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Brooklyn

Coney Island

Coal-oven pizza since 1924, a 1907 dining room with a dice draw for dessert, and the Cyclone overhead.

Photo: Pics977 NY / Pexels

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Coney Island is the end of the line in every sense. Four subway lines terminate at Stillwell Avenue, and beyond the station lie the amusement district, the beach and the Riegelmann Boardwalk, which has run 2.7 miles along the Atlantic since 1923. The Wonder Wheel, from 1920, and the Cyclone roller coaster are both city landmarks, and the boardwalk itself was designated a scenic landmark in 2018.

Behind the rides, Coney Island is also one of the oldest Italian-American food addresses in the city. Gargiulo's has been serving christenings, anniversaries and Sunday dinners since 1907, in a chandeliered room on West 15th Street, and on Neptune Avenue Totonno's has fired its pies in a coal oven since 1924 — one of the few such ovens New York still allows.

Come in summer for the beach, the Mermaid Parade in June and a ball game at Maimonides Park; come off-season for an empty boardwalk and a long lunch at Gargiulo's. Either way, if you can, pick up a pie on a weekend and eat it facing the ocean.

Coal-oven pizza on Neptune Avenue since 1924

Tuxedoed waiters and a dice draw for a free dinner at Gargiulo's

The Wonder Wheel and the Cyclone, both city landmarks

The Riegelmann Boardwalk running east toward Brighton Beach

Local notes

Riegelmann Boardwalk

Opened in full in May 1923, the boardwalk runs about 2.7 miles from West 37th Street at the edge of Sea Gate east to Brighton 15th Street. The Landmarks Preservation Commission made it a scenic landmark in 2018. Walk it east from Stillwell Avenue to reach Brighton Beach in about half an hour.

The Wonder Wheel and the Cyclone

The Wonder Wheel opened in 1920 and the wooden Cyclone coaster in the 1920s; the Cyclone was designated a city landmark in 1988 and the Wonder Wheel in 1989, along with the long-idle Parachute Jump, Coney Island's steel tower from 1941.

The Mermaid Parade

Coney Island USA, the nonprofit arts group founded by Dick Zigun, has staged the Mermaid Parade since 1983 on the Saturday closest to the summer solstice. It ends with a procession to the beach to open the swimming season.

Through the lens

The boardwalk faces south, so the light is good most of the day; the Wonder Wheel and Parachute Jump silhouette well at sunset from the beach west of the pier. Weekday mornings are quiet enough to shoot the shuttered rides and painted signs without crowds; ask before photographing people at the Mermaid Parade up close.

Editorial draft — core details last reviewed October 19, 2026. Confirm practical details with the official site before you go.

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