New York - Downtown Reborn

There’s no city on earth like it. Here’s our guide to its many pleasures for wine and food lovers

- Thomas Matthews

New growth where the city began

Stone Street runs a mere two blocks in lower Manhattan. But if you happen to wander across it on a sunny day in late September, you could find crowds of people slurping oysters and hoisting pints of beer while struggling not to trip on the cobblestones underfoot.

The small-scale setting—old buildings, briny breeze, an easy, lived-in conviviality—might convince you it has been this way for centuries. And in a way, it has.

Stone Street is one of the oldest streets in New York City, dating to the mid-17th century, when the Dutch owned Manhattan. The English built a tavern here in 1670. Many of the buildings currently standing were constructed after the Great Fire of 1835. This enclave has witnessed most of Manhattan’s four-century history.

Yet today’s Stone Street is also a recent creation. In the 20th century, the city’s energy and wealth moved north and west, abandoning this old section to decay and crime.

“In the 1980s, this neighborhood was tough,” recalls Harry Poulakakos. Back in 1972, he opened a steakhouse in the India House, at the intersection of Stone Street and Hanover Square. “Stone Street was a back alley. It had no city lighting. It was a drug supermarket. There were muggings every day.”

In 1996, Stone Street and its periphery were granted status as a historic district. By 2000, the city had refurbished the street with lights and pavers. In 2002, Harry’s son, Peter, opened Financier Patisserie on Stone Street, and then in quick succession a pub, a pizza restaurant and a wine bar.