Williamsburg Latke Deli Crawl: Sunday Counter Route

Running a Williamsburg latke deli crawl on a Sunday afternoon or a lively Thursday evening lets you experience two completely distinct chapters of Brooklyn's Jewish culinary history within a twenty-minute walk. Two studio ceramicists working near the East River waterfront and their cousin visiting from Chicago recently traced a south-to-north route starting along Lee Avenue's traditional heimish takeout counters before crossing Broadway toward Havemeyer Street and Bedford Avenue. South of the Williamsburg Bridge approach, old-world steam-table kitchens fry black-pepper-flecked russet cakes alongside towering pans of caramelized potato kugel, while the converted brick storefronts further north experiment with duck-fat griddles, root-vegetable shreds, and house-cured fish toppings. Planning the walk for Sunday or Thursday ensures both halves of the neighborhood are firing their fryers at full tilt.

South Williamsburg's culinary rhythm revolves around heimish—meaning homestyle, deeply traditional Eastern European—delicatessen counters where recipes rarely bend to passing food trends. Behind the fogged glass cases along Lee and Roebling avenues, cooks grate starchy russets into fine, velvety batters seasoned generously with grated raw onion, eggs, and coarse black pepper. Fried in deep skillets of neutral oil until the outer shell blisters into dark amber bubbles, these palm-sized rounds stay remarkably moist inside so they can sit on heated metal trays without drying out.

Walk fifteen minutes north past Broadway into the Northside blocks around Havemeyer, Grand, and Bedford streets, and a younger wave of Brooklyn delicatessen cafes reimagines the potato pancake with restaurant-style plating. Here, chefs shred unpeeled red-skinned potatoes, celery root, or sweet potatoes alongside classic russets, pressing the loose strands onto cast-iron planchas greased with rendered duck fat or clarified butter. The resulting pancakes are wider, flatter, and ultra-crisp from edge to center, built to hold bright modernist garnishes like fermented chili honey, charred scallion sour cream, and pastrami-spiced salmon.

Because the traditional kosher kitchens along Lee Avenue close completely from Friday mid-afternoon through Saturday night for the Sabbath, scheduling your Williamsburg crawl on a Sunday or a Thursday afternoon is essential if you want the full south-to-north contrast. Thursday late afternoons bring a particularly electric atmosphere to the southern blocks, as local families fill the bakeries and delicatessens to stock up on hot potato latkes, overnight-baked yapchik, and braided challah loaves. Step up to the counter ready to point and order briskly, asking for two fresh potato latkes wrapped in butcher paper with a side cup of rich mushroom-barley gravy.

From Lee Avenue, walk north under the thundering steel approaches of the Williamsburg Bridge and cross Washington Plaza into the busier cafe corridors around Grand Street and Bedford Avenue. At your second stop, claim a counter stool at a contemporary appetizing-and-deli shop where orders are fried to order in individual carbon-steel pans. Finish the route near Lorimer Street or McCarren Park at a neighborhood Eastern European pierogi-and-deli counter, where golden potato pancakes arrive alongside warm sauerkraut, caramelized onions, and dill-flecked smetana.

One of the smartest moves on a Brooklyn deli crawl is ordering a corner slice of baked potato kugel right alongside your skillet-fried latke at the first stop. Both dishes rely on grated potatoes, onions, eggs, and oil, yet baking the mixture in a deep cast-iron pan for hours creates a mahogany, crackling top crust over a dense, pudding-soft interior that contrasts wonderfully with a thin pan-fried pancake. Dipping alternating forkfuls of crisp latke and rich kugel into warm beef gravy or tangy applesauce highlights how cooking method alone transforms identical pantry ingredients.

When you reach the Northside appetizing counters, pivot toward high-acid toppings that brighten the rich frying fats. Ask for house-made green apple and horseradish relish, pickled mustard seeds, or a side dish of wine-pickled herring fillets with sliced red onions. For drinks, skip sugary bottled juices and pair the savory potato courses with dry, tart house-fermented kvass, ginger-spiked seltzer, or small glasses of cold borscht crowned with a swirl of sour cream and fresh dill fronds.

Crossing between South Williamsburg's traditional takeout corridors and the Northside's sit-down cafes is much smoother when you lay out your sequence in the Karpo APP before leaving the Marcy Avenue or Bedford Avenue subway stops. Inside the Karpo APP, you can filter Brooklyn delicatessens and appetizing counters by neighborhood pocket, compare walk-up counter service against heated backyard or indoor booth seating, and save backup options along Metropolitan Avenue. If a popular Northside brunch counter has a long sidewalk wait on a sunny Sunday, checking your saved route in the Karpo APP lets you pivot to a spacious counter two blocks east toward Graham Avenue.

Use the stretches between dining stops to take in the dramatic architectural shifts across the neighborhood. After leaving Lee Avenue, pause near the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge to watch elevated subway trains rattle across the steel truss toward Manhattan, then stroll west to the East River waterfront paths at Domino Park. The breezy riverfront boardwalk, framed by preserved brick refinery chimneys and steel gantry cranes, offers sunny wooden benches where you can unroll a paper parcel of warm potato pancakes before walking north toward the tree-shaded lawns of McCarren Park.

To keep your pace light across three Brooklyn stops, resist the temptation to load your tray with dense boiled bagels, heavy cholent stews, or oversized cinnamon babka loaves at the opening counter. Those yeast-risen pastries and slow-cooked bean pots are best bought wrapped for home on your way back to the subway, whereas fried potato latkes demand immediate attention while their edges still snap. If a counter displays two trays of latkes—one pale and stacked three layers deep, the other dark-rimmed in a single layer—always point to the single-layer pan, where air circulation keeps the bottoms crisp.

Carry a small stack of extra paper napkins and a reusable tote bag if you plan to browse the specialty grocer shelves along Lee Avenue or Grand Street along the way. Many South Williamsburg delicatessens sell small tubs of house-whipped horseradish, pickled watermelon rind, and cinnamon-spiced applesauce by weight, making it easy to assemble a custom condiment kit for a waterfront bench picnic. Sharing a single order at each stop leaves plenty of room to compare every crust texture from Division Avenue all the way up to McCarren Park.