Gage & Tollner

During the past year while many restaurants were closed there was a buzz around town about the reopening of the legendary Brooklyn eatery Gage & Tollner. With so many of Brooklyn’s historic architectural marvels only a footnote in history, hearing that Gage & Tollner was reopening in its original building excited those who have a deep and rich family history in Brooklyn. Many have memories of family gatherings and special occasions. For me Gage & Tollner was not only a place where my family would gather over the past century, it was also the place my parents dined the day they picked up their marriage license only a few blocks away. 

​Originally founded in 1879, Gage & Tollner is a historic oyster and chop house which served Downtown Brooklyn for 125 years before closing its doors in 2004. For the following 16 years the landmarked space played host to a TGI Fridays, an Arby’s and a discount clothing retailer, but thanks to three longtime friends and celebrated Brooklyn restaurateurs – St. John Frizell (Fort Defiance), chef Sohui Kim and her husband/business partner Ben Schneider (Insa, The Good Fork) – Gage & Tollner’s legacy as the finest restaurant in Brooklyn will finally be restored. The partners successfully used Wefunder campaign to raise the funds necessary to secure the lease in 2018, spent the following two years building their team and rebuilding the space, and were set to open Gage & Tollner on March 15, 2020 when COVID hit. After 13 more months in limbo, Gage & Tollner finally began welcoming guests into its iconic dining room once again on April 15, 2021.

Menu Inspiration

Sohui (pronounced SO-hee) and St. John (SIN-jin) have taken inspiration for their food and beverage offerings from the Gage & Tollner archives, honoring and elevating beloved classics with meticulously-sourced ingredients and diligent technique. Chef Sohui’s dinner menu features a decadent raw bar highlighting East Coast oysters, a selection of a la carte steaks and chops, as well as freshly prepared seafood and shellfish expertly sourced by Chef de Cuisine Adam Shepard, as well as house-made breads and desserts from Pastry Chef Caroline Schiff. Beverage options include a deep wine list and a cocktail menu featuring perfectly prepared classics such as the Sazerac and Whiskey Smash, plus a section dedicated entirely to martinis.
The Gage & Tollner team shared with us some of their signature dishes that you must try when you visit the Brooklyn restaurant filled with decades of memories.

Signature Dishes

Clam Belly Broil

This dish is legendary at Gage & Tollner and was considered the restaurant’s signature dish for many decades, consistently featured on the menu since 1944. Our Chef de Cuisine Adam Shepard updated the dish with a simple white miso compound butter, which he considers a perfect match for the fresh salty brine of clams. The clam bellies are placed in a shallow baking dish and broiled until the butter melts and the clams are poached, then garnished with butter-fried torn sourdough croutons and fresh herbs.

She Crab Soup

This soup may be the single most idolized and mythologized dish in recent Gage & Tollner history, made famous by Chef Edna Lewis during her tenure in the late ’80s and early ’90s. The soup is a classic bisque made with blue crabs. Traditionally it is thickened with roux, but ours is gluten-free and made with milk & cream, butter, crab roe, onions and finished with sherry.

Clams Kimsino

This dish is an ode to chef/partner Sohui Kim, offering a subtly Korean take on the classic steakhouse dish Clams Casino. We use northeastern hard shell clams, and broil them in their own juices mixed with a compound butter made with house-made Kimchi and bacon. 

History

The four-story building which houses Gage & Tollner dates from the mid-1870s and is late Italianate in design, featuring an unusually high, neo-Grec wooden storefront, likely added in 1892 when the restaurant relocated from down the street to its current location, 372 Fulton Street. The restaurant was designated an individual landmark in 1974, and in 1975, it became the third space to ever achieve interior landmark designation in New York City, following the New York Public Library and Grant’s Tomb. The ornate dining room, with its 36 gas-lit lamps (including 10 iconic brass chandeliers), brocade wall panels and series of tall, elegantly arched, dark red cherry wood-trimmed mirrors running three sides of the room, is unparalleled in its ability to transport guests to another era, and simultaneously nurture both a sense of intimacy and remarkable spaciousness. It is rumored that the original designer made this aesthetic choice as “guests would eventually tire of looking at artwork, but they would never tire of looking at themselves.”

Partner and Director of Infrastructure Ben Schneider restored the cathedral-like restaurant to its Gilded Age splendor, which is initially being seated at 50% capacity for a total of 73 seats. Ben refurbished the original revolving door from 1919, reupholstered the series of wall panels with stunning silk embroidery in William Morris’ “Fruit” pattern, coated the ceiling with Venetian plaster, and polished Gage & Tollner’s famous brass chandeliers and tall Victorian hat hooks. Simultaneously, Ben seamlessly updated the dining space to suit modern preferences, installing deep red velvet banquettes, lengthening, heightening and replacing the marble-topped bar, and building a brand-new kitchen and bathrooms.

Location and Info