NYCGuide
Where To Eat Outside In Greenpoint
From brunch spots to breweries, here are 18 places to eat and drink outside in Greenpoint.
Whether your issues with your oven have become irreconcilable, and you’re now having most of your meals somewhere that isn’t your apartment, or you only feel comfortable going out once in a while for a special occasion, you’ll find what you’re looking for in Greenpoint. There are plenty of neighborhood spots to grab a casual meal, and there are also restaurants we’d bike to from just about anywhere in the city. From pancakes and vegan Bloody Marys to tonkatsu pork shoulder and unfiltered sake, here are 18 great places to eat and drink outside in Greenpoint.
The Spots
In Greenpoint, there are lots of great bars, and plenty of excellent restaurants. And then there’s Achilles Heel, which is near the top of the heap of both. Its seemingly all-over-the-place, but unanimously excellent dishes - like baba ganoush with roasted sweet corn and fermented chili oil, or chicken with couscous and creme fraiche - are available on its patio Wednesday through Sunday.
The current brunch menu at Chez Ma Tante only has four items on it: chips and aioli, tortilla espanola, caesar salad, and pancakes. In other words, it has three more options than you really need. That’s because this Greenpoint spot serves the best pancakes in the city, which you can order at a first come, first served table on Sundays between 11am-3pm. They’re also serving dinner from 5-10pm Wednesday through Saturday.
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Friday through Sunday, this Greenpoint spot is offering a $70 three-course prix-fixe menu of Vietnamese BBQ dishes, like grilled rice paper with clams and sliced sirloin with lemongrass. The three seatings per night for parties of two can be reserved through their website, or if you’d rather order from their a la carte takeout menu, you can do so any day except Monday, and eat at seat-yourself tables out front Tuesday through Thursday.
Five Leaves has extended its hours to 10am-10pm every day, and added to its outdoor seating with a whole new patio area. But if you think that’ll cause weekend brunch waits to be shorter than an Eliud Kipchoge marathon, you’d be mistaken. Whenever you go to this American-Australian spot, you’ll have some of the best people watching in North Brooklyn.
Fornino
If Fornino’s Brooklyn Bridge Park location overlooking the Statue of Liberty is like Alexis Rose, then its Greenpoint spot is like Stevie Budd - it does the best with what it’s got. They’ve set up sidewalk tables out front on Manhattan Ave, and decorated their backyard with colorful tables, hanging lights, and stacks of wood for its pizza oven. Its Neapolitan-style pies are available every day except Monday, with reservations available through their website.
This Mediterranean spot at the very northern tip of Greenpoint is offering table service on its patio from Thursday through Sunday from 5-11pm. But if you’d rather have smoked eggplant, deep-fried potato husks, or spicy quail some other time, you can pick up food at their takeout window, and eat at a seat-yourself table any day between 12-9pm.
In the event that nobody stands up and yells “kanpai” during your meal as would’ve been the case during a meal inside this Japanese spot, you don’t need to fret. The whole point is to get you excited to drink sake, but considering the range of varieties and serving sizes, along with the very knowledgeable staff, you should have plenty of encouragement on your own. Pair it with some very good small plates, like karaage chicken or pork jowl skewers, Thursday through Monday from 5-10pm. Reservations are encouraged and available through their website.
Anella has such a pleasant backyard that we’d look the other way if its forgettable sounding dishes were indeed forgettable. But they’re not. The juicy roast chicken is served over a farro, corn and pesto salad, the fettuccine is tossed in an anchovy cream sauce, and at brunch, the dry-aged burger is topped with garlic aioli and bacon jam. The first come, first served seating is available Thursday through Sunday from 5-10pm, and for weekend brunch from 12-4pm.
Plenty of pizza spots have supporters happy to defend their pies against any others, but few have enough diehards to spark a heated debate about pies on the same menu. Whether you think the Hellboy with spicy soppressata and hot honey or the Cherry Jones with prosciutto and dried bing cherries is best, you can try convincing your friends at sidewalk tables out front any day of the week.
Two blocks south of Paulie Gee’s, their slice shop is offering outdoor seating as well. Unlike the Neapolitan-style pies at the original, this spot specializes in classic New York-style slices, as well as a massive upside down Sicilian called the Freddy Prince, which is the best thing here.
If you don’t feel like waiting two hours for a table at Paulie Gee’s, or you’d prefer tacos and fried chicken sandwiches to pizza, head across the street to 21 Greenpoint. This American spot is serving its excellent cocktails, and a limited food menu (no pizzas at the moment) Wednesday through Sunday from 3-10pm.
With colorful umbrellas and even more colorful tostadas and frozen cocktails, the patio at Oxomoco seems much further from Greenpoint Avenue than it actually is. You can make use of it for brunch or dinner, both of which are served every day. Reservations are required, and you can make one their website.
Threes @ Franklin + Kent
This brewery’s Greenpoint location offers a handful of outdoor tables on the sidewalk from 2-8pm every day. Along with more than 10 of its house beers, they also serve a long list of mostly New York-based microbrews, as well as bar snacks like arancini and fried chicken.
Across the street from Threes, Elder Green has set up some sidewalk seating in front of its Franklin Street location where you can pair a bunch of different frozen cocktails with some very good bar snacks any day of the week.
The Springs is serving its boilermakers and boozy slushy pitchers in its massive, dog-friendly backyard every day until midnight or later. Tables at this Greenpoint bar are available on a first come, first served basis for small groups, but if you’re with six to ten people, you need to make a reservation through their website.
Anyone who finds it tough to keep a cactus alive for one-tenth as long as the internet says they last will be at a total loss when they step into the backyard of this American spot in Greenpoint. It’s filled with as many plants, trees, and ivy as a modest greenhouse, and it’s one of the most pleasant places to eat outside in Brooklyn. And if that alone isn’t enough to convince you, then the banana bread pudding and bottomless mimosa situation at brunch should.
An attractive backyard with plenty of shade and some of the best pancakes in the city would be enough to make this one of our favorite brunch options in the neighborhood. When you also consider that they serve large format cocktails and avocado toast actually worth ordering, you only need to decide whether you’re going on Saturday or Sunday.
