An auspicious beginning for Red Hook’s Lundy revival, by Katherine Rivard

“2 IN LUNDY FAMILY SLAIN IN BURGLARY,” read a front-page headline of The New York Times on September 19, 1975. The victims were the sister and brother-in-law of Frederick William Irving Lundy, the founder of the famed Lundy Brothers Restaurant, and their deaths marked the beginning of the end for the historic restaurant. Lundy’s is no longer a household name in the borough, but the recent opening of a new iteration of the restaurant in Red Hook is reviving the memory of the original restaurant’s glory, while also bringing someplace special to the neighborhood.

Lundy’s first opened in Sheepshead Bay in 1926. The restaurant was a hit from the start, famous for its shore dinner which included your choice of seafood cocktail, steamed clams, half a broiled lobster, half a broiled chicken, potatoes, a vegetable, dessert, and coffee or tea. Within a few years, it moved into its better known location—a long stuccoed building on Emmons Avenue between E 19th Street and Ocean Ave. The self-proclaimed world’s largest restaurant was capable of seating 2,800 people in an evening and indeed, and sometimes served as many as 10,000 diners in a day. For decades, Lundy’s was one of Brooklyn’s most well-known restaurants for families and couples of every socioeconomic class.

Despite its renown, the restaurant was also host to myriad challenges and scandals over the years. There was the whisky raid in 1935 (government agents found about five gallons of whisky that hadn’t been taxed), the partial collapse of the ceiling onto diners in 1937 (“There was much commotion among the diners for a few minutes as the injured were taken to another part of the restaurant and the wing closed off, but service for the 350 persons in the wing was quickly resumed at other tables,” reported The New York Times), and the failed health inspection of 1973 (apparently the restaurant was as popular with mice and cockroaches as it was with Brooklyn families). After several robberies, the restaurant’s owner reportedly became a recluse, and the restaurant closed in 1979, two years after he passed away.

In 1995, Lundy’s had a short-lived revival. Part of the original restaurant was reopened by a restaurant group, and according to the reviews, it was bustling, at least at the start. A second location was even temporarily opened in Times Square, but by 2007, both were gone.
Today, the building is landmarked, but visibly dated. The back half is a gourmet grocery store, many of the products catering to the neighborhood’s Russian-speaking residents. Above freezers filled with frozen Ukrainian dumplings and currants are old photos of the restaurant from the middle of last century. The front houses a Turkish cafe and a hibachi restaurant. Visiting Sheepshead Bay, I walked alongside the waterfront opposite the landmarked site and passed a young couple. “It smells like shit,” the boy said, looking at the bay as they hurried past.

Now in Red Hook!
A new Lundy’s opened across the street from Ikea in Red Hook this past January. The restaurant’s charm and elegance contrast its industrial surroundings. Past a beautifully maintained old wooden bar and tiled floors is a bandstand and the entrance to the dining room, which is filled with tables covered in white tablecloths and chairs draped in crushed velvet covers. Outside, a patio has recently opened. Old-timey tunes like Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles are reliably played, and the menu includes all of the original favorites.

As soon as you’re seated, salty biscuits the size of half dollars are set in front of you, still warm and crumbly, alongside a mini pot of softened butter. The menu includes a take on the famous shore dinner: the Lundy’s clam “bisque,” a small salad, an entree (roast chicken, the catch of the day, or a ½ broiled lobster), sides (mashed potatoes and a seasonal vegetable), a mini butterscotch sundae, and coffee or tea, for $40-90 dollars depending on your entree choice and that day’s market price for the seafood. Other favorites on the menu: baked clams, served on a tray filled with butter and a couple baguette slices for dipping, though sometimes left with dangerous bits of shell shards; Rhode Island style calamari, best eaten quickly to enjoy the mix of crispy fried coating and vinegary butter; and the mini huckleberry pie, large enough to serve two people and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Despite the classic menu and doting service, The New Yorker recently intuited what most visitors to the restaurant will sense: “…what Lundy’s is now is arguably a different restaurant entirely, not so much a revival as an homage, a small-town cover band playing someone else’s hits.” In the late ‘60s, the first edition of the AIA Guide to New York City described Lundy’s as “big, brash, noisy, crowded …. [and] a special treat for anyone in New York.” On a recent evening, I was the only patron left in the restaurant by 7:15 p.m., as I sipped a perfectly crafted Vesper martini as part of Monday’s all night happy hour special. Although the new Lundy’s is unlikely to ever draw crowds like the original, it does a hell of a job keeping the original flavors alive and creating a new place for Red Hook residents to enjoy some seafood and make memories.

Addendum:

Lundy’s is at the corner of Dwight and Beard Streets, includes among past tenants Lillie’s Bar and Rocky Sullivans. The red draped stage that is at the back of the front room was used by both establishments to provide music, and that policy is continued by Lundy’s. On Monday, July 14th at 6 pm, they will be presenting the Luna Sisters, who play jazz standards, jump blues and sultry ballads.

Sandra Snyder, who opened the place along with her husband Mark, told a story about some obstacles they faced before opening. In fact, they were close to backing off when they heard that a potential new operator was planning to completely gut the place.
Destruction of the fabled bar was incentive to keep going with the project, and the saving of some well loved Red Hook history. (photos by George Fiala)