Ben Wexler-Waite runs a wood-fired pizza operation on Peaks Island, Maine, that closes every fall when the season ends and reopens every summer to a line of people who plan their ferry schedule around it. This year he shut it down a week early. Not because business was slow. Because he wanted a head start on opening in Park Slope, where he grew up, and where he and his girlfriend have spent their off-seasons for years. He took over the old Bar Vinazio space at 158 Seventh Avenue, kept the open kitchen, kept the big backyard, and is bringing the same naturally leavened sourdough pies he's been making out of a trailer for five summers, lobster pie included.
That's a strange decision if you think about it for more than a second. A guy with a cult following in Maine and open interest from Brooklyn neighborhoods with more foot traffic and more tourist overflow picked a stretch of Seventh Avenue he already knew from childhood. He didn't need Park Slope. He chose it anyway.
He's not the only one. Over roughly the same stretch of months, a handful of operators who'd already proven themselves elsewhere all landed on the same two avenues, and the pattern is worth paying attention to if you live here, because it changes what "getting dinner" means on a random Tuesday.
Where They Actually Landed
Here's the corridor, block by block, as it stands right now:
- 276 Fifth Avenue, between First Street and Garfield Place: Andamiro, the gukbap restaurant from chef Suho Lee, who grew up near Seoul, moved to Downtown Brooklyn in 2013, and spent years frustrated that a dish as basic and beloved in Korea as rice-in-soup was so hard to find done well in New York. He opened here last fall. Brooklyn Magazine called it one of the best dishes of the year earlier this year.
- 244 Flatbush Avenue, at Sixth Avenue: Pies 'n' Thighs, the Williamsburg fried chicken institution that's been serving smoked pork and biscuits since 2006, opened its first-ever second location here on April 1, marking its 20th anniversary. It's a block from Barclays Center. The menu is identical to the original, chicken tenders included, and the ceramic light fixtures along the bar were made by owner Sarah Sanneh's mother, a working ceramicist.
- 397 Fifth Avenue: KOMENORI, a hand-roll and omakase spot from chef Sean Kang, formerly head chef and general manager at DOMODOMO during the years it held a Michelin Bib Gourmand, opened this spring in the space that used to hold Flatiron Steakhouse.
- 158 Seventh Avenue: Il Leone, Ben Wexler-Waite's year-round move for his Peaks Island pizzeria, still finding its opening date but with the lease and the backyard already secured.
- 689 Sixth Avenue, at 20th Street: Folk, the next project from Jay Kumar, chef behind Lore, which the NYC Hospitality Alliance named Best Restaurant in Brooklyn and which holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand of its own. Folk is a cocktail-forward bar with small plates in the old Brooklyn Pub space, designed by Kumar's wife Daria, with drinks running $14 to $18.
- 226 Seventh Avenue: Mariscos El Submarino, the Mexican seafood restaurant that started in Jackson Heights and has since expanded into Greenpoint and Clinton Hill, took over the former Maya Taqueria space here and is already serving its aguachiles, margaritas, and tacos to a Park Slope crowd.
Add to that Vato, the tortilla bakery and Basque-Mexican restaurant from the Corima team, whose chef Fidel Caballero earned a Michelin star at the original location. Vato splits its day in two: counter service in the morning and afternoon, selling Chihuahuan-style burritos and the same sourdough flour tortillas by the dozen that made Corima's tortillas a cult item, then a full sit-down dinner service at night built around Caballero's years in the Basque Country and a natural wine list from wine director Mariano Garay.
What Already Changed Your Tuesday Night
Five of these are settled, working restaurants right now, not announcements. Andamiro has been serving lunch Wednesday through Sunday and dinner with extended Friday and Saturday hours for almost a year. Pies 'n' Thighs has been open on Flatbush Avenue since April 1, long enough that the novelty has worn off and it's just where people go when they want fried chicken without getting in a car. KOMENORI has been running its hand-roll and omakase format since this spring, in a space that used to serve steak. Mariscos El Submarino is already pouring margaritas on Seventh Avenue. And Vato has been open long enough that a local food newsletter was already reviewing its burnt-ends breakfast burrito back in January.
None of these needed Park Slope specifically. Lee could have opened his gukbap restaurant in any of the Brooklyn neighborhoods with a dense enough Korean food audience to support it. He looked at the whole city and picked Fifth Avenue. Kang, with a Michelin Bib Gourmand credit already behind him from DOMODOMO, could have gone almost anywhere that supports a serious omakase check. He picked a former steakhouse on Fifth Avenue instead.
What's Still Landing This Year
Folk and Il Leone are the two still in motion. Kumar signed his lease on the old Brooklyn Pub space earlier this year. Wexler-Waite has his backyard and open kitchen ready to go at 158 Seventh. Neither has a confirmed opening date yet, but neither is speculative either. Both operators have already committed real leases to real spaces on these two avenues. It's just a matter of when the doors open, not whether.
Why Here, and Not Somewhere Flashier
This is the part that's easy to miss if you only look at one opening at a time. Kumar could have put his second concept anywhere in Brooklyn with comparable foot traffic. The Corima team had a Michelin star to spend on any address in the city. Wexler-Waite had a Maine following loyal enough to justify a Williamsburg or DUMBO storefront, the kind of neighborhood that tourists already associate with a destination meal. Lee looked at the entire city before choosing 276 Fifth Avenue specifically.
None of them needed the block. They picked it because the audience they wanted was already living on it.
That distinction matters if you're the one walking to dinner. A restaurant chasing foot traffic from outside the neighborhood is optimizing for a different customer than you. A restaurant whose chef grew up two blocks away, or whose owner is explicitly building a counter-service bakery meant for people to grab tortillas on their way home, is optimizing for the person who already lives here. Lee has said as much about wanting affordable, authentic food over anything flashier. Wexler-Waite shut down a business with a line out the door a week early just to be open sooner for his old neighborhood. That's not the behavior of someone treating Park Slope as a stepping stone.
What This Means If You Live Here
The short version: the last twelve months quietly rearranged where the good food is in Park Slope, and it happened almost entirely within a two-avenue radius. If your usual rotation hasn't caught up with Andamiro, Pies 'n' Thighs, KOMENORI, Vato, or Mariscos El Submarino yet, that's five genuinely new options already worth the walk, no reservation-app scrolling required. If you've been waiting to see what happens with the old Bar Vinazio space or the Brooklyn Pub storefront, both are spoken for, and both come from chefs with the kind of track record that makes a wait worth it.
None of this required a new subway stop or a rezoning. It required seven operators who'd already made it elsewhere deciding, independently and within the same year, that Fifth and Seventh Avenue were where they wanted to do their best work next.
If you're the kind of neighbor who tracks this stuff the way we do, you already know Park Slope rewards paying attention to the small stuff. It's the same instinct that makes for a good home search here. If a move is somewhere on your horizon, or you're just curious what your own block is worth in a market that keeps proving itself this way, the Rosenberg Sackin Team is always happy to talk through it, no obligation attached. Get your free home valuation and consultation whenever you're ready.
