This neighborhood guide is curated by one of our New York City-based editors who calls it home.
Erin Florio
Erin Florio is the Global Features Director at Conde Nast Traveler, working across print, digital social and video on features, hotel news, major tentpole moments, and more. Her work has brought her to Zimbabwe to explore its nascent safari scene, the wild Kimberley Coast in Australia, the surf scene of Rio de Janeiro and plenty of spots in between. She has appeared on Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, CNBC, CNN, and The Today Show as well as in Forbes, Luxury Daily, Lonny, and on various podcasts. A happy New Yorker, Erin is lucky enough to count a lot of places around the world that also feel like home.
Travelers looking for a version of New York that is free of the tourist rush, built on community and local business, and reflective of the city’s true grit and diversity should catch the L train to Ridgewood. This leafy Queens neighborhood across the Brooklyn border from Bushwick has historically been a melting pot of Hispanic and Eastern European families; in recent years, they’ve been joined by creatives and others swapping the ever-increasing rents of Williamsburg and Greenpoint for more space at a lower cost. Of course, this group brings with them the inevitable stream of indie coffee shops, cocktail bars and vintage shopping that has come to define hipster-fying neighborhoods of the past two decades. Ridgewood shows signs of gentrification for sure, but—but!—it’s not about to become the next Williamsburg. To me, Ridgewood feels like a place that prioritizes community: the old makes space for the new, and the new respects—rather than seeks to replace—those there before.
You see it when the owners of what would be the competition are the first customers through the door to support a new business. Or when a recent restaurant makes a point to source from the local butchers and bakeries that have been here for close to a century. I know this first-hand; my partner and I moved here recently after he launched the Italian restaurant Il Gigante with a couple others on Woodward Avenue. It opened in January and graciously has been busy ever since. We know we are part of this new wave and that means supporting what came first. I do not yet have a go-to empanada shop on Seneca, or a favorite Polish deli near Fresh Pond (though I see you Hetman!). But being part of Ridgewood means it’s important for me to have defensible options for both and much more. The below reflects my personal favorites of a neighborhood as I continue to get to know it.
8 a.m. Pastry, coffee and inevitable good banter
I’m an early riser and love how quiet the early mornings are in Ridgewood, when it’s just me and a few walkers with strollers or dogs on the wide, leafy avenues. At Rudy’s Pastry Shop, you’re greeted with a scent that smells like baker’s heaven and a neighborly hello from Toni, the longtime owner who is as much an icon of the neighborhood as her 92 year old bakery. For my son I’ll get a donut the size of his face while I debate if it’s too early to fill a cannoli shell with ricotta cream for myself (regrettably, the answer is always yes). If I’m after anything savory, I’ll walk a couple blocks to Bakeri, the Greenpoint import that hums with families grabbing cookies and friends catching up over coffee all morning long in the hopes that this morning, they’ve put out their utterly (utterly!) irresistible kale and cheese pinwheels. But this comes with a detour to Cholita, a new-wave, minimalist Ecuadorian coffee house whose flat whites compete with those I was raised on back in Wellington New Zealand, birthplace of the famous espresso drink.
12p.m. Walk Woodward
Woodward Avenue in central Ridgewood is quietly growing a tidy row of indie boutiques. Start at the light-flooded Saint Seneca, where the lovely Yuka curates the gorgeous space with her exceptional taste, meaning beautiful throws, hand-carved wood platters, plants, candles, and other household items to turn your home into a page out of Domino. Each time I pop in I’m convinced that I do, indeed, need another hand-shaped ceramic ladle holder. Stay Forever has quirky gifts and fun buys—I drink my coffee from their oversized Ridgewood-branded mug each morning—but I really love their kids shop across the way, Forever Young, which has a smart selection of kids dress-up, books, toys and clothes. And it always comes through with a last-minute gift as you dash to the bday party. Left Field is an homage to quality, handmade denim and more, that has been operating under the radar for years. Close by, Fringe Records is small and unassuming behind an easy-to-miss door, but jam-packed with excellent vinyl.
2 p.m Grab a sandwich
The humble sandwich is having a show-stealing revival around the neighborhood and I am here for it. At Arrigo’s, a pocket-sized Italian diner and deli on Fresh Pond, the Italian sub is a masterpiece of fresh sliced prosciutto and mortadella with the right amount of tangy oils and fillings. It has pleased even the most persnickety of judges —my very Italian-American father. I love the classic ham and cheese at the Salty Lunch Lady, a retro-fitted lunch counter with a delicious menu of made-to-order sandos and a nice amount of seating for a solid destination lunch when working from home. But I have to say, nothing compares to the utter perfection that is the deli-counter sandwiches at Pierogi Boys, a new arrival to Ridgewood which combines a restaurant and market place and is worth a visit for its sheer delightful selection of high end provisions alone. Their turkey with dill mayo, served on ciabatta fluffier than cotton, was one of the single most delightful dishes I have had all year. Honestly.
3 p.m. Vintage shopping
The second-hand shopping is so good in Ridgewood that out of towners could make a day of bopping around for rare denim and estate jewels. The most known spot may be Other People’s Clothes, the Ridgewood outlet of the famed Williamsburg spot started by Beacon’s Closet alums. It’s well stocked, the kind of place that takes energy to rifle through, so you gotta be in the mood. A few blocks up, Etta Vintage is a charming boutique where the owner hits up estate sales across the tristate and brings the best of it back with her. The jewelry and funky wall hangings are some of my favorites of her finds. Lichen, over on Woodward, is a high-style furniture showroom run by a collective of carpenters and designers who repurpose signature pieces. I aspire to one day have one of the Rei Kawakubo coffee tables in my own home but for now I am a dedicated window shopper. Grace Land, just down a ways, sells unique pieces like sturdy jackets and asymmetrical blouses fashioned from vintage finds with master tailoring
5 p.m. Cocktail hour
Get to Peg’s Cavalier, a neighborhood favorite, right as it opens to snag space at the bar or one of the cozy tables. It gets busier later on but I like when you can banter with the bartender, easily order another round and maybe bump into your neighbor at a nearby table. The Seneca has a nice big space and a perfectly acceptable bar food menu if you get peckish, while Aunt Ginny’s is a little more laid back but still does a mean martini.
7 p.m. Reservations essential
Rolo’s put Ridgewood on the culinary map when it was opened by a bunch of Gramercy Tavern alums who wanted a neighborhood bistro where they lived. The irony is that their polenta bread and burger are so phenomenal, locals compete with straphangers for a spot (if there is a two hour wait for a table, try the bar). I am partial, of course, to the gramigna at Il Gigante and don’t mind committing Italian sacrilege by pairing it with one of their perfect Negronis instead of a wine, but I also love the prosciutto and salads at nearby pizzeria Panina, and the delicious Palmetto pie and chopped salad at Decades, a funky pizzeria across from Rosemary’s Playground. During warmer months, the aptly named Ice Cream Window just down the block serves scoops of inventive flavors like pumpkin-inflected Styrian and Rose well into dessert time. I haven’t made it into Pierogi Boys yet for dinner but definitely have my eye on their tomahawk-sized schnitzel and dill pickle martinis.
10 p.m. There is life at night
I am no longer cool enough nor young enough to have boogied till dawn at Nowadays, one of the many fine nightclubs to have spilled over from the scene in nearby Bushwick, but eavesdropping on the hungover 20-somethings every weekend confirms it’s great. Cassette is more my speed these days. I will do a post-dinner negroni or martini; they have a small downstairs club that opens late, too. Gottscheer Hall, a nostalgia-riddled beer hall and vestige to the neighborhood’s Germanic roots does Honky Tonk night once a month which is always wild (and often sells out, so plan ahead!). I am yet to check out Low Cinema, the neighborhood’s first indie moviehouse in decades, but plan to do so once I’m craving something quiet that isn’t my couch.
12 a.m. One for the road
As much as I love the fancier spots for a pricier cocktail, all roads will eventually lead me back to a good ol’ dive bar. Here, that’s Jones Bar, a proper divey watering hole with cheap draught beer, shot specials, and grungy locals who often don’t mind if you, say, want to bring your toddler in during happy hours (thanks again!). Of course the best time to be here is later at night. It’s on a quieter stretch of the neighborhood and just a few blocks from my front door, so it’s easy to justify stopping in for just the one whenever I head home.
