"Closed for alterations; under new management." That was the sign Peter and David Hong hung on the door of Plymouth Cafe at 90 Henry Street after they sold their last sandwich on June 15. It ended 42 years of burgers, smoothies, and school-day stops at the corner of Pineapple Street. The note was both a farewell and a forecast. Three months later, the new management has a name. It comes from Amagansett.
This year Brooklyn Heights has been losing long-running corner businesses and replacing them with operators who already have reputations elsewhere: a Hamptons Caribbean counter, a cookbook author's grocery, and a Danny Meyer restaurant. What sets this turnover apart is how each newcomer describes itself. None of them is pitching a destination. Each one says it wants to be the kind of place the neighborhood just lost. Whether they manage it will decide what running errands on Henry and Montague Streets looks like for the next decade.
Two Henry Street Corners, Two Different Exits
The summer's two biggest closings sat almost within sight of each other, but they ended for different reasons.
Plymouth Cafe closed because its owners retired. Peter Hong, 65, told the Brooklyn Eagle he might travel. He also owns the building, and he said a new food-oriented business was moving in, though he did not know exactly what it had planned. "Maybe a salad bar or restaurant," he said. The space has served that corner for a long time. Before the Hongs, it was another deli also known as Plymouth Deli, and its owner at the time got a license to sell beer there in 1944. Fascati Pizza, two doors north on Henry Street, has been open since 1971. "I remember when the pizza owner next door was a little kid," Hong said.
Peas N' Pickles, known more recently as All in One Deli Mart, closed at 79 Henry Street and Pineapple Walk after more than 30 years. The owners said rising costs for goods, property taxes, and post-pandemic rent had made the business unsustainable. Owner Minki Lee had no future plans when the Eagle reported the closing in late July.
A few blocks south, the Walgreens at 120 Court Street and Atlantic Avenue closed at noon on June 4. That left the neighborhood without a Walgreens, and prescriptions moved to the store at 386 Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn.
Put together, the Heights lost a sandwich counter, a corner grocery, and a pharmacy in about eight weeks. The businesses opening or announced since then are what will fill those roles, if anything does.
The Incoming Names Already Have Followings
Start with Doubles. On September 22, the Brooklyn Heights Dispatch reported that the Caribbean counter from the Hamptons has filed plans for 90 Henry Street at Pineapple Street. The Bennett brothers opened the original Doubles in Amagansett in 2022 and later added a Sag Harbor location. Henry Street would be their first permanent location in New York City. The Dispatch describes it as a quick-service, casual counter, which is close to what the Hongs ran. At the Hamptons locations, the signature doubles cost $15.50: curried chickpeas on two house-made fried baras with cucumber relish, tamarind and mango chutney, green seasoning, and pepper sauce. The menus there also offer a chickpea roti, a breakfast roti, a jerk chicken sandwich, and smoothies. A permit newsletter noted it had not opened as of September 1, and no opening date has been announced.
Doubles is the second Caribbean-inspired arrival in the Heights this year. On June 10, Fireboat opened at Brooklyn Bridge Park's Pier 6, near Columbia Street. It took over from Pilot and serves food and drinks aboard a retired FDNY fireboat.
On Montague Street, Alison Roman is building a Brooklyn outpost of First Bloom, her grocery and café that started in the Catskills. The plan includes a small café and coffee bar alongside a retail floor. In May, neighbors guessed it would take the former Bentley's shoe store at 144 Montague Street. A September permit newsletter reported permits for a countertop, finishes, and plumbing in the below-street-level space there. Roman has not announced the address herself, and the Montague Street BID directory also lists Brooklyn Poets at 144 Montague. In her September 18 newsletter, she wrote that First Bloom Brooklyn "isn't open yet" and that she expects to welcome customers "later this year."
The newcomers that have already opened are smaller. Frenzie opened August 13 at 129 Atlantic Avenue. It is a wine bar and pizza restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating, and it serves late.
The biggest name has the longest wait. Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group plans a full-service restaurant on the ground floor of the former Hotel Bossert at 98 Montague Street, with an opening planned for 2028. In mid-September, Marriott and developer SomeraRoad announced that the 14-story landmark will become Ritz-Carlton Residences, Brooklyn Heights, with 61 condominiums. The Eagle's coverage of that announcement confirms the restaurant is still planned for 2028. The Bossert's ballroom, lobby bar, and Marine Roof Supper Club were once the neighborhood's gathering spots. The Brooklyn Dodgers celebrated there after winning the 1955 World Series. The building has been closed since the Jehovah's Witnesses left in 2012.
What Each One Says It Wants to Be
Here the new arrivals start to sound alike. Roman told her newsletter readers she wanted the store to stay low-key. "We're catering to a neighborhood of real people, not the internet," she wrote. Doubles is setting up a casual counter on a corner that has sold quick meals for more than 80 years. The Bossert restaurant goes into a building whose dining rooms once served as Brooklyn Heights' shared living room.
Local groups have been receptive. Lara Birnback of the Brooklyn Heights Association welcomed Roman in a statement to the Eagle. Kate Chura, executive director of the Montague Street Business Improvement District, described the street's recent run of openings this way: "Montague Street has really come back to life with a fresh breeze of new restaurants and shops of quality and diversity."
The difference from before is that these businesses arrive with reputations. The Hongs, and the families behind Peas N' Pickles, became institutions over decades of daily visits. Doubles, First Bloom, and Union Square Hospitality Group arrive already known, and they will have to earn the everyday habit afterward. The places they are replacing did it in the opposite order.
Where Each Storefront Stands
Address | Previous occupant | Incoming | Status as of September 22, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
90 Henry St. at Pineapple St. | Plymouth Cafe, closed June 15 | Doubles | Plans filed, no opening date |
144 Montague St., lower level | Bentley's Shoes | First Bloom, per a permit newsletter; address unconfirmed by Roman | Permits reported, owner expects "later this year" |
129 Atlantic Ave. | Not reported | Frenzie | Open since August 13 |
Pier 6, Brooklyn Bridge Park | Pilot | Fireboat | Open since June 10 |
98 Montague St. | Hotel Bossert, closed since 2012 | Union Square Hospitality Group restaurant | Planned for 2028 |
79 Henry St. at Pineapple Walk | Peas N' Pickles / All in One Deli Mart | None named | Closed, no successor reported |
120 Court St. at Atlantic Ave. | Walgreens, closed June 4 | None named | Closed, no successor reported |
The Gaps That Remain
The table shows who has filled which gaps. The pharmacy has not been replaced. The corner grocery at 79 Henry has no named successor, and Eater's September closings roundup still listed it as permanently closed. First Bloom will sell retail groceries, so it may take on part of that role on Montague Street. That depends on the store opening and on how its shelves are stocked.
Not every Heights storefront changes hands quickly. In August the Eagle reported on 112 Montague Street, which has been empty for about 14 years, and called it the neighborhood's most stubborn storefront. Montague has had a strong run of openings, but that vacancy has outlasted all of them.
The One Promenade Date on This Fall's Calendar
Construction under the Promenade is still years off. The city's plan to rehabilitate BQE Central covers about 1.5 miles between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street, including the triple cantilever beneath the Promenade. It keeps the highway at two lanes in each direction and aims to extend the structure's life by about 40 years. NYC DOT's project page puts construction at 2029 to 2040. The mayor's announcement described a 2030 start and a roughly 10-year duration. DOT says it will keep portions of the Promenade open throughout construction "to the extent feasible."
Environmental review and public comment are happening this fall. The main point of contention is a set of temporary bypass structures over Furman Street and near the Brooklyn Bridge approach. Local officials and residents have raised concerns about how they could affect nearby homes, Brooklyn Bridge Park, and the bridge. Brooklyn Heights Association representatives support repairing the cantilever but object to reviving the temporary-highway concept. DOT has scheduled three sessions:
- October 6: virtual Q&A
- October 13: pop-up office hours at the Brooklyn Heights Library, 286 Cadman Plaza West
- October 22: virtual Q&A
The library session is the only one held in person. It sits a few minutes' walk from the Henry Street corners, where the other change in the neighborhood is taking place.
Staying Close to What Changes
A neighborhood's value rests partly on its streets. How fast a corner space refills, who fills it, and how long those businesses stay all shape daily life in the Heights. If you are thinking about your own home in Brooklyn Heights, or about a move between New York and California, Guènaël Oristel offers calm, discreet advice based on how you want to live, block by block. Begin the Conversation.
