Tom’s Restaurant

Julie Moffatt (Propsect Park Alliance)

Tom’s matters because of the people who eat there, the feeling of diversity, the eclectic appearance, the welcoming spirit, and the great breakfasts.

Jake Barton

This 1936 all original restaurant has witnessed and survived the full narrative of Brooklyn’s development. It has stood through Brooklyn’s hard times in the depression, prosperous days in the 50s, urban riots and decay in the 70s and the current gentrification and renewal of Prospect Heights and the surrounding communities. Gus, the owner who took over from the original Tom, greets all customers with the grace and care of a benevolent town mayor, and the restaurant feels like home for all who enter, from police officers to yuppies, hip hop kids to Rastas. It represents the neighborhood at its best, where everyone who is different can shed their conflicts for a moment, and agree with great civility that the lime rickeys and banana walnut pancakes kick ass.

Ivan Schonfeld

Tom’s is an old Brooklyn diner that is very much today how it was 60 years ago. Walking in is like stepping back in time, and not in a phony, reconstructed kind of way. The place closes at 4:30 p.m. every day and is closed every Sunday. The staff is super friendly and the menu contains items not often seen today like cherry lime rickeys. The walls are covered with photos that have been put up through the years. The diner is what Suzanne Vega wrote about in her big hit “Tom’s Diner,” which became a worldwide hit when it was remixed by DNA in 1990. During neighborhood riots in the late 1960s, the community came together to form a human chain around the restaurant to protect it.