In 1930, Hassan Halaby opened a storefront bakery on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn to make Middle Eastern pita and lavash for the community around it. Nearly a century later the Damascus Bread & Pastry Shop is still at 195 Atlantic Avenue, still family-operated — the original shop is run by Dennis Halaby — and still doing the thing it was opened to do. Very little else on this stretch of Atlantic Avenue can make that claim, which is exactly why the shop is worth a deliberate visit rather than an accidental one.
This is a bakery that keeps daytime hours on a street that has changed around it, and the good trays go early. Ask Karpo what time to get to Atlantic Avenue today and what else on the block is still open.
Atlantic Avenue used to be a Levantine high street
For most of the twentieth century this corridor was the centre of Syrian and Lebanese Brooklyn — bakeries, spice merchants, grocers and importers packed along a few blocks, serving a community that had settled here in waves from the 1890s onward. Much of that has thinned out. Rents rose, the community dispersed south and east, and the avenue filled with furniture showrooms and restaurants aimed at a different customer.
Damascus is one of the survivors, and understanding that changes how you should use the visit. It is not a curiosity or a themed shop. It is the working remainder of a food culture that built this street, still selling the same staples across the same counter, and the correct way to honour that is to buy a normal amount of ordinary bread rather than to photograph the window.
Bread first, pastry second
The name says bread and pastry in that order and the order is correct. The foundation of the business is flat bread: pita, which needs no introduction, and lavash, the thinner, softer sheet bread that is better than pita for wrapping and worse for stuffing. Both are made at volume and both are dramatically better within a day of baking than they are after three.
The pastry case is the second half and it is where the shop shows off. Expect syrup-soaked layered pastries, nut-filled rolls, and savoury turnovers — spinach, cheese and meat — that are a lunch rather than a snack. Buying two of each and eating them on a bench somewhere is the standard local approach and does not cost much.
The single best purchase, if you are going to cook, is a large bag of fresh pita and a container of something to put in it. The shop sits inside a neighbourhood where you can complete the meal within a few minutes' walk, which is the whole point of a bakery on a commercial street.
Why bread from a real bakery is different
Supermarket pita is made to survive a distribution chain, which means additives, a longer shelf life and a texture that never quite softens. Bread from a shop that bakes for its own counter is made to be eaten today. The pocket opens cleanly, it steams when you tear it, and it goes stale honestly within two days instead of staying artificially pliable for two weeks.
That is the entire argument for the trip, and it is the same argument for any bakery of this kind anywhere. The difference is that this one has been making the same case on the same street since 1930.
Get the hours right and build a walk around it
The shop keeps daytime retail hours — Monday to Friday from 7am to 7pm, with Saturday trading as well. It is a bakery schedule rather than a restaurant one, and the earlier you arrive, the fuller the shelves. Late afternoon on a busy day, the most popular trays are already gone.
Atlantic Avenue between Court Street and the waterfront is a short and very walkable stretch, and the sensible way to use the bakery is as one stop among several. Neighbouring Middle Eastern grocers and specialty shops on the same blocks carry the spices, cheeses, olives and preserves that turn a bag of bread into a meal. Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Promenade are a few minutes west if you want somewhere to eat what you bought.
Transit is easy: Borough Hall, Court Street and Hoyt-Schermerhorn are all within a short walk, and the avenue is served directly by bus. Driving is possible but Atlantic Avenue parking is the usual Brooklyn ordeal and not worth it for a bakery run.
Practical notes
Damascus Bread & Pastry Shop is at 195 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11201. It was opened in 1930 by Hassan Halaby as Damascus Bakery, producing Middle Eastern pita and lavash for the surrounding community, and the Atlantic Avenue shop remains family-run under Dennis Halaby. Hours are Monday to Friday 7am to 7pm, with Saturday trading as well; go early for the fullest shelves. Buy flat bread first — pita and lavash — and eat it the same day; the pastry case covers syrup-soaked layered sweets and savoury spinach, cheese and meat turnovers. Combine the stop with the Middle Eastern grocers on the same blocks to assemble a full meal, and take it to Brooklyn Bridge Park or the Promenade a few minutes west. Borough Hall, Court Street and Hoyt-Schermerhorn stations are all walkable.
Tags: #MediterraneanFood #BrooklynFood #DamascusBakery #AtlanticAvenue #Pita #Lavash #MiddleEasternFood #BrooklynHeights #Bakeries #NYCFood #ThingsToDoInBrooklyn #MediterraneanNearMe #NeighborhoodGuides #FamilyBusiness
Sources consulted: damascusbakery.com · ediblebrooklyn.com · yelp.com
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Ask Karpo first
Want to know whether the bakery is open today, what time the fresh bread comes out, and which shops on Atlantic Avenue complete the meal? Ask Karpo for current Damascus hours, a short walking order for the block, and a nearby spot to sit down and eat what you bought.
