Welcome to Брайтон Бич, Brooklyn

[elleng]

Brighton Beach is the grumpy neighbor of Coney Island and home to a population of Soviet exiles. And if you don’t get it, well, your loss.

'New Yorkers tend to discover Brighton Beach by accident. They set off for Coney Island, but through train mishaps or sheer excitement at the first sight of the sea, they get off at the wrong stop and are confronted with its grumpy next-door neighbor instead. If they do make it to Coney Island, they might stroll down the shore, until the sea turns to vodka and the newspapers turn Cyrillic. Regardless of how they get there, they seem to peregrinate in a fog, for which they can hardly be blamed: In Brighton Beach, questions are deeply frowned upon, then ignored.

But no one’s coming to Brighton Beach for clarity. A dose of local exoticism is the best they can hope for. And after wandering up and down the boardwalk, marveling at the decked-out seniors — the ladies in fur coats with radioactively purple hair and men in track suits playing backgammon as if their lives depended on it, which they quite possibly did in the Siberian prisons — after devouring the warm piroshki (flying saucers of fried dough), tanning alongside the master tanners who’ve got it down to a science, and braving the dour ladies in paper hats who dole out the delicacies the land has on offer, the visitors will sigh contentedly, as after a battle won, and say that they’re going back to Brooklyn.

A slip of the tongue, perhaps, but it means something. And what it means is that Brighton Beach is a universe unto itself, with its own time, its own language, its own customs, for which it makes no apologies.

If you don’t get it, it’s your loss.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/14/nyregion/brighton-beach-photo-essay.html?

[PJMcK]

1. We go there maybe 4 or 5 times a year

The stores are full of amazing foods. The caviars are exceptional and very reasonably priced.

As outsiders, we're usually treated respectfully but distantly. Who cares? The food stores are awesome.

If you go, head south to the beaches. Even in the off-season, you'll be looking at the Atlantic Ocean! Just beautiful.

I wouldn't suggest buying an apartment, though. (wink)

[elleng]

3. COOL!

We used to visit Sheepshead Bay, as Dad's best friend lived there (in an apartment!) with family, but this was well before the Russian influx. His framing and restoring business later grew grandly, in Manhattan, where they then bought an apartment!

My first lobster was @ Lundy's! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lundy%27s_Restaurant

[mitch96]

2. My Russian Grandmother had summer rental apartments in Far Rockaway Queens.

As story would have it she rented to people from the Russian Embassy and Russians from the UN.. The joke was that grandma Yeda had the most expensive garbage men in town..
the FBI!!! My father said you could tell b/c they were too neat to be blue collar guys working on the back of a truck..

m

[elleng]

4. LOL!

[matt819]

5. I grew up there when it wasn't exotic

This was in the 1960s until I left for college in the 1970s. The Russians hadn't yet moved in, so it was just Brighton Beach then, not little Odessa or anything like that. No Russian mob. No cyrillic writing. Just lots and lots of old Jewish people.