While You’re In The Area: Where To Eat And Drink Before And After Seeing The Dyker Heights Lights

To many (if not most) of those who come to see the Dyker Heights Lights from out of borough — be it from Manhattan or Pennsylvania — as well as many of the Brooklynites who come out to experience the holiday tradition, the neighborhood is foreign and the area’s best restaurants a mystery.

Sure, Southern Brooklynites know where to get the best cannoli, the best Middle Eastern food, and what bar all the locals go to drink at, but for those of you just passing through for the night, here’s where we recommend you go to eat and be warm before and after seeing the Lights.

Where to get a quick hot chocolate and cannoli

• Panino Rustico (8222 17th Avenue), 10am – 10pm
• Tasty Pastry Shoppe (8218 13th Avenue), Weekdays & Sunday: 9am – 8pm, Friday & Saturday: 9am – 9pm, closed Mondays
• Grandma’s Bakery (7208 13th Avenue), 7am – 8:30pm
• Mona Lisa Bakery (7717 13th Avenue), 6am – 8pm
• Villabate Alba (7001 18th Avenue), 7am – 9pm
• Cannoli Plus (6903 New Utrecht Avenue), 7:30am – 5pm
• Aunt Butchies (6901 13th Avenue), 9am to 6pm weekdays, and 10am to 5pm Saturdays, 10am to 4pm Sundays

Where to go for a full meal

• Chef Andrea for classic Italian comfort food in a formal setting
• For classic diner fare with local flare, head over to Vegas Diner
• B&A Pork Store (7818 13th Avenue) is, per its name, a store and market, but the atmosphere is worth not being able to sit and eat, and you can certainly find sufficient ready-made food stuffs to constitute a full meal
• Meze (6601 13th Avenue), come because you like Greek food, stay for the flaming cheese
• Mama Rao (6408 11th Avenue) is a tried and true Italian restaurant. It’s white tablecloth, so prices can be a bit high
• Yemen Cafe (7130 5th Avenue) has another location in Brooklyn Heights
• East Harbor Seafood Palace (714 65th Street) is great dim sum, but like all great dim sum, if you come late in the evening you’ll be getting only good dim sum or a menu’d meal

Where to grab a drink

• Tryst Lounge is within walking distance of the lights, for those getting there by public transit or their feet
• For a dive bar, Homestretch (214 Kings Highway) in Bay Ridge will give you a properly grimy experience
• The Lock Yard (9221 5th Avenue), also in neighboring Bay Ridge, has good eats in addition to a well curated drinks menu.
• The Purple Rose(97217 8th Avenue) is located in Dyker Heights proper. There’s a pool table!
• Indigo Murphy’s (7102 Fort Hamilton Parkway) is a local pub and sports bar.

And while you’re in the area…

• Drive down to the Verrazano Bridge in Bay Ridge (but don’t cross it just for kicks, because that will cost you $15), for a look at what was once the world’s longest suspension bridge.
• Check out Gravesend’s statue house, a year-long neighborhood feature.
• Go grab a book at the Bookmark Shoppe (8415 3rd Avenue), one of southern Brooklyn’s few remaining indy bookstores.
• Drive through Bensonhurst, where the Dyker Heights holiday lighting tradition started. The homes with the best lights aren’t as well charted down here, but you’ll know em when you pass em.