On Nostrand Avenue, This Fall's New Names Already Had Regulars

The corner of Nostrand and St. Marks has a new window counter lined with stools. Across the avenue and a block north, a lease has been signed for a bakery that 404 people have already paid to help build. A short walk up toward Pacific Street, a takeout counter serving whiting sandwiches opened on the first Saturday of October.

Most of the new businesses on this stretch of Nostrand had a following before they had an address. One ran as a pop-up and takeout operation and the other baked out of a Clinton Hill apartment. Both arrived on Nostrand with customers they had already won.

The new names, block by block

Here is the stretch at a glance, from north to south.

The three newcomers sit within a few blocks of each other at the north end. The two older names are farther south, which is why the newcomers chose this avenue.

Bon Pâtés moved from pop-up hours to shop hours

Bon Pâtés is a Haitian patty business that began as a pop-up and takeout operation, according to The Infatuation. It opened its first storefront at 637 Nostrand Avenue, at St Marks Avenue, over Labor Day weekend, as Eater NY reported in its September openings roundup.

The hours tell the story. When the shop opened, Eater listed walk-up service Thursday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., the schedule of a business still running on a pop-up rhythm. The Bon Pâtés website now says the shop is open seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. That's 77 hours a week, up from 20. The opening schedule was four afternoons. The current one covers breakfast through dinner every day.

The space suits those longer hours. The Infatuation describes an airy corner spot with plenty of seating, unlike some of the avenue's other patty counters, where you can take a stool in the window and eat a cod patty while it is still hot. The review recommends the house limeade alongside it. On the menu are beef, herring and spinach patties, and Eater notes that catering and nationwide shipping are still available.

Why a patty shop picked a patty avenue

Opening a patty shop on Nostrand Avenue means opening next to established competition. Puff's Patties at 812 Nostrand and Trinidad Golden Place at 788 Nostrand were both still named as favorites when The Infatuation reviewed Bon Pâtés in October 2026. Earlier Infatuation reviews describe Trinidad Golden Place as a cash-only bakery serving doubles and roti, and Puff's as the source of a coco bread sandwich stacked with oxtail and mac and cheese. Menus change, so treat those as what each shop has been known for, not a promise of today's specials.

Bon Pâtés is adding a different style to the avenue, not copying what's already there. The Infatuation's review says the difference is in the dough:

"What sets these patties apart from a classic Jamaican patty is the dough, which is nearly croissant-like, with lots of flaky layers."

The same review concludes that with Bon Pâtés adding Haitian patties to the mix, "the neighborhood patty scene is better for it."

A business that already knew its customers chose a block where people already walk for patties. Its following came along, and the foot traffic was already there.

Boots Bread raised its money before signing the lease

Boots Bread followed the same path even more clearly, with numbers to show it.

Carla Finley started Apt. 2 Bread in her Clinton Hill apartment in April 2020. She has since teamed up with Megan Wang of Graindead Bread, who began baking after leaving a decade-long corporate career in 2023, and renamed the business Boots Bread. According to the Boots Bread Kickstarter, Apt. 2 Bread ran for six years before this step. Over that time, it held more than 25 pop-ups and built wholesale accounts, bread subscriptions, and a standing market booth.

That history is what made the crowdfunding work. The campaign raised $60,498 against a $50,000 goal from 404 backers and fully funded on September 22. That is 21 percent more than the backers asked for, suggesting many people wanted the bakery to exist before it had a location.

The address came next. Eater NY reported on October 16 that Boots Bread had signed a lease at 638 Nostrand Avenue, near Dean Street, with an opening expected in early 2027. That puts it across the avenue from Bon Pâtés.

The Kickstarter and Eater lay out what the space is meant to be:

• A takeaway-only bakery, so plan to carry your bread home instead of staying to eat
• Focaccia, milk breads, loaves and cinnamon rolls
• A biscuit sandwich and coffee
• Baking classes and bread-art workshops
• A partnership with a local CSA

The classes and the CSA partnership matter for neighbors. They make the space somewhere you can learn and pick up produce, not only a bread counter.

Brooklyn Surf & Soul fills the north end

The newest of the three opened Saturday, October 3, at 602 Nostrand Avenue, near Pacific Street. Eater NY's October openings list describes Brooklyn Surf & Soul as a takeout spot serving seafood and soul food. The menu includes shrimp po' boys, whiting sandwiches, shrimp and grits, seafood boils and fried chicken.

Brooklyn Surf & Soul offers a full takeout meal at the Atlantic end of the corridor, a few blocks from a patty counter now open until 8 p.m. and a bakery coming in a few months. Between Pacific and St Marks, residents can now pick up seafood for dinner, a patty in the morning, and, starting next year, a loaf for the weekend.

What changes before early 2027

The stretch has a short timeline. Bon Pâtés is already on a seven-day schedule. Brooklyn Surf & Soul is in its first month. Boots Bread's lease is signed, the funding is in, and Eater's early 2027 estimate is the date to watch.

Boots Bread, a bakery that has spent six years selling at pop-ups, through subscriptions, and at a market booth, will sell from a fixed counter for the first time. If it follows Bon Pâtés, the hours will be the thing to watch. Bon Pâtés went from four afternoons a week to every day within weeks of opening.

A few dates elsewhere in Crown Heights fall in the same stretch of weeks, for anyone who wants to pair a patty run with something else:

1. October 30: Weeksville Heritage Center hosts a free Watch Night with the Black Indie Collective at 158 Buffalo Avenue. A second Watch Night, with Rada Studio, follows on November 12.
2. November 7: The Brooklyn Children's Museum holds its Día de los Muertos program. Its Diwali celebration follows on November 12.
3. November 19: Weeksville's free Keeping Memories oral-history series holds its next conversation.
4. Through January 31, 2027: The Brooklyn Museum's Art of Manga exhibition, with more than 600 drawings, stays on view.

Bon Pâtés opens at 9 a.m. every day, so a patty and limeade at the St Marks corner fits before any of them.

If you live near this part of Nostrand and want to know what new shops opening on your blocks might mean for your own home, Darrell Williams is glad to walk through it with you over coffee or a patty. Schedule a Consultation whenever the timing feels right.