Eateries become B'klyn drawing cards

That's how the 2011 Michelin Guide for New York describes the birth of Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare, the first Brooklyn restaurant to receive the guide's coveted two-star rating. The honor makes the Boerum Hill location, where Mr. Ramirez is head chef, the city's highest-rated eatery outside of Manhattan.

“Most people who are really into food focus on Manhattan,” says Moe Issa, co-owner of the prix-fixe restaurant, which is situated above the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station.

Increasingly, though, many foodies are venturing to Brooklyn. Fed by cheaper rents that have lured residents and businesses, a surge in housing and retail development, and a burgeoning arts and culture scene, national and even international interest in Brooklyn-based eateries is soaring, drawing waves of new visitors to neighborhoods from Bay Ridge to Vinegar Hill.

The borough has reached a “culinary tipping point,'' says Tim Zagat, co-founder and chief executive of Zagat Survey. “Tourists—if they care about food—they're talking about going to Brooklyn.''

A bumper crop

As proof of the borough's ascendency, the 2011 Zagat Survey includes 223 Brooklyn restaurants. That is nearly as many as the 250 city eateries outside of Manhattan that the guide listed in 2004. More important, in the current listings, Brooklyn eateries posted top ratings in eight categories: barbecue, Chinese, deli, Middle Eastern, pizza, Southern, steak and Turkish.

In another telling sign, Zagat added a 112-page Brooklyn restaurant guide to its list of publications five years ago.

While Michelin remains far more Manhattan-centric, its two-star rating for Brooklyn Fare put that restaurant in rare company, making it one of only 10 in the entire city to achieve that rank. In fact, until this year, Michelin gave Brooklyn just two stars in total: one for Saul Restaurant in Boerum Hill and another for Williamsburg's Peter Luger Steak House. Both of them won single stars again this year, as did 41 others in the city, including two other Brooklynites: Dressler in Williamsburg, and The River Café in Dumbo.

In a further boost to the city's most populous borough, Michelin lauded a meal at its two-star winner as “the kind of experience that epitomizes Brooklyn's blazing new culture scene.”

International attention

That kind of write-up is turning heads around the world. Mr. Issa estimates that 80% of the calls to his restaurant in recent weeks have come from outside the United States. Not bad for an eatery at which every one of its 18 places at the table—located in the back of what is primarily a grocery store—goes for $185. The restaurant is booked solid through March 2011.

“We're in the middle of an area that's being developed, and there are not many people living here,” Mr. Issa says. “But people will travel for good food.”

Bobby Daquara has made the same discovery. The co-owner of Greenhouse Cafe in Bay Ridge has registered a marked increase in the number of diners streaming in from outside the neighborhood. That's no mean feat, given that the eatery is located at the third-to-last stop in Brooklyn on the R train.

“A chef that's got anything going on can bring people into Brooklyn,” Mr. Daquara says.

To help make that happen, he has participated in NYC Restaurant Week—an event promoted by the city's tourism arm, NYC & Company—in each of the past five years.

“We get phone calls from other states,” Mr. Daquara says. “People go to NYC & Company's website, and they see what's going on.”

While Brooklyn remains far behind Manhattan as a draw for diners, there's no doubt that it's gaining on its rival, especially among trendier patrons.

“There are a lot of places in Brooklyn that are really hip and hot,” Mr. Zagat says. “And young people from around the world have a wonderful way of figuring out where they are.”