Why Crow Hill?

That’s always the first question that we are asked… For us Crow Hill is not just a neighborhood, it’s also a history, a promise, and an obligation to those who preceded us.

The very rich history of Crow Hill begins in the early 1600’s when the land was purchased from Native Americans, with the permission of then Governor Francis Lovelace, for beer and rifles among other items. Unlike the purchase of Manhattan, these particular Native Americans did not hold legal title to the land, and the colonists were swindled…needless to say, Brooklyn’s reputation as a place not for the faint of heart was forever cemented.

Settled or squatted in the 1830’s by freed slaves who mostly worked in Manhattan’s fish and meat markets, Crow Hill was home to hard working folks had to walk to work every day because the Atlantic Avenue stagecoach was designated for whites only.  A reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle once wrote that Crow Hill was the safe haven for “coloreds” who were not welcome in Manhattan.

In 1840’s the neighborhood became the birthplace of the first Black woman doctor in New York State, the site of the Crow Hill Penitentiary (later to become Brooklyn Prep, now part of property occupied by Medgar Evers College), home to a host of thriving businesses, and one of the largest communities of Black wealth in Brooklyn. 

In the 1850’s the city of Brooklyn created a street grid which resulted in the creation of Eastern Parkway and the destruction of significant portions of Crow Hill. This along with the expansion of a mass-transit system resulted in the demise of the villages of central Brooklyn to make way for the new spacious homes and townhouses that were constructed for the City’s wealthy elite. These new homes were marketed to newcomers as Crown Heights.

Crow Hill Bistro is about the polar opposites of Crow Hill and Crown Heights, comfort food and elegance, poverty and unyielding hope, forgotten pasts and uncharted futures…