Brennan & Carr

Brennan & Carr has been slicing roast beef on Nostrand Avenue in Sheepshead Bay since 1938, when George Brennan and Edward Carr opened it, and the Sullivan family has run it since the 1970s, with Eddie Sullivan at the helm today. It is a true Brooklyn institution, the kind of place where the scent of beef roasting all day hits you at the door and the counter staff have seen three generations of the same families come through. The shop began with nothing but roast beef sandwiches, and while the menu has grown, the reason to come has not changed. Its sandwich has been named among New York's iconic dishes and starred on Man v. Food.

New York Turk called it a place where real New Yorkers eat when he visited in 2025, and he was right. Order the roast beef sandwich, sliced thin and soaked in a broth made from the drippings of the oven-roasted beef, the city's answer to the French dip. How you take it is a matter of local pride: the dingle-dangle dips only the meat, leaving the roll dry; the double dip plunges the whole sandwich into the broth; and the knife-and-fork job, known as a K.F.J., gets a full ladle poured over the top until cutlery is required. First-timers should start with the double dip. Grab extra napkins and take your time.