When you think of brownstone Brooklyn, those quintessential tree-lined blocks, beautiful stoops and the urban pastoral aesthetic, well, that’s prime Park Slope. Forget the punchlines about strollers, obsessive co-op shoppers, and hovering parents — that’s all secondary to the fact that this is one the most beautiful neighborhoods in the city, and, tucked next to Prospect Park, it offers plenty of open green space, sorely lacking in many other parts of Brooklyn.

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Down the hill, to the west, 5th Avenue is the upstart shopping, dining and drinking district, while 7th Avenue, just two blocks from the park, is the traditional heart of the Slope. Stroll down the street keeping one eye on the architecture and the other on the many dining and shopping options, and make sure to take a side trip over to Prospect Park while you’re at it. Oh, and watch out for strollers.

IMG_4522Entrance to Prospect Park

Grand Army Plaza to Union Street

To get the true Park Slope experience, you may want to begin your stroll a couple of blocks away, at Grand Army Plaza. The plaza was originally designed in 1867 by the landscape architects behind Central Park and Prospect Park,  Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux, as a grand entrance to Prospect Park. Now it’s a busy traffic circle, acting as a hub for Flatbush Avenue, Vanderbilt Avenue, Prospect Park West, Eastern Parkway, and Union Street. Make sure to pay attention to the traffic signals!

The arch in the middle of this circle is the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch, a monument to the soldiers who defended the Union during the Civil War. John H. Duncan’s design was chosen from 36 entries in 1889, and President Grover Cleveland presided at its unveiling in 1892.

IMG_4523Soldiers’ and Sailor’s Arch

Grand Army Plaza is a great place to start a walk in Prospect Park, and home to an excellent farmer’s market on Saturdays. From here you can make a detour up to Flatbush Avenue, where, between 8th Avenue and Sterling Place, you’ll spot Franny’s, the casual yet fiercely beloved wood-fired pizza spot, which recently celebrated 10 years in business.

Nearby, at 8th Avenue and Lincoln Place, is the fabulous Montauk Club, a private club built in 1889-91 from a design by Francis H. Kimball in the Venetian Gothic style. Look closely and you’ll see a frieze wrapping around the entire building depicting the lives of the Montauk tribe. If you’re wondering it’s like inside, you may be amused by the club’s self-description: “The Montauk Club atmosphere is like that of a cocktail party in a Venetian palazzo…. The majority of our members are well educated men and women who stop in after work to decompress and enjoy a glass of wine or a well made drink, and a pleasant, often spirited conversation in a beautiful room.”

SeventhAve__MontaukClub_MG_9474The Montauk Club

Head down the hill past 8th Avenue to 7th Avenue at any point to continue your Park Slope stroll. There are a few notable houses of worship in Park Slope, including St. John’s Episcopal Church on St. John’s Place between 6th and 7th, founded in 1826 by an abolitionist pastor. The congregation takes pride in its diversity, and the building itself is beautiful, with impressive stained glass inside. Grace United Methodist Church is right across the street. Not far away, on Garfield Place and 8th Avenue, Congregation Beth Elohim is known for cultural events, including Brooklyn by the Book, and for their commitment to volunteerism and social justice.

IMG_4530St. John’s Episcopal Church

Back on 7th Ave. there are two notable schools in the block between St. Johns Place and Lincoln Place. First there’s the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, a community music school with lessons, music education, and music therapy. Though it used to be a formal conservatory, the school now works with Music Partners, a non-profit dedicated to music enrichment. Around the corner, there’s the Berkeley Carroll School, a private K through 12.

IMG_4532The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music

Once you get to Union Street and 7th Avenue, you’re in the heart of Park Slope. Turn right and walk down the hill toward 6th Ave. and you’ll see the Tea Lounge, a stroller-friendly cafe, bar, and restaurant filled with old couches, awkward first dates, freelancers toting laptops, and new parents.

IMG_4534The Tea Lounge

Across the street is the famous Park Slope Food Co-op, formed in 1973 and home to periodic scuffles between its 15,000 socially conscious members. And, if you continue down Union to 6th you will find a fancy  Union Market selling everything from artisanal chocolates to free range chickens to lattes.

SeventhAve__ParkSlopFoodCoop_MG_9480Park Slope Food Coop

Closer to 7th, near the Co-op, People’s Pops, an artisanal popsicle company, recently opened a seasonal outpost. Their popsicles are all made of fresh, natural ingredients, resulting in delicious flavors like Peach, Chamomile & Honey and Rhubarb & Jasmine.

IMG_4538People’s Pops

Next page: President St to 6th St >

President Street to 6th Street

This stretch of the Slope reminds you that, despite its reputation as a tony Brooklyn neighborhood, Park Slope started out as a middle-class enclave of New Yorkers looking to escape high rents and real estate prices in Manhattan. Where 5th Avenue boasts upscale shops and hot new restaurants, 7th Avenue is lined with family staples like supermarkets and health food stores, dry cleaners (many of them green), wine shops and toy stores, with schools and churches mixed in. There are also more than a few medical offices, especially the closer you get to Methodist Hospital at 7th Avenue and 6th Street.

That said, there’s plenty of good shopping between President and Garfield, with Kiwi and Loom, two boutiques selling women’s clothing. Little Things Toy Store has obvious appeal for a neighborhood so full of families, and Jack Rabbit Sports, with its highly trained staff, is one of the best places in the city to get fitted for running shoes.

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Also on this block is Community Bookstore, a friendly, independent bookstore and a neighborhood favorite since 1971. They recently opened another location in Windsor Terrace called Terrace Books.

communitybookstoreCommunity Bookstore 

This area has two of Park Slope’s favorite destinations for breakfast take-out: La Bagel Delight, between President and Carroll, and Connecticut Muffin, at 7th Avenue and 1st Street. La Bagel Delight has been serving up hand-rolled bagels since 1986, and the line on weekends is always long but moves improbably fast. And you can’t miss the flagship store of Connecticut Muffin — it’s the one that is always surrounded by strollers.

Between Garfield and 1st Street stores catering to the kid crowd continue, with Norman & Jules Toy Shop and Lolli, a children’s clothing store. P.S. 321, where the Brooklyn Flea sets up on the weekends during warm weather, is between 1st and 2nd Streets.

IMG_4544P.S. 321

On the corner of 4th Street and 7th Avenue, Lion in the Sun is an excellent spot to stock up on thank-you notes, writing paper, cute notebooks, and all manner of charming gifts. And yes, they have a wide selection of Brooklyn-themed totes and onesies.

IMG_4551Lion in the Sun

 This is a good spot — on 4th or 5th Streets — to cut over to Prospect Park and gape at the beautiful buildings, including more than a few mansions. Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany lived in a limestone mansion at 17 Prospect Park West before decamping from Brooklyn for the West Village a few years ago. Connelly told Conan O’Brien that, “It was a little big… frankly, it was a little like Scooby-Doo, creepy, you know, like the haunted mountain mansion.” (Um, we’ll take it if you don’t want it!)

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New York City owns an even more impressive structure at 5th Street and Prospect Park West: An Italianate mansion called Litchfield Villa, built in 1857 for railroad and real estate developer Edwin Clark Litchfield, and designed by famed 19th century architect Alexander Jackson Davis. What was once a private manor now houses the Brooklyn branch of the NYC Parks and Recreation Department and the Prospect Park Alliance, making it quite possibly the most lovely municipal office building in New York. You can enter the park at 3rd Street or just south of 7th Street, or just stroll along the brownstone-lined streets along its edge.

IMG_4559Litchfield Villa

 

Next page: 7th St to 20th St >

7th Street to 2oth Street 

IMG_4553New York Methodist Hospital

When you live in Park Slope, the park is always calling to you, but for now make your way back over to 7th Avenue, dodging the ambulances lined up along 6th Street near the New York Methodist Hospital.

Some of Park Slope’s best known restaurants are south of 6th Street, so if you’re feeling peckish, it’s a good time for a snack. At the corner of 7th Avenue and 7th Street, Purity Diner is a local favorite for traditional diner food. A few blocks down, there’s 7th Avenue Donuts and Luncheonette, which is open 24 hours but is especially popular for a no-frills weekend brunch.

At 7th Avenue and 10th Street, the Vietnamese sandwich shop Hanco’s has the vibe of a neighborhood coffee shop. Teenagers stop in after school for snacks and bubble tea, and the tables are filled with parents and kids enjoying a banh mi or an order of summer rolls. It’s a very laid-back spot to stop for an inexpensive, super-delicious lunch.

IMG_4566Hanco’s

In the same block, old school sporting goods store Sport Prospect sells every Brooklyn tee you could ever imagine.

IMG_4568Sport Prospect

Moving south, the food gets a bit more upscale. Talde, on the corner of 7th Avenue and 11th Street, is the genre-bending Asian-New American restaurant from former “Top Chef” contestant Dale Talde, who also has a gastropub down the hill on 5th Avenue called Pork Slope. Talde has excellent cocktails and creative food and is always packed.

A few doors down, Brookvin is a wine bar serving small bites, with a lovely back patio — a perfect spot in the sunshine. Just around the corner on 11th, Applewood serves farm-to-table fare in a small but sweet dining room.

IMG_4570Talde

Down on 14th Street, Cafe Steinhof serves Austrian food, German beer, and a popular brunch menu. A block away, Thistle Hill Tavern is a perfect date night spot.

IMG_4578Café Steinhof

Once you get to 15th Street, 7th Avenue starts to change — the buildings are a little shorter, the brownstones give way to townhouses with pastel vinyl siding, and you can see the hills of Green-Wood Cemetery rising south of 20th Street. Around the overpass that goes over the Prospect Expressway there are a few little parks tucked in to corners, but if you continue toward the 19th Street there’s a much better spot to stop and relax after your walk along 7th Avenue.

SeventhAve__DetJosephMayrose_MG_9460Detective Joseph Mayrose Park

Greenwood Park is a massive beer garden with dozens of brews on tap and in bottles, bocce courts, and a huge outdoor seating area. It’s surrounded by a wall built from shipping pallets, designed to keep the beer hall noise to a minimum for the neighbors. This is the ideal spot to grab a table, order some beers and a wurst platter and reflect on life in the Slope.

IMG_4593Greenwood Park

For more local Brooklyn flavor, check out our guides to Atlantic Avenue, Court Street, Smith Street, Bedford Avenue, and 5th Avenue. 


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