable access to fresh, affordable produce. The neighborhood’s handful of artisanal brewers, distillers, chocolatiers, and other agri-businesses further amplify the movement. Some even ship by water: Apollonia, a 1946 schooner restored to promote the sustainable movement of cargo, makes regular sail freight voyages up and down the Hudson River, bringing barley, hops, and other farm ingredients to producers in the neighborhood as well as CSA boxes for area residents.
Hurricane Sandy in 2012 threatened to wash away all of Red Hook’s accumulated progress, devastating the low-lying seaside area. Still, neighbors banded together, with local organizations and businesses providing direct relief where it was most needed. Locals now commemorate the storm and the community’s resilience via the Barnacle Parade. Every October 29, costumed folks and their (often sea monster-themed) handmade floats sail through the streets, upping the nautical kitsch meter to extreme heights while exemplifying how Red Hook buoys itself through times of great strife. When you think Red Hook is down for the count, it emphatically kicks out.
No close examination of Red Hook can begin without diving
into the area’s relationship to the water beside it.
If you, too, are holding out for a hero til the end of the night, we’ll meet you at Defonte’s. Opened to feed dockworkers — its original operator, in fact, worked the counter between shifts — this long-standing deli has held down the corner of Columbia and Luquer streets since 1922. It remains in same-family ownership, slinging truly hefty sandwiches in a no-frills environment that feels hardly changed in a century. There are too many home run hitters to choose from, but the steak pizzaiola is a hallmark, and the roast beef with mozzarella and eggplant was once called “ridiculous, ridiculously good” in between bites by Guy Fieri.
Across the neighborhood on Conover Street sits Sunny’s Bar, which has operated continuously in some form since the 1890s. Its namesake, Sunny Balzano, was the fourth-generation proprietor of his family’s salty watering hole, which became something of a community meeting place under his ownership — and Sunny, by proxy, the neighborhood’s unofficial mayor. Photos, artwork, and knick-knacks adorn every corner of the bar, only amplifying the feeling of Sunny’s as a lived-in institution where everyone from stevedores to hipsters has pulled up a stool.
Surviving the Herbert Hoover administration is hardly a prerequisite for serving as an outstanding Red Hook business. Hometown Bar-B-Que, opened in 2013, earns raves as one of the best barbecue joints in the country. Styling itself as true New York-style barbecue, Hometown experiments with flavors that may not fly in states with rich BBQ heritages — taste those brisket tacos, Vietnamese hot wings, or jerk rib tips — but feel authentic to this city’s kaleidoscopic culture. Long lines are a fact of life at Hometown, but, like traveling to the neighborhood it inhabits, the payoff is beyond worth it. An enchanting smokey smell will have you floating toward Van Brunt Street like a cartoon character to a windowsill pie.
Biting the Hook
Then there’s seafood. Red Hook Lobster Pound may feel a ubiquitous presence at food halls, open-air food markets, and food truck lineups, but here you’ll find the original. Brooklyn Crab spans three levels and boasts a lemongrass butter that can convert even the pickiest landlubbers, not to mention an atmosphere that feels more Montauk or Cape Cod than within view of the Manhattan skyline.
If Sunny’s is too crowded, and you’ve already partaken in Brooklyn Ice House’s enticing dive bar comfort food and back patio, you can imbibe straight at the source. Two distilleries and three breweries populate Red Hook, supplying standout spirits and craft brews.
Widow Jane’s small-batch aged bourbons can’t quite vote or drive a car but have won prestigious awards from the likes of the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Sample them during a tour or enjoy next door at the distillery’s cocktail bar, Botanica. Alternatively, head east down Coffey Street to Van Brunt Stillhouse, a farm distillery sourcing grains from an organic grower near Ithaca, NY. Its Empire Rye — spicy on the palate with sweet and fruity notes — derives mainly from rye grown within the state, making it a singularly New York sipper.
Strong Rope Brewery, originally founded in Gowanus, expanded to Red Hook’s waterfront in 2020, making for one of the best views in the city to pair with a freshly-brewed ale. Its Pier 41 outpost on the Red Hook waterfront is an ideal setting for doing your best Lady Liberty impression — pint in hand — or hosting everything from book club to a wedding. Keg & Lantern Brewing, started in Greenpoint, boasts a capacious yet cozy space with a full food menu, spirited cocktails, and (once real life beckons home) cans to go. Ironically, Sixpoint, the one 21st-century brewery that’s a Red Hook original, is the only one of the three without an on-site tasting room, though you’ll find one at City Point in Downtown Brooklyn.
Whether you’re stopping at any of the above, indulging in one of Baked’s brooksters (a chocolate chip cookie smashed into a brownie; who wouldn’t), acquiring regional-themed delights out of United Sandwiches of America’s vintage Spartanette metal trailer, or munching a swingle (a chocolate-dipped key lime pie) from Steve’s, Red Hook is always looking out for your taste buds. It’s the Brooklyn way.
This is Red Hook
The tale of New York City is countless chapters long, undergoing an ad infinitum cycle of revisions and addendums. As such, there is always time for a rise-and-fall story arc to shoot upward again. In seaside Red Hook, an ethos of getting back off the mat is integral to the area’s perpetual charm, making it more than a mere contender.
Down along Brooklyn’s coast — across Buttermilk Channel from Governors Island and within waving distance of the Statue of Liberty — this remarkable neighborhood has cultivated an identity like few others across NYC’s sprawling reach.
To know Red Hook is to love it, so let’s waste no more time on the former so we can get right to the latter.
Once you step on its cobblestone streets, glimpse Valentino Pier’s vistas,or even whiff its briny air, Red Hook will reel you in.
Brooklyn’s Urban Seaport Village
Red Hook:
Appropriately, the most convenient public transit option — not to mention the most fun — is by boat. NYC Ferry serves Red Hook with its South Brooklyn route.
Fittingly, the most convenient way to get here on public transit — not to mention the most fun — is by boat.
NYC Ferry serves Red Hook with its South Brooklyn route.
Meet Agents
Search Homes
NEIGHBORHOOD INFO
Drop anchor in Red Hook.
LEARN MORE
The Red Hook Lofts, a Morris Adjmi-led conversion of the historic New York Dock Building at 160 Imlay Street, is now home to 70 studio- to four-bedroom residences.
Available Properties
LEARN MORE
In the Columbia Street Waterfront District, this sunny
garden one-bedroom, set on the ground floor of a townhouse, offers a private patio and shared backyard.
by JEREMY KLEIN
Fittingly, the most convenient way to get here on public transit — not to mention the most fun — is by boat. NYC Ferry serves Red Hook with its South Brooklyn route.