Lundy's: Reminiscences and Recipes from Brooklyn's Legendary Restaurant

By Robert Cornfield

Book Overview

For more than five decades, F.W.I.L. Lundy's Restaurant of Sheepshead Bay was an institution of Brooklyn life, as essential to defining the borough as the Bridge and the Dodgers. When the restaurant reopened in late 1995 after a hiatus of 16 years, residents greeted it as if a long-lost family member had come home. For thousands of people, Lundy's was their own personal restaurant, a place where they knew the waiters -- and the waiters knew them -- by name and where dining was always an event, an experience to be treasured. In its heyday it seated 2,800 and today, with room for a mere 800 patrons, it's still no little restaurant. Then and now, Lundy's served a distinguished American cuisine, with generous portions of fresh seafood -- lobsters, clams, oysters -- perfectly cooked; fluffy biscuits; and well-filled fruit pies. It reminded Brooklyn's immigrant community of the plenty that was possible in America, and allowed industrial tycoons and working-class families to dine together. Through his provocative essays, illustrated by distinctive historical photographs, Robert Cornfield celebrates the vibrantly revitalized Lundy's while breathing life into the old one. He conjures up images of rooms full of women in hats and fur pieces and men in pinstriped suits, all sipping cocktails while requesting more of those incomparably flaky biscuits. Lundy's diners past and present share their memories of the grand occasion of eating there, and Kathy Gunst's recipes allow cooks to reproduce the nostaligc seafood chowders and bisques, entrees from land and sea, sides such as creamed spinach and buttermilk onion rings, and those fabulous Lundy's desserts: Blueberry pie, cheesecake and rice pudding. When Lundy's closed, says one patron, it "became the the Brooklyn Dodgers of restaurants, but unlike Ebbets Field and the Dodgers, it did come back."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060187417
• ISBN13: 9780060187415
• Release Date: May 1998
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 204 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

A loving culinary memoir of a community institution

For those of you who have never set foot in Brooklyn's Sheepshead Bay, Lundy's may not be a familiar name. But for the thousands (millions?) who ate at the famed restaurant from its opening at the height of the Depression to the beginning of its 16-year hiatus in 1979, this book will evoke powerful memories. Lundy's was an immense establishment, seating 2,800 patrons in its heyday, but the enormousness of the space was second to its food. The food was not only excellent, according to nearly every source listed--the portions were in keeping with the grandiose feel of the building itself. Author/historian Robert Cornfield writes, "The oddity is that for all its great size, simple fare, crows, and noise, Lundy's was not a cold, impersonal restaurant, but was replete with community excitement, curiosity, warmth, and the delirious happiness of a splendid holiday." Lundy's was, for the mostly immigrant population of Brooklyn, New York, the pinnacle of the American experience: plenty, and plenty of it. The recipes are mostly an adjunct to what amounts to a love letter written to the restaurant which fed Brooklyn's appetite for more of nearly everything. This is a wonderful book for anyone who ever enjoyed a meal at Lundy's, and a necessary record of Brooklyn in the mid-20th century.

GREAT FIND

As the great-granddaughter of a Sheepshead Bay restauranteur, this book was a great family find. I am ordering more to send to others in the family. My mother remembers all of the terrific dishes that are in the book, especially the "shore dinner." However, I am told the the reference to Billy Shierr"s restaurant is incorrect. My great-grandfather's was named Eddie Sheirr, and that was also the name of his restaurant. Some of you will remember it (or him) being called "Hook" Shierr's. He had a large nose.

Just As I Remembered

I frequented Lundy's when I lived in New York many years ago. It is the only restaurant of which I still remember the marvelous food. The cookbook and history makes me feel that I am still there! I've tried several of the recipes. They are so delicious and reminiscent that they are almost haunting. A true gift to give anyone who grew up in New York. Judy

Brooklyn - You CAN Go Home Again! (At least to Lundy's)

This book is a wonderful combination of a nostalgic look at a Brooklyn landmark restaurant and a compendium of its recipes. In the first section Lundy's is placed in the greater historical context of Brooklyn in the 19th and 20th centuries. There follows a detailed Lundy family biography and an entertaining collection of reminiscences from people who enjoyed Lundy's over the years. There are many illustrations and the anecdotes range from the hilarious to the touching. The author, a lifelong Brooklyn native, has put together a delightful book on a unique slice of Brooklyn life. A must have for Brooklyn baby boomers, expatriates and lovers of nostalgia in general! PS the recipes are great too...all of you who were wondering just HOW to recreate those incredible biscuits now have the secret.