NYC Ferry Restaurant Tour, Part XI: Le Crocodile (East River Route to North Williamsburg)
Hipster and Hasidic: those are the dominant populations of Williamsburg served by the NYC Ferry system. The North Williamsburg stop gets you to the hipster haven, while the South Williamsburg stop accesses the Hasidic Jewish enclave. Online mapping also shows a large East Williamsburg (which I’ll get to in some future installment of the NYC Subway Restaurant Tour). In the meantime, having explored South Williamsburg on the ferry, it was time to commune with its northerly neighbors — starting on the good ship McShiny. Here it is docking at North Williamsburg, with the Freedom Tower in the background. Swoon-inducing views of Manhattan would ensue, but not till after lunch.
Along the way, I took the usual quota of dirty-window shots from my seat on the boat. You’ve probably seen enough specimens of the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges in previous episodes — but since the North Williamsburg ferry stop was the first to take me under the Williamsburg Bridge, perhaps you might indulge me in a few of those. There are some startling glass boxes on Kent Avenue, which parallels the riverside between the South and North Williamsburg stops. Those twin towers behind the bridge are the One Domino Square condos, built in 2019 on South 4th and 5th streets, with both rental and condo apartments. The stacked glass boxes in front of the bridge are 416 and 420 Kent Avenue.
The One Domino Square condos are named after this local landmark, the former Domino Sugar Refinery. More pricey apartments, right? Nope. The Refinery at Domino — they’re actually calling it that — is “an unparalleled masterpiece with state-of-the-art office amenities.” It was built in 1882, after the original refinery burned, and pumped out tooth-rotting white granules until 2004.
Family portrait of the three landmarks, old, new, and old.
We docked and debarked into the new North Williamsburg, land of glass towers. The North 5th Street Pier is conjoined with the North 5th Street Park, about which more later.
On the pier I looked back toward the Freedom Tower, rising over the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village middle income housing projects, which occupy East 14th through East 23rd streets along the East River, from First Avenue to Avenue C. Sprawling over two zip codes, the huge complex is considered a desirable place to live.
Below the NYC Ferry banner you can also see the Empire State Building. No closeup needed here — we’ll be getting to that later!
Here is a representative slice of North Williamsburg (or just Williamsburg, as Google Maps would have it) near the river. As you move inland, the architecture acquires more age, compactness, and charm. But not yet.
I used the odd-numbered streets to crisscross the neighborhood: North 5th to Bedford Avenue, North 7th back to Wyeth Street, North 9th back to Bedford, and finally North 11th back to Wythe and the restaurant. Early on I came across a vegan ice cream parlor: a sign of the times.
Love Thy Beast, a modern pet boutique. Actually, it was the cobalt-blue wood-sided townhouse that caught my eye.
And nearby, Juliette, another of the neighborhood’s several French restaurants, flying the flags of France and Brittany. I may return for its not extortionately priced brunch menu. Big Wong’s Chinese restaurant is to the left, followed by the now-shuttered miD muS — Dim Sum backwards, get it? — while the more traditional looking Joe’s Pizza is at far right.
The Holy Ghost Ukrainian Church, a trace of old Williamsburg, was flying both American and Ukrainian flags.
But signs of new Williamsburg were never far off.
If I were furnishing a dining room, I might go for these $10 chairs at Mother of Junk. I would deliberately choose mismatched pieces to make it interesting.
In early October, folks were already getting ready for Halloween.
The School, built in 1900, is no longer a school. Just a rental building with a cool name.
“I live in The School.”
“How old did you say you were?”
By the Bedford Avenue station of the L train, street art indicating a carefree way of life. I’m pretty sure the girly graphic is part of the @StayFrostyOfficial portfolio, judging from the content of the Instagram page.
One of these modest two-story townhouses got itself an ambitious upward extension.
Venerable wooden-slat buildings got themselves a fresh coat of wood.
This building was striking but made no effort to harmonize with, or even acknowledge, its surroundings.
Am I overdoing the wood?
Cheeseboat is a Georgian restaurant with another location in Hell’s Kitchen. Along with two other establishments, it will soon have to fold up its ebullient outdoor-dining facilities, under a draconian new city law designed to reserve precious curb space for SUVs.
Portraits of Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat by local artist Eduardo Kobra, a Brazilian native with international reach.
I really would like to have seen more of this piece! Check out the full version in Brooklyn Magazine, whose photog evidently got there before the plywood went up.
The Bedford presented a gastropub dining option. Woulda, coulda. But shoulda? Not with Le Crocodil’s $45 prix fixe on my brain.
“Beer has dispelled the illness which was in me,” says an ancient Egyptian ad slogan on the side of the Brooklyn Brewery. It’s open for tours and events but is not a watering hole per se. Plenty of bars in the neighborhood, though.
The lunch venue came into view.
It is variously known as the Wythe Boutique Hotel, the Wythe Hotel, or if the sign is anything to go by, just HOTEL.
Built in 1901 as a barrel factory, to replace a previous one that burned down, it sports a suitably artistic sign.
The ground floor houses a restaurant called Le Crocodile. Aside from pronunciation, the word means the same in French or English. In French it is a masculine noun.
The hotel’s Bar Blondeau is across the street from the Brooklyn Brewery mural, of which I would have a view from my table. This one-block stretch of North 11th Street is also known as Brewers Row to commemorate the eleven breweries that once operated in the area (now down to three). I didn’t learn until later that there is a rooftop bar with views of Manhattan — I’ll be back for that! Food is available in the bar, including another prix fixe menu, but only for groups of seven-plus.
In the ground-floor restaurant, I was shown to a perfectly good table, with no reservation, but asked if an enticing-looking booth might be free. There was no specific reservation for it, so I was kindly upgraded.
The Brooklyn Brewery mural enlivened my view.
The interior was gracious and high-ceilinged with cast-iron columns supporting pine beams. There were walls of white plaster on one side and scrubbed brick, like that of the exterior, on the other. You walk into this place and immediately start feeling good.
My starter was French onion soup with gruyère cheese and brown bread. I apologize to the kitchen for disturbing the composition before photographing it.
What can I say? I was hungry and the cheesy goodness seduced me before I had a chance to think. Going…
…going…
…gone.
And then, the duck leg confit with carrot rapee and cornichon. Rapee means grated, though stewed baby carrots tournée (turned) provided additional color and nurture; cornichon are small pickles, here sliced into little bites.
And confit means candied, giving my duck leg a one-two punch of fat and sugar.
That candied duck didn’t quack for long. The bill didn’t bother me.
If I gained a couple of pounds that day, it was in a good cause. See how the light caught the swirls of sugary duck fat on the empty plate.
But, as the waiter reminded me, there was more: the $45 prix fixe included dessert. Chocolate mousse cake? Vanilla or pistachio ice cream? Or blackberry sorbet?
After a heavy meal, I prefer dessert to be on the lighter side. The sorbet it was.
Frozen desserts melt fast, so for once, I didn’t feel guilty for consuming with all due speed.
Le Crocodile, I decided, is a special-occasion place. I can’t wait to bring a friend here for his birthday — perhaps even to the Bar Blondeau. I’m sure it’ll be worth the trip.
Getting up to use the facilities gave me a chance to check out the outdoor version of the bar.
The facilities were beautifully decorated with woodcut-like images of female nudes. I’m sure StayFrosty would approve.
After lunch I had time to stroll in a couple of North Williamsburg’s several parks. In addition to the athletic fields of McCarren Park, there are two smaller green attractions along the waterfront. One is Bushwick Inlet Park, named for the small indentation in the riverside just above it.
I spotted something through the trees, a New York icon, something that to me spells romance and adventure (an adventure yet to be checked off the bucket list).
It was the Empire State Building! Or the ESB, as no one but me calls it.
And as the camera swings from midtown to downtown, yes, it’s the Freedom Tower. Or the FT, as no one but me calls it.
It was easy to wander off the path and join the folks at the waterside, all of us drawn by the ESB.
The East River showed off its view of the East Side of Manhattan, sandwiched between the water and the sky.
That shot packed in a lot. Care for a closer look? The Empire State Building, of course, is at far left. Just right of center, dwarfed by two newer towers closer to the lens, is the Art Deco spire of the Chrysler Building, not as tall as the ESB, but of equal or greater quality. That wedge at far right is the Citygroup Center, formerly the Citicorp Tower, and nearly blocking it is the United Nations building.
A little extra love for the two classiest towers in the whole wide world.
The ESB, as Van Gogh might have painted it. A photo-editing accident but I decided to keep it.
A Vincent-ized Chrysler Building, in lavender. That’s the MetLife Building, formerly the Pan Am Building, to the left.
Dogs and their owners were at leisure. This one was on a mission.
He (or she) had been commanded to fetch. But could he (or she) pull it off?
Mission accomplished. That’s a good boy (or girl).
Other folks were out enjoying the magical view. While I love living next to the Hudson River on the West Side, I must admit that my view of New Jersey across the Hudson hardly compares to what North Williamsburg residents enjoy across the East River.
Living in North Williamsburg would be a tempting proposition.
Adjacent to the above is Marsha P. Johnson State Park: named in 2020 for an LGBTQ activist, Stonewall warrior, drag queen, sex worker, and Andy Warhol model.
She said the P in Marsha P. Johnson stood for Pay it no mind.
After her body was found floating in the Hudson — at a time when LGBTQ people were routinely beaten — her death was initially ruled a suicide, despite the massive wound to the back of her head. A sign commemorated the fallen icon: “Please consider what you can do to make this world a safer, more loving, inclusive place.”
Impressive views here too. The kind that attracts tourists. Even a local tourist like myself.
You can go right down to the water’s edge. Swimming here is legal but not advisable, due to dangerous currents.
In the gently filtered midafternoon sunlight, I scrunched down this beach toward the North Williamsburg ferry stop, the wet sand nearly engulfing my urban walking shoes, with the Williamsburg Bridge in the background.
And paused to look back at the view of the East Side.
As well as Lower Manhattan and Stuytown.
At times, not quite able to pierce the smog line, the Empire State Building appeared as it might in a dream. But this is a dream I can relive any time I want, and I’m sure it’ll look a little different each time.
I approached the North 5th Street Pier and Park for the trip home. The ESB was visible…
…and so was the FT.
The sky strove to impress as I approached the pier.
Parting glances for the ESB, the CB…
…and the Willy-b.
I returned to my first glimpse of the new Williamsburg, very impressive, and slightly scary, glowering over the ferry landing. Together, these two towers are called The Edge — North Tower and South Tower.
Our little boat approached.
Through the slightly choppy water, the Sunset Crossing would take me home. Even though, technically, sunset hadn’t yet come.
A kindly NYC Ferry employee, seeing me doing my dirty-window shots, suggested I might get a more direct view at the back of the boat.
He was right, of course.
Previously on the NYC Ferry Restaurant Tour:
Part I: The Wharf (Rockaway Route to Rockaway Park)
Part II: Kimo’s Kitchen (Rockaway Route to Rockaway Beach)
Part III: Big John’s (Rockaway Route to Sunset Park)
Part IV: Salty Dog (South Brooklyn Route to Bay Ridge)
Part V: Crown Cafe (Statue City Cruises to Liberty Island)
Part VI: Pizza Yard (Governors Island Ferry)
Part VII: Lobster Pound (South Brooklyn Route to Red Hook)
Part VIII: Boutros (Atlantic Avenue Route)
Part IX: Celestine (East River Route to DUMBO)
Part X: Diner (East River Route to South Williamsburg)
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