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Bedford-Stuyvesant, or Bed-Stuy as everyone calls it, wasn’t the first place that I lived in Brooklyn—that was East Williamsburg, then Crown Heights, then the other side of Crown Heights—but it’s the place where, once I landed, I stuck. I am lucky to live in a brownstone, in a third-floor walkup that has seen way more than I have; I know my neighbors, some of whom have lived here for fifty years, and am finally a regular at a bar and coffee shop (name-checks on those in a bit). It’s an easy area to love as a visitor: In the summer, the streets of Bed-Stuy shut down for block parties, when the fire hydrants really are twisted open to cascade upon sweaty, smiling neighbors, and on even the most frigid winter nights, the windows of wine bars are fogged up with the steam of gossip and gabbing among friends.

We love our stoops, whenever it’s warm enough to sit on them—perhaps no surprise, since these design elements dominate the neighborhood. In 2019 it was reported that Bed-Stuy had the largest collection of preserved Victorian architecture in the US, with over 8,000 buildings built before 1900. Like all of New York, and certainly Brooklyn, Bed-Stuy has changed a lot since these grand homes were built in the late 1800s. The culture, though—much of which should be credited to the Black community that began laying roots here in the 1930s—is deeply embedded.

Now, whether you want to grab a burger at a Thai-American diner, scoop a Tex-Czech grab-and-go pastry, or catch a Wednesday night drag show, Bed-Stuy has it—and seemingly more and more with every passing week. There are also parks for lounging, book shops for browsing and the odd community-garden concert that will cause you to forget the rest of your plans.

While Bed-Stuy is not usually the first stop for out-of-towners, what with Williamsburg and Dumbo dominating that scene, it’s a huge neighborhood, offering a glimpse of local life that is well worthy of your precious vacation days as well. To help you unearth the best of it, this is my guide to Bed-Stuy. It’s roughly organized from East to West because, in a neighborhood that takes over 30 minutes to walk across, you could spend an entire day on just one side. My suggestion? Drop these places on your map, then zig-zag between as many of them as you have time for—with a willingness to find what you find along the way.

East Bed-Stuy

If you’re on Classon Avenue, the dividing line between Clinton Hill and Bed-Stuy, you’re already in a hotspot for food, drink, and even nightlife. From here to Herbert Von King park, which I’m using as the East to West middle-mark, you’ve also got Franklin, Bedford, Nostrand, and Marcy avenues, and leafy brownstone-lined streets in between.