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Staten Island

Stapleton

An 1889 village hall, pizza and oysters on the old Navy pier, and the island's most celebrated soul food.

Photo: Jim.henderson · CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Stapleton sits on the harbor two stops south of the ferry on the Staten Island Railway, between Tompkinsville and Clifton. It was once its own village — incorporated as Edgewater in the 1880s — and its Romanesque Revival village hall from 1889 still stands in Tappen Park. On the waterfront, the former Stapleton Navy homeport has been rebuilt as the Urby apartment complex, whose ground floor on Navy Pier Court now holds restaurants looking out at the harbor.

The food is as mixed as the neighborhood. Up the hill on Van Duzer Street, a six-table soul food dining room on the ground floor of a house made The New York Times's 2024 list of the country's best restaurants. Down on the pier there is a Michelin-recommended wood-fired pizza bar and a seafood and oyster room, and on Bay Street a Puerto Rican restaurant opened in 2025, a block from Lakruwana, one of the best-known Sri Lankan dining rooms in the city.

Make an evening of it: ferry over, ride the train two stops, eat, and walk back along the water toward St. George as the skyline comes on.

Tappen Park and the 1889 Edgewater Village Hall

Pizza and oysters on the Navy Pier waterfront

Soul food in a house on Van Duzer Street

Bay Street between Little Sri Lanka and Clifton

Local notes

Tappen Park and Edgewater Village Hall

A small square bounded by Bay, Water and Canal Streets, Tappen Park dates to 1867. At its center is the towered Romanesque Revival hall built in 1889 for the village of Edgewater, which was absorbed into New York City nine years later. The hall and park were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Navy Pier Court

The waterfront east of Bay Street was the Navy's Stapleton homeport; in 2016 the 900-apartment Urby complex opened on the site. Its ground floor along Navy Pier Court is where the neighborhood's harbor-view pizza bar, seafood room and a gelato shop are clustered.

Van Duzer Street

The street climbing behind Bay Street marks the edge of Stapleton Heights. The Houses at 364 and 390 Van Duzer Street are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a few steps from Shaw-naé's House.

Through the lens

Edgewater Village Hall's tower is best photographed from across Tappen Park in soft morning light. On Navy Pier Court, shoot the harbor at dusk, when the water picks up the color of the sky. Bay Street's storefronts are a daytime subject; ask before photographing people or restaurant interiors.

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

Where to eat & drink