The Brooklyn Experience

The Ultimate Guide to Neighborhoods & Noshes, Culture & the Cutting Edge

By Ellen Freudenheim; Foreword by Steve Hindy

SERIES: Rivergate Regionals Collection

Rutgers University Press

From Paris to Rio, everyone’s curious about hot, new Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Experience, Ellen Freudenheim’s fourth comprehensive Brooklyn guidebook, offers a true insider’s guide, complete with photographs, itineraries, and insights into one of the most creative, dynamic cities in the modern world.

Walk over the Brooklyn Bridge at dawn or sunset, discover thirty-eight unique Brooklyn neighborhoods, and experience the borough like a native. Find out where to go to the beach and to eat great pizza, what to do with the kids, how to enjoy free and cheap activities, and where to savor Brooklyn’s famous cuisines. Visit cool independent shops, greenmarkets, festivals, and delve into the vibrant new cultural scene at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Barclays Center, and the lively exploding neighborhoods of DUMBO, Williamsburg, and Bushwick.

Included in the book are essays and the pithy, sometimes funny comments of sixty cultural, literary, and culinary movers and shakers, culled from exclusive interviews with experts from the James Beard Foundation to the cofounder of the famous Brooklyn Book Festival, as well as MacArthur “genius” award winners, to young entrepreneurs, hipsters, and activists, all of whom have something to say about Brooklyn’s stunning renaissance. Neighborhood profiles are rich in user-friendly information and details, including movies, celebrities, and novels associated with each neighborhood. There are also 800 listings of great restaurants, bars, shops, parks, cultural institutions, and historical sites, complete with contact information.

Targeting the independent, curious traveler, The Brooklyn Experience includes a dozen “do-it-yourself” tours, including a visit to Woody Allen’s childhood neighborhood, and amazing Revolutionary and Civil War sites.

Freudenheim draws clear—and sometimes surprising—connections between old and new Brooklyn. Written by an author with an astounding knowledge of all Brooklyn has to offer, The Brooklyn Experience will guide both first-time and repeat visitors, and will be a fun resource for Brooklynites who enjoy exploring their own hometown.

For those who can never get enough of Brooklyn. New York Times

Awesome Brooklyn deserves a book as inclusive as the borough itself is, and this title delivers … Even those readers who think they know everything about this New York City borough will probably find a surprising tidbit in these pages. Library Journal

The Brooklyn Experience provides a comprehensive guide to all things BK. From a 'Welcome to Brooklyn' overview with 20 great reasons to fall in love with the borough, to looks forward and back, Freudenheim shows off some serious neighborhood savvy … Take The Brooklyn Experience with you. You’ll find a wealth of photos, both historical and current, to whet your appetite for your own Brooklyn experience. You’ll find chapters on Brooklyn’s cultural scene, eating and drinking, shopping, waterfront and parks, and DIY tours—one of which the traces the formative haunts of Brooklyn’s own Woody Allen, the kind of quirky element that The Brooklyn Experience is packed with that you won’t find in other guidebooks. City Guide NY

A 'must read' resource for urban explorers, with fascinating observations by seasoned Brooklynites. Whether you need a dose of the Dodgers and Coney Island, or want to be surprised by lesser known people and places, you’ll find both here. Deborah F. Schwartz, President, Brooklyn Historical Society

If you've lived in Brooklyn for generations, or arrived last month, this book is a splendid companion in the delicious task of exploring the grandest New York borough. From art and architecture to the surprise of urban zoology, everything is here: tenements and mansions, ruined alleys and great boulevards, bridges and tunnels, amazing beaches and beautiful parks, and above all, the sky. Pull up a chair and read. Even better, head for the street, this book in hand, and look around. Pete Hamill, award-winning author and journalist

Ellen Freudenheim, Abroad in Brooklyn- from 'What I Love' by Dan Shaw <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/realestate/ellen-freudenheim-abroad-in-brooklyn.html> The New York Times

Getting the Full Brooklyn Experience - an interview with Ellen Freudenheim <http://www.thirteen.org/metrofocus/2016/06/getting-full-brooklyn-experience/> Metrofocus

Fill in Your Calendars! It’s All Brooklyn, All Summer Long- Ellen Freudenheim's tips for taking full advantage of Brooklyn's bustling summer season <http://www.5boros.com/2016/05/fill-in-your-calendars-its-all-brooklyn-all-summer-long/> Crain's 5 Boros

One to One with Sheryl McCarthy - an interview with Ellen Freudenheim <http://www.cuny.tv/show/onetoone/PR2005260> CUNY TV

BK Stories - Ellen Freudenheim's 'The Brooklyn Experience' Book Signing at Brooklyn Brewery <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq7l4-n2t8U> BRIC TV

'The Brooklyn Experience': Then and now - an interview with Ellen Freudenheim <http://www.brickunderground.com/live/the-Brooklyn-Experience> Brick Underground

ELLEN FREUDENHEIM is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn, and has published widely. She is the author of eight books including a 2004 award-winning guidebook to Brooklyn and over a thousand articles online to help visitors and residents find their way around the Big Apple’s hippest and most diverse borough. Her books include Queens: What to Do, Where to Go (and How Not to Get Lost) in New York’s Undiscovered Borough, and most significantly, Brooklyn: The Ultimate Guide to New York’s Most Happening Borough.

Foreword by Steven Hindy, cofounder and chairman, Brooklyn Brewery

Preface and Acknowledgments
How to Use This Book

Section 1: Welcome To Brooklyn
Brooklyn at a Glance
The Brooklyn Bridge

Section 2: Old Brooklyn And New Brooklyn
Old and Historical Brooklyn
The New Brooklyn

Section 3: The Neighborhoods
How to Visit a Brooklyn Neighborhood
Bay Ridge and Fort Hamilton
Bedford-Stuyvesant
Bensonhurst and Dyker Heights
Boerum Hill
Borough Park
Brighton Beach
Brooklyn Heights and the Promenade
Bushwick
Canarsie and East New York
Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill
Clinton Hill
Columbia Waterfront District
Coney Island
Crown Heights
Downtown Brooklyn and Fulton Mall
Dumbo, Fulton Ferry Waterfront, and Vinegar Hill
Flatbush
Fort Greene
Gowanus
Greenpoint
Greenwood Heights
Marine Park
Mill Basin and Floyd Bennett Field
Park Slope
Prospect Heights and Pacific Park
Prospect Lefferts Gardens
Red Hook
Sheepshead Bay and Manhattan Beach
Sunset Park
Williamsburg
Windsor Terrace and Kensington

Section 4: Where To Go, What To Do
Brooklyn's Cultural Science: Fifteen Best Bets
Eating and Drinking in Brooklyn: 400 Amazing Restaurants
Shopping in Brooklyn: Over 260 Places to Shop
Brooklyn's Waterfront and Parks

Section 5: Visitor Information
DIY Tours
Forty Things to Do with Kids
Monthly Calendar
Tips: Accommodations, Transportation, Safety, Blogs

Bibliography: Seventy-Five Works of Fiction Set in Brooklyn
Index

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