Alma

Alma has the kind of restaurant story we love to hear. It started all the way back in 2002 when three partners purchased a vacant lot in Red Hook and built the tri-story restaurant from the ground up (the same team moseyed down the waterfront to build Brooklyn Crab a decade later, which also sits three stories off the ground). But in 2024, Roberto Lopez and Emilio Sanchez took over the operation, sprucing up the floors and decor across all three levels. To ensure the integrity of Alma remained intact, chef Francisco Lopez, who'd been there for 20 years, stayed put in the kitchen to continue cooking Pueblan cuisine, the food of his Mexican hometown. A true family affair, his wife, Margarita, brings her Oaxacan roots to the table, focusing on salsas and moles that she makes from scratch, while their daughters, Daisy and Daphne, tend to the front of house. 

The cuisine is more homey than groundbreaking: bowls filled to the brim with guacamole, flautas as crunchy and crisp as can be and tortillas made in-house and served warm every time. The red snapper is a sleeper hit with a punchy, warm tomatillo-and-saffron sauce, while the short rib enchiladas did the job, spilling out with shreds of meat and plenty of cheese, covered in a luscious mole. Billed for two (though there's plenty to feed three people), the parillada platter features several proteins—some a bit overcooked—including grilled steak, shrimp, chicken and chorizo, plus triangles of gooey fried cheese, mango salsas and pickled onions for DIY tacos.

Now, you can always visit Alma just for the bar on the dimly lit ground floor and knock back margaritas over a game of pool in the back. Things get lighter as you make your way upstairs, with the rooftop overlooking NYC getting the most play.