Cafe Gitane Brooklyn

What it is

The Brooklyn cafe opened in late August 2018 on a quiet corner of Vinegar Hill, next door to Vinegar Hill House and a short walk from DUMBO. It is small — roughly ten tables — with shiplap panelling, a turntable, and vintage objects and teapots tucked into the framing. Reviewers reliably describe it as a cafe that feels older than it is.

The menu is shorter than the original's and weighted towards brunch and snacks: avocado toast, an egg and merguez sandwich, carrot salad, beet and cheese salad, a veggie burger, the smoked trout salad, couscous. Beer and wine are served. Vegetarian and vegan options are on the menu. Reservations are not taken.

What to order

The Brooklyn kitchen runs a compressed version of the Nolita menu, so the choice is narrower and the hit rate is higher. Three things are worth travelling for.

The avocado toast, obviously, and it is the same dish that started the whole thing — mashed rather than sliced, lemon, olive oil, red chilli flakes, no egg unless you ask. If you have only ever eaten the version that spread everywhere afterwards, the plainness is the surprise.

The smoked trout salad, which turns up in review after review as the thing people did not expect to like as much as they did.

The couscous, when it is on. This is the Casablanca end of the kitchen and the dish that carries most of Luc Lévy's actual upbringing.

Beyond that: the egg and merguez sandwich, carrot salad, the beet and cheese salad, and a veggie burger that regulars mention more often than you would expect. Beer and wine are served. Vegetarian and vegan options are on the menu, though the range is narrower than the original's.

Practical details

• Address: 70 Hudson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11201 (Vinegar Hill)
• Neighbourhood: Vinegar Hill, on the eastern edge of DUMBO
• Reservations: not accepted — seating fills quickly at weekend peak, so arrive early
• Nearest subway: F to York Street, or A/C to High Street
• Size: around ten tables, plus outdoor seating in season
• Style: table service, cash and cards, beer and wine

Published hours have varied considerably over the years — early reporting had it closing at 6pm most nights with later hours on Friday and Saturday, and listings since have shown everything from a 9am–6pm daily pattern to 10am–10pm. That spread is exactly why it is worth checking before you go rather than trusting any single listing, including this one.

Getting there, and when to go

Vinegar Hill is small and easy to miss. From the F at York Street it is about a seven-minute walk east; from the A/C at High Street, slightly longer. The approach is the good part — a few blocks of Belgian-block paving and low nineteenth-century houses that feel abruptly unlike the rest of Brooklyn.

Weekday mid-morning is the version of this cafe most like the Mott Street of 1994: quiet, unhurried, largely locals. Weekend brunch is the busiest stretch and the one where the no-reservations policy bites. If you are making a specific trip for it, go on a weekday.

How it compares to Mott Street

It is quieter. Vinegar Hill is a small residential pocket of cobblestone and low buildings, well off the tourist path, and the cafe is rarely crowded in the way the Nolita room was permanently crowded. Regulars tend to describe it as a neighbourhood place rather than a destination — which is roughly what Mott Street was in 1994, before the write-up.

The food overlaps but is not identical: the shorter menu drops most of the dinner plates. If you are coming specifically for the avocado toast, the couscous or the smoked trout, you will find them.

What else is nearby

Vinegar Hill House is immediately next door and takes bookings, which the cafe does not; the two have long worked as overflow for one another. The Commandant's House, an early-nineteenth-century landmark, is around the corner. DUMBO and the Brooklyn Bridge waterfront are a ten-minute walk west.

More on the wider story: the Mott Street history and the menu in full.