Brooklyn’s food scene never really pauses. August opened with Apapachó, a Mexican restaurant on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope; Lucky Creamery’s Asian-inspired scoops in Greenpoint; Liba, a kosher Mediterranean dining room at The William Vale in Williamsburg; and Frenzie, a sourdough pizza and wine bar on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn Heights. The month ended just as busily: Lidl opened its fifth Brooklyn supermarket in Williamsburg and Thai favorite Ugly Baby returned to Williamsburg.
August Openings
Apapachó | Modern Mexican | Park Slope
Apapachó opened at 191 Fifth Avenue, near Berkeley Place, on Sunday, August 2, from two of the owners of Alma Negra on Fourth Avenue. Fresh tortillas and tacos share the menu with larger plates and cocktails. It takes reservations through Resy.
Lucky Creamery | Ice cream | Greenpoint
Lucky Creamery opened at 669 Manhattan Avenue on Saturday, August 1, with Asian-inspired ice cream, egg waffles, milkshakes and milk and fruit teas. There are dairy-free and vegan scoops as well, which is useful to know before you promise the whole class a cone. It is a second shop from the Sunny Scoop team.
Liba | Kosher Mediterranean | Williamsburg
Liba has opened in the indoor-outdoor space that was Isla at The William Vale, 107 North 12th Street, from the team behind 12 Chairs Café. An 800-degree brick oven sits in view of the room. It is certified kosher and serves dinner only, Sunday to Thursday from 5 p.m.
Frenzie | Pizza and wine | Brooklyn Heights
Frenzie opened at 129 Atlantic Avenue, near Henry Street, on Thursday, August 13. It is the second Brooklyn Heights restaurant from Brendan Kelley and Daniel Grossman, who moved Confidant into the former Colonie space next door and then took over the adjoining storefront. The menu is built around 14-inch New York-style sourdough pies, with seasonal small plates and natural, biodynamic and organic wine alongside. Worth knowing if you have children in tow: the doors open at 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, hours before the room turns into the late-night spot that serves until 2 a.m. on weekends. Walk-ins only — there are no reservations.
Extra Sauce | Burgers | Bushwick
Extra Sauce opened at 1495 DeKalb Avenue, at Knickerbocker, in the first week of August. Chef Lee Knoeppel — a Chopped winner who competed alongside Anthony Bourdain on The Taste — ran the smashburger project as a pop-up before opening on Wall Street, and Bushwick is the second location. The kitchen runs 5pm to midnight Tuesday through Friday and from 4pm at weekends, so it is an early-dinner-with-kids proposition at best.
Love & Honey Fried Chicken | Fried chicken | Park Slope
Love & Honey Fried Chicken held its grand opening at 229 Flatbush Avenue on Wednesday, August 12, with a ribbon-cutting the next day. The Philadelphia favorite’s first New York location does honey-drizzled fried chicken a block from Barclays Center, and it stays open until 1am daily — a rare late option on a stretch that empties out after an event.
Peral | Tacos and coffee | Bed-Stuy
Peral began soft-opening dinners at 105 Saratoga Avenue on Friday and Saturday, 5 to 10pm, serving tacos and drinks. The part worth waiting for is the cafe alongside it — coffee, pastries and tamales in the morning — which the owners list as opening soon.
Sofra | Modern Egyptian | Bay Ridge
Sofra opened at 8915 Fifth Avenue with a menu built around shared Egyptian dishes. It runs noon to 10pm seven days a week, which makes it unusually workable with children — most of this month’s openings are dinner-only.
Osteria Radisa | Italian | Carroll Gardens
Osteria Radisa on Smith Street reopened on August 21st under new part-ownership: the team behind Balera in Williamsburg has taken over the kitchen, the wine list and the management, and kept the name. The menu is Romagnolo now — handmade pasta, a wood grill and a lot of Adriatic seafood — and reservations are open again. Hours on the restaurant’s own site have not been updated for the relaunch, so check before you go.
Lidl | Supermarket | Williamsburg
The German discount grocer opened its fifth Brooklyn store at 573 Grand Street on August 26, with a ribbon-cutting at 7:40am and an in-store bakery. Open 8am to 9pm daily. Lidl
Ugly Baby | Thai | Williamsburg
Sirichai Sreparplarn’s cult Thai restaurant, dark since the end of 2024, reopened on August 27 at 364 Grand Street in the former Emmy Squared — roughly twice the old size, about seventy seats over two floors, and a full liquor licence this time. The heat has not been dialled down. Ugly Baby
Light Switch | Coffee and wine bar | Carroll Gardens
Opened August 25 at 333 Court Street in the old Brooklyn Strategist space: coffee by day, wine by night. Built from reclaimed Coney Island boardwalk planks and cedar salvaged from city water towers, staffed in part through the refugee culinary training programme Emma’s Torch, and a third off your drink if you bring your own cup. Light Switch
Don’t Matter | Vinyl listening bar | DUMBO
Opened August 5 at 55 Sands Street at Adams Street — records, a proper sound system and a short drinks list. Don’t Matter
Matches | Bar | Greenpoint
The Greenpoint Fish & Lobster team took over the old Enid’s corner at 560 Manhattan Avenue and opened on August 14, restoring the building’s original paint. The name nods to Bar Matchless, which stood nearby. Matches
Gloria | Australian | Williamsburg
From the Glory Days coffee shop team, open since August 20 at 544 Union Avenue in the former Reunion. Dinner only for now, and walk-ins only. Gloria
Pony’s | Cocktail bar | Red Hook
Elana Shvalbe and Michael Furac turned a former yoga studio at 424 Van Brunt Street into a cocktail bar with Eastern European small plates, open since August 22. Pony’s
KG Delicatessen | Deli | Bushwick
Opened August 1 at 293 Wyckoff Avenue, and the wagyu burger is $3.50. KG Delicatessen
Salsamentaria La Milagrosa | Colombian bar | Bushwick
A woman-owned corner bar at 112 Harrison Place, open since August 8, serving empanadas and Costeñitas. Part of the opening takings went to Colombian earthquake relief. La Milagrosa
Lincoln Market | Supermarket | Williamsburg
The Greenpoint-founded grocer opened its ninth store on August 27, at Kent Avenue and South 6th Street. The exact street number has not been posted yet. Lincoln Market
Chick-fil-A | Fried chicken | Flatbush Junction
Opened August 27 at 1569 Flatbush Avenue under local owner-operator Natalie Finkelstein, with 80 to 90 jobs attached. Chick-fil-A
Yuan Is Here | Taiwanese | Downtown Brooklyn
The Hong Kong group’s first US restaurant, at 25 Bond Street: Taiwanese street food, six-hour braised pork rice, popcorn chicken and beef noodle soup. No opening date was announced. Yuan Is Here
Loco Cafe | Coffee | Greenpoint
Loco Cafe opened Saturday, August 29 at 10am at 626 Manhattan Avenue, with free coffee for the first fifteen through the door. Worth noting the address: it has been reported elsewhere as 86 Nassau Avenue, but the shop’s own posts say Manhattan Avenue. Loco Cafe
Coming soon
Caputo Bagels | Bagels | Park Slope
James Caputo, whose family bakery closed in Carroll Gardens this spring, is opening a sourdough bagel shop at 81 Fifth Avenue in September with Rafi Hasid of Miriam, next door. Expect open-face bagels, breakfast sandwiches and the pastries Caputo regulars will recognize.
Susu’s | Bar | Williamsburg
Susu’s is taking over 229 Kent Avenue, the corner that was Grand Ferry Tavern until it closed in 2018. It comes from Steven Bishop and his brother Michael Bishop-Myers, previously the general manager of the Pencil Factory in Greenpoint, and bills itself as a bar made by bartenders, serving beer, natural wine, cocktails and bar food. The opening date is still soft: the bar’s own site says only “Fall 2026,” while Greenpointers reports September.
Swaine’s | New American | Williamsburg
Chef Emily Swaine, formerly of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, is opening Swaine’s at 577 Lorimer Street this fall with her sister, in the old Pomp and Circumstance space. A hearth oven anchors the kitchen, with flatbreads made from freshly milled local flour and house-made pastas. Women-led from ownership to kitchen.
Smør Bakery | Scandinavian | Carroll Gardens
Smør is bringing its Scandinavian baking — cardamom buns, sourdough loaves, coffee — to 361 Court Street at President Street, taking over a former vape shop. It will be the third location for the bakery, after the East Village and Williamsburg. No opening date yet.
Altbau | Bakery | Williamsburg
A bakery is taking shape at 184 N. 8th Street, in a 7,500-square-foot space with a grain mill on site so it can mill its own flour and serve breads, pastries, sandwiches and coffee. Altbau is German for “old building.”
Compton’s | Sandwiches | Cobble Hill
The Queens sandwich favorite is preparing to open a Brooklyn outpost at 240 Court Street. No date has been announced.
New wine bar from Popina’s James O’Brien | Wine bar | Williamsburg
Popina owner James O’Brien has signed a lease at Williamsburg Wharf, 484 Kent Avenue, for a wine bar and restaurant. It is not expected to open until 2027.
Val’s | Diner | Red Hook
A neighborhood diner is coming to the old Pitt’s space at 347 Van Brunt Street: everyday diner food, classic drinks and a co-working room. The name comes from the first letters of its three owners’ names — Victoria Viscusi, Allie Gassaway and Laine Pelka — and from Valentino Pier down the block. No opening date has been announced.
Kirbee’s | Texas barbecue | Greenpoint
Two of Texas’s most decorated pitmasters — Chuck Charnichart of Lockhart’s Barbs B Q and Jonny White of Fort Worth’s Goldee’s — are opening a daytime smoked-meats spot at 55 McGuinness Boulevard South. They served their first New York barbecue on Sunday, August 30 at a pop-up hosted by Bar Snack in Greenpoint. Their own doors have not opened yet — the shop says an opening date is still to come.
Brooklyn Brewery | Brewery and taproom | Williamsburg
The brewery leaves 79 North 11th Street after thirty years and reopens at 1 Wythe Avenue, nearly four times the size and with its first kitchen. Soft opening late summer, grand opening in the fall. Brooklyn Brewery
Bạn Bè | Vietnamese bakery and café | Columbia Street Waterfront District
NYC’s first Vietnamese American bakery returns in November, a few blocks from the Carroll Gardens window it closed when its five-year lease ended. Doris Hồ-Kane is reopening with business partner Anna Lai in a larger Columbia Street Waterfront District space that keeps the to-go window and adds indoor seating for the first time. The bánh bò nướng, bánh kẹp, chè, bánh mì, Vietnamese butter cookies and cà phê sữa đá come back with them, alongside new pandan desserts, lunch options and pantry goods. A Kickstarter to cover equipment, hiring and the build-out closes September 22; no street address has been announced yet. Bạn Bè
Closings
Brooklyn Brewery | Brewery | Williamsburg
Brooklyn Brewery pours its last at 79 North 11th Street on Saturday, August 29, closing out roughly thirty years at the address with a farewell party. It is a move rather than a goodbye: the brewery is relocating four blocks to 1 Wythe Avenue, into a space nearly four times the size, with a full kitchen from Fornino founder Michael Ayoub and a fourth-floor terrace bar. A soft opening is planned for late summer and the grand opening for the fall.
Taïm | Israeli | Park Slope
The 341 Seventh Avenue branch of Taïm was padlocked in the first week of August, after New York State filed tax warrants against the chain in April. It is the only Brooklyn location among those seized. The falafel-and-smoothie chain was founded by Einat Admony in 2005 and is now owned by Craveworthy Brands.
Chuko | Ramen | Prospect Heights
Chuko announced on Sunday, August 2 that it is closing at 565 Vanderbilt Avenue after 15 years. “Follow us for updates on what’s next,” the owners wrote; no new address has been announced. The ramen shop was known for feeding vegetarians and meat-eaters at the same table, and for its okonomiyaki-style tots.
Ashbox Cafe | Cafe | Greenpoint
Yoko Kubo announced on August 21 that the Japanese-inspired cafe she had run at 1154 Manhattan Avenue since February 2008 was closing, citing worsening arthritis. A farewell inventory sale ran August 25 to 28. Ashbox Cafe
BEM | Food bookstore and cafe | Bed-Stuy
The Davenport sisters closed the 373 Lewis Avenue shop to in-person browsing on August 9, less than a year after opening it, and are turning it into a programming-led nonprofit — cookbook launches, screenings and dinners from the fall. Not a shutdown, but the shop as it was is gone. BEM
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