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Staten Island

Port Richmond

A 1937 tavern's cracker-thin pies, a 1975 slice shop, and Mexican Port Richmond Avenue by the Bayonne Bridge.

Photo: TGoodman at English Wikipedia · Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Port Richmond is one of Staten Island's oldest neighborhoods, a former village on the Kill Van Kull where ferries once crossed to New Jersey and where the steel arch of the Bayonne Bridge now marks the western edge. In the nineteenth century it was a transportation and industrial hub — Cornelius Vanderbilt was born in the area in 1794, and Aaron Burr died at a hotel on Richmond Terrace in 1836. When development moved inland after the 1960s, its main street, then called Richmond Avenue, emptied out.

Mexican families began arriving in the late 1980s and 1990s and reopened many of those shuttered storefronts, turning Port Richmond Avenue into the center of Latino life on the island, with bakeries, taquerías, groceries and, a few days a week, a seafood truck. The avenue also holds two of the borough's pizza landmarks: a family tavern that has served thin-crust pies since 1951, and a corner slice shop open since 1975.

It is a working neighborhood rather than a polished one, and it suits a focused eating trip: take a bus from the ferry, eat, then walk down the avenue toward the water to see the old Dutch Reformed churchyard and the bridge.

Cracker-thin pies at a tavern dating to 1937

Mexican bakeries and taquerías along Port Richmond Avenue

The Bayonne Bridge arch over the Kill Van Kull

A Dutch Reformed churchyard in use since the 1600s

Local notes

Reformed Church on Staten Island

At 54 Port Richmond Avenue, near the water, a Dutch Reformed congregation founded in the 1660s has worshipped on this site since 1680. The current Greek Revival church, with its Doric-columned portico, dates from 1844, and the old burial ground surrounds it. It is a city landmark and on the National Register.

The Bayonne Bridge

The steel arch spanning the Kill Van Kull to Bayonne, New Jersey, was the longest steel arch in the world when it was completed and still ranks among the longest. Richmond Terrace, along the waterfront, gives the clearest views of it.

Port Richmond Avenue

The old commercial spine — Richmond Avenue until it was renamed — is now the heart of Staten Island's Mexican community, with bakeries, taquerías and groceries between Richmond Terrace and Forest Avenue. Weekday mornings and weekend afternoons are the liveliest times to walk it.

Through the lens

The Bayonne Bridge is best photographed from Richmond Terrace and the waterfront at the foot of Port Richmond Avenue; morning light from the east falls on the arch. Port Richmond Avenue's storefronts and hand-painted signs are a daytime subject — ask before photographing people.

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

Where to eat & drink