April 13, 2006
Red Hook and Brooklyn Cruise Ship Terminal guide
(See NewYorkology's 2007 and 2008 guide to Red Hook.)
If you're planning on setting sail from the new cruise ship terminal at Red Hook, Brooklyn, you may be in for a bit of a surprise. It's a semi-industrial "neighborhood in transition" on the southwestern nub of Brooklyn and it requires a bit of effort to find its gems.
In Red Hook proper you'll find two excellent restaurants, a few other good ones, a craft brewery, a couple art galleries and a pair of pretty waterfront parks dotted with Civil War era-shipping warehouses. There's a great bakery, a few quirky bars and a top-notch liquor shop. The buildings are low and views of Lower Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty and the Staten Island Ferry crossing the harbor are stunning.
 And if you like industrial architecture, you'll find plenty of points where you'd be hard pressed to guess which century you're in (especially if you drive near the end of Columbia Street to see the demolition of the graving dock framed by half a mile of abandoned or refurbished docks, warehouses and factories.) The neighborhood's lone hotel overlooks the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel toll plaza. Most likely you'll arrive by car as even the locals take a bus to the nearest subway station. You could walk it, but not with luggage.
Although Brooklyn's tourism office will have a kiosk at the terminal to help direct cruise ship passengers to the borough's best amenities, Red Hook is classified not as a port of call but rather an embark and disembark location.
As Steve Tarpin of Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies said of the prospect of tourists finding his Red Hook outpost: "I'm not expecting anything."
But for the stray cruise ship passenger hoping for a glimpse of the neighborhood, the ship's staff looking for a quick look around shore, or even New Yorkers headed out to watch the ships depart, there are plenty of Red Hook offerings worth checking out.
360 – With rave reviews from the likes of New York Times and New York magazine, this affordable French-inspired spot half a mile from the cruise ship terminal entrance features a $25 prix fix menu. Best to make reservations and ask your server for wine advice and heed his recommendation. Dinner only. 360 Van Brunt St., map. (718) 246-0360
The Good Fork – Red Hook's newest restaurant is less than a month old, but the menu is promising. Opened by a husband and wife team, the locals already have this place packed. 391 Van Brunt, map. (718) 643-6636.
 Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pie – This is the real deal. Open seven days a week, hours are "random at best" but worth the trek. Tart size is $4, $14 for the eight-inch pie and $18 for the 10-inch. There's also a frozen chocolate-dipped slice of pie on a stick for $4.50. If you buy one to share, plan on fighting for your fair share. Located out by the water at 204 Van Dyke Street, map.
Baked – Serious bakery with great cupcakes, cookies, brownies and especially, the cakes. This month's featured indulgence is chocolate cake infused with a salted caramel, layered with a caramel chocolate ganache and topped with fleur de sel. Also wi-fi. 359 Van Brunt St., map.
Soccer fields food carts – Believe it or not, but the foodies have a cult following over the vendors who show up to sell food at the ball games on the edge of Red Hook. Start near Bay and Clinton, map, according to this guide from a Chowhounder.
Liberty Heights Tap Room – Family friendly bar with pizza, a pool table and bands. Because a number of production houses keep warehouses in Red Hook, Liberty Heights is the proud owner of a number of items from "School of Rock," including a set of amps and the bar booths from the Stevie Nicks scene. Liberty Heights is also home to Sixpoint Craft Ales, which does tours every Saturday at 1 p.m. 34 Van Dyke St., map.
Fairway Market – Much anticipated market opening in spring 2006, with a restaurant planned for later. It's located at the very end of Van Brunt in a beautifully restored warehouse with a dock for the New York Water Taxi. 500 Van Brunt St., map.
Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition – The main BWAC show for the summer, "Transitions" opens May 13 on Pier 14, located in a massive red-brick warehouse at 499 Van Brunt St., map. It will be open every weekend afternoon from 1 to 7 p.m. through June 18.
Waterfront Museum and Showboat Barge - This small museum and cultural center is housed in Lehigh Valley Railroad Barge #79, built in 1914. Located just west of the Fairway location, it's currently closed for renovations but should be back in business by May or June 2006.
LeNell's – Recently named the best liquor store in NYC by New York magazine, LeNell carries the city's largest bourbon collection. She also does frequent in-store tastings. 416 Van Brunt St., map.
The bars: Sunny's, Pioneer, Bait & Tackle, but alas, Lillie’s appears closed again.
Hope & Anchor – Upscale diner where a drag queen leads evening karaoke. 347 Van Brunt, map. (718) 237-0276.
DeFonte's Sandwich Shop – Straight forward sandwiches to go. Open weekdays, and Saturday until 4 p.m.; closed Sundays. 379 Columbia St., map.
El Huipil – Mexican hole in the wall restaurant with a devoted following. 116 Sullivan St., map.
New York Water Taxi – Service to Red Hook will resume April 29 for weekends only. Boats will operate about once an hour to Manhattan from the new dock in front of the Fairway Market, according to a Water Taxi spokeswoman. Fares are $5 for one stop (which gets you to Manhattan,) or $10 for any point on the route. The $10 fare is reduced to $6 for children and seniors. A $25, two-day Hop on/Hop off pass -- good for unlimited use on all Water Taxi routes -- can also be used from Red Hook.
Brooklyn hotels: Brooklyn currently has only about 600 hotel beds, according to a spokesman for Borough President Marty Markowitz, who was instrumental in bringing the cruise ship terminal to Red Hook. The borough's biggest hotel, the Brooklyn Bridge Marriott, has 355 rooms and plans to add 282 by fall. A Holiday Inn Express Park Slope with 115 rooms is expected to open this summer, with the latest opening date pegged at July 15, according to its web reservation system. Its rooms start at $129. The closest hotel to the cruise ship terminal is the no-frills Brooklyn Motor Inn, where rooms go for $120 nightly Sunday through Thursday and $140 on Friday and Saturday. There are also a handful of bed and breakfast locations in nearby brownstone neighborhoods of Brooklyn.
Near Red Hook: Nearby is Carroll Gardens and the Columbia Waterfront District. The main drags for quality restaurants are Smith Street and Court Street in Carroll Gardens and a bit farther afield, Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. Another option: Grimaldi’s Pizza or River Café, both located in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge on the Brooklyn side. (If it's Sunday, don't feed the meters. The law changegd in November but not all of the signs have changed yet.)
Obligatory mention of Brooklyn's main tourist attractions: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Coney Island, New York Transit Museum, Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, and Peter Luger steakhouse.
Public transportation at the Red Hook Cruise Ship Terminal – The B61 bus (which comes every 10 minutes during the day, but only every hour during late night,) runs along Van Brunt and has stops within a block and a half of the cruise ship terminal's Bowne Street entrance. If you cross Van Brunt and walk to the B61 stop, it will take you through the Columbia Waterfront, along the edge of Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill, up Atlantic next to Brooklyn Heights and to the Borough Hall subway stations in about 15 minutes. You'll need a MetroCard or $2 in coins (no pennies or half dollars,) to get on the bus. See the full bus map here. If you venture toward the Fairway, you can catch the B77 bus toward the F/G subway stop at Smith and 9th Street. Do not expect to catch a cab like you would in Manhattan. Among the nearby car services you can call is Cobble Hill Car Service: (718) 643-1113.
 Driving: Red Hook and surrounding neighborhoods now have plenty of well-placed signs pointing toward the new terminal, along with a new signal one block from the terminal entrance at Van Brunt and Bowne. There is a trick to know if you're coming from the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. As you exit the tunnel, ideally you want to aim for one of the toll booths at the right. After you pay your toll ($4.50, or $4 with EZ-Pass,) you'll want to make an exit almost right away onto Hamilton Avenue. Do not be distracted by the signs and safety cones immediately after the toll booths eventhough it can look like an exit.
You want to continue slightly uphill, past the "Welcome to Brooklyn" sign, and then exit at right onto Hamilton Avenue. Do not change lanes; stay to the left as traffic merges toward you. You’ll want to make a big sweeping U-turn at the first signal. This is a rather unpleasant intersection in that as you make that left you’ll pass four lanes coming from your left, pass the bridge support and then you'll find your four lanes of traffic turning left, usually stopped at another signal under the expressway. While you're at the top of the "U" of your U-turn, ideally you want in the middle of these four turn lanes since the traffic on the far left will lead back to the tunnel and the ones on the two right lanes will usually make a right turn almost immediately into Carroll Gardens. To get to the terminal, you want to make a real U-turn, heading straight on Hamilton.
Continue several blocks up to Van Brunt Street and make a left. About two blocks down make a right at the new signal at Bowne. The cruise ship terminal entrance will be right in front of you at Bowne and Imlay, map. But if you're having a look around Red Hook, just continue straight out Van Brunt. Bon Voyage.
Resources: Brooklyn Cruise Terminal’s official site
CruiseCritic.com’s Brooklyn page
Brooklyn Cruise Guide
New: PortSide New York's Red Hook guide
Correction: This article was updated to say that Water Taxi service will resume April 29, not May 1.
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Red Hook hosts its first cruise ship: Carnival's Oriana
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New bus tour hits Brooklyn's pizza emporiums
Queen Mary II to dock in Red Hook, Brooklyn
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Cruise ships to dock in Brooklyn later this year
April 13, 2006 03:55 PM in Foodology, Out of Manhattan
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