Her wings clipped during the pandemic, a New Yorker finds a sweetly ‘madcap’ seaside destination just a ferry ride from homemany Brooklyn neighborhoods, Red Hook doesn’t get a lot of visitors. Bordered to the west by the Buttermilk Channel, and to the south by the Erie Basin and the Gowanus Bay, Red Hook is perhaps best-known to New Yorkers as the site of the city’s only IKEA store. Although the area is just a few minutes’ drive from lower Manhattan, it isn’t easy to reach by public transit.
But despite its relative inaccessibility—or because of it—I’ve been in love with the neighborhood for almost as long as I’ve been an adult. I discovered it by accident, several years ago, when I went to review an experimental play at the floating Waterfront Barge Museum, located on what was once the 1914 Lehigh Valley Barge.
During the worst months of the pandemic—when I avoided subways altogether—I took to biking from my home in Morningside Heights to Red Hook, via the Manhattan Bridge and the reassuringly separated waterfront bike paths along the Brooklyn waterfront. I’d work on my laptop outdoors at local cafes, or else at the pizzeria Hoek, where I could watch night fall on Manhattan from the outdoor tables off the Valentino Pier. I’d listen to the musicians at Sunny’s play impromptu concerts on Conover Street.
When the opportunity arose for me and my husband to temporarily relocate to the neighborhood, I took it. A few days later I had a routine. I’d wake up to the sound of foghorns—the piers were just a five-minute walk away—or else to the cawing of gulls. I’d spend mornings working alongside Billy, a neighborhood cat who adopted me, in the heated back garden of the Black Flamingo cafe.
Lunch involved darting across the street to Mark’s Red Hook Pizza—where the proprietor memorized my order, called me darling, and insisted on careening across the floor to open the door for me—then cycling to one of the neighborhood’s numerous waterfront picnic spots.
P.S. and.... our virtual guide to RedHook past & present RHWS has ALL the retail, plus arts, nonprofits, public services AND a deep & growing archive of not-the-usual maritime WaterStories history
RedHook also has our PortSidePark next to our historic ship MaryWhalen & NYCFerry. We hosted 17 concerts last summer, & our 1st last night. We also had a Halloween pumpkin carving event. Our free kids toy area was used throughout the winter & has grown with spring donations
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