Brooklyn buzz
Brooklyn hotlist, Burrow, The Brownstone Boys, Café Brume, Eleven Madison Park, MORE
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Bakery
In deep
It’s time for FOUND readers to know about Dumbo’s splinter of a Japanese-French-American bakery, Burrow, open just a handful of hours a day, four days a week, through the lobby of an unmarked Jay Street building. It is — as far as gems hidden in plain sight go — one of the best running in NYC. The bakery, outfitted with just a counter and pastry cases, can barely fit four customers.
The small shop is filled with the intoxicating aroma of caramelized butter and sugar wafting from pastry chef Ayako Kurokawa’s buttery matcha madeleines, or her freshly-dropped chestnut cake. Her pastry lineup also frequently includes an ultra-buttery gâteau Breton (made with the kind of high-fat European butter that you can actually taste), deeply almondy almond croissants, and perfect gooey chocolate chip cookies. Pillowy, chewy, olive oil-rich focaccia squares might just be the best in the city. Much of the menu shifts with the seasons; in late summer there’s an amazing cream-on-cream-filled corn cake topped with a slice of corn, and a barely sweet Mont Blanc is coming soon.
A small drink list rounds things out: tea, hot chocolate, and a beautifully floral $9 iced Kyoto-style cold brew, served in six-ounce cups that easily ranks as the best coffee in Dumbo. –Kat Odell
→ Shop: Burrow (Dumbo) • 68 Jay St #119 • Tue-Fri 10a-3p.
→ FARM TO PEOPLE DELIVERS ALL YOUR FARMERS MARKET FAVORITES. Say goodbye to sad veggies and factory-farmed meat. Hello to peak-season local produce, pasture-raised eggs and meat, plus Union Square favorites like Ronnybrook Farm and She Wolf Bakery — delivered straight to your door. All the quality. None of the weekend hustle. If better food is on your 2026 list, this is the easiest place to start. Get $25 OFF your first Farm Box with code: FOUNDNY [spon]
GOODS & SERVICES LINKS: South Street Seaport wine store Pasanella & Sons closing for good at end of month • HMart says condo board stymied Tribeca opening • Sephora, first tenant at 1 St. Mark’s, preps space • The best gadgets that also look good at CES • Taking soft cues from Fidi fashion.
WORK • Tuesday Routine
Down to the studs
BARRY BORDELON & JORDAN SLOCUM • co-founders & designers • The Brownstone Boys
Neighborhood you work in: Brooklyn, mostly Bed-Stuy, Park Slope, and Fort Greene (we’re always biking between brownstones)
Neighborhood you live in: Bed-Stuy
It’s Tuesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
Tuesday mornings usually start at our dining table, which currently doubles as Brownstone Boys HQ (new office space loading 2026, amen!). There’s a big iced coffee from Milk & Pull, a stack of floorplans, and one of us fielding texts from contractors while the other tries to wrangle our project board on Materio.com.
Then we’re out the door, usually to a job site in Bed-Stuy, or a sourcing run through the city. Nothing beats starting the day inside a brownstone where 140 years of history are being uncovered, sometimes literally, as we strip original woodwork and reveal it from under layers of paint.
What’s on the agenda for today?
We’re deep in a few gut renovations right now, including a five-story brownstone with a literary past and a dreamy moody-lounge living room redesign we’re finishing for a client. We’re also sketching ideas for a new project in Prospect Lefferts Gardens launching next month.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
Always. This week we’re keeping it local:
Saraghina for pizza (the Coppa e Carciofi pie is religion)
Corto for quick focaccia
Olmo for a cozy weeknight dinner
We’ll never say no to a weekend bagel run to Nagle’s Bagels
We still can’t get a reservation at Sailor :(
For date night: L’Antagoniste in Bed-Stuy, our forever favorite French spot.
How about a little leisure or culture this week?
We try to sneak in a little culture between site visits:
A stop into the Brooklyn Museum to see whatever exhibition is turning everyone’s head
Catching live jazz at Bar LunÀtico — truly one of the best nights out in Bed-Stuy
A stroll through Fort Greene Park when we need a break from drywall dust
If it’s Sunday, you’ll find us running in Prospect Park, shopping Atlantic Ave. for vintage hardware and inspiring design stores, or stopping by Old Iron Architecture in the parking lot of the Lowes by the Gowanus to see what we can find.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
Christopher Merchant Ceramics. We can’t get enough of his work. We recently bought a ceramic lamp and a large fruit bowl, and now we want three tables we can’t stop thinking about.
What NYC store or service do you love to recommend?
Michelle Varian for curated home goods with soul. She’s queen!
A session with a color consultant at Farrow & Ball. Hear us out: Paint can drastically change a space without costing a lot of money. A color consultant will come to your house, assess your style and the light in the home and pair colors you never thought of together. It drastically changed our home.
Our lives were also recently changed by hiring a professional organizer to come and organize our kitchen drawers & closets! We love you @homewitharla!
Olde Good Things in Midtown West. Architectural salvage heaven.
Where are you donating your time or money?
The Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger makes an incredible local impact. And The Ali Forney Center, supporting LGBTQ+ youth. Also, Akwaaba in Bed-Stuy. We recently met the owner and toured the historic mansion. Her bed and breakfast is such a special place, and we can’t recommend it enough.
WORK LINKS: At 345 Hudson St., PayPal takes 3 floors • After big year for Manhattan leasing, balance of power shifts to landlords • What the development of empty lot in West 30s means for the Central Park horse biz • The lost art of the work happy hour.
RESTAURANTS • FOUND Table
Winter warmer
Café Brume, the Alpine-inspired restaurant on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights, opened last spring, but only now that it’s winter has it reached its most irresistible form.
The interior evokes a French Alps ski resort: dark wood beams, flickering taper candles, crisp white tablecloths, and just the right number of checkered accents to suggest tradition without slipping into kitsch.
Owners and neighborhood locals Brendan and Jennifer Spiro clearly understand their audience: Brooklynites who care about hospitality, appreciate thoughtful interiors, and want a dining experience that offers a bit of an escape. The Spiros have entrusted the kitchen to Chef Lucas Harrell (previously of Legacy Records), whose comfort cooking embraces Alpine classics while maintaining the polish expected on Montague Street.
One of Café Brume’s strengths is its wine program, with a list dominated by high-altitude bottles, true to the restaurant’s mountain-bred ethos. Even better, by-the-glass options come in full and half pours. It’s a small but meaningful accommodation that more spots around town would do well to pick up.
The deeply pleasurable food includes a raclette service in which a wheel of cheese arrives at the table, its molten edge scraped over a plate of boiled potatoes, pearl onions, and cornichons. A pinch of fruity Espelette pepper finishes the dish. It’s a theatrical affair, with a result that’s stick-to-your-bones satisfying. Wiener schnitzel, another standout, arrives as a crisp, golden cutlet paired with lemon, anchovy, and lingonberry jam. On a recent visit, we began our meal with tender ricotta pancakes topped with sauerkraut, crème fraîche, and trout roe, along with a chicory salad tossed with Bartlett pear, mimolette, and a citrus vinaigrette. This was followed by the duck pappardelle, toothsome and rich.
What distinguishes Café Brume is its coherence. The design, the menu, the wine program, and the hospitality all work together to create a sense of place that doesn’t read as a theme or a gimmick. Instead, it’s a modern interpretation of Alpine hospitality filtered through the lens of Brooklyn Heights. –Phoebe Fry
→ Café Brume (Brooklyn Heights) • 80 Montague St • Tue-Thu 5-10p, Fri 12-10p, Sat-Sun 11a-10p • Reserve.
RESTAURANTS • Intel
ERAS TOUR: Eleven Madison Park is in the midst of its 20-Year Retrospective Menu, a 20-day celebration (January 7-26) of chef Daniel Humm’s two decades at the restaurant’s helm. The special tasting menu traces the restaurant’s evolution through iconic “chapters,” blending signature dishes from the early days with highlights from the plant-based era, which began in 2021. Diners can still elect fully plant-based adaptations for certain courses, but the retrospective embraces the full arc of innovation and change.
One of the opening highlights is the communal clambake (introduced in 2011, above), inspired by a trip to Tokyo and shabu-shabu. It centers on a rich, decadent clam velouté, accompanied by oysters and caviar, razor clams, littlenecks, and warm Parker House rolls. Another standout is the gently poached Montauk tilefish, beautifully presented with vibrant citrus, edamame, and a silky beurre monté sauce. The fish is impeccably cooked, of course — masterful seafood execution that hasn’t appeared in EMP’s kitchen for nearly seven years.
The meal builds to the legendary honey-lavender duck — dry-aged for two weeks, served with daikon and apple — and closes with the nostalgic Milk & Honey dessert, a sweet time capsule that evokes memories of the restaurant’s journey, while delivering elite levels of technique and emotion. Reserve. –Lee Pitofsky
NYC RESTAURANT LINKS, BARS EDITION: Stalwart Atlantic Ave. bar Montero changing hands this spring • In East Village, Veselka seeks full liquor license • Cozy Royale team planning tiny Greenpoint den The Peek Inn to debut in March • How Williamsburg’s Lighthouse quietly became the bar industry’s hangout • The New York Martini 50.
ASK FOUND
Three PROMPTS for which we request your immediate attention:
I started a new job downtown WTC area and need to cater Kosher foods for breakfast and lunch meetings. What are the very good Kosher restaurant options downtown or elsewhere in Manhattan?
Where are you booking for a ski trip in 2026?
Tell us an offseason Hamptons or North Fork secret!
Hit reply or email found@foundny.com with more answers or questions.
RESTAURANTS • The Nines
New restaurants, 2026 (Brooklyn)
The 9 Brooklyn spots we’re most anticipating this year. See also, 9 most anticipated above 14th & 9 most anticipated below 14th.
