Forgotten New York

NARROWS COFFEE SHOP, Bay Ridge

SADLY the Narrows Coffee Shop closed in 2020, and I only had the pleasure of eating there once. At #10001 4th Avenue, it’s one of a handful of addresses in Brooklyn with a 5-digit house number, as Bay Ridge has a 100th and 101st Street. Other 5-digit house numbers can be found in Brooklyn, but they’re as far away from Bay Ridge as they can be in Brooklyn, way out in Canarsie, where you will find East 100th through 108th Streets.

The Narrows Coffee Shop opened in 1966 and found almost immediate competition from the Tiffany Diner, which was across the street at 4th Avenue and 99th Street and opened in 1968. The Narrows outlasted the Tiffany, though, which closed in 2007 and was replaced by a TD Bank. Saturdays were shopping days in my household and when shopping and housework were done, father, mother, grandmother and I would frequent a number of area restaurants on 86th Street including the Green Tea Room. Tiffany was in the rotation, so I must have eaten there dozens of times.

10001 4th Avenue in 1940. A grocery shop would occupy the ground floor where the Narrows Coffee Shop would open 26 years later.

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9/26/22

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