Littleneck

For decades, Gowanus languished as a polluted backwater of Brooklyn until a trickle of cool venues, such as The Bell House and Four & Twenty Blackbirds, got people coming back. Littleneck is a New England–style clam shack, but its patrons are primarily young, savvy City people, not shorts-clad tourists who ply the backroads of Cape Cod. There's a bar and booths, nautical ropes and unfinished walls, an appropriate tableau for killer clam rolls and clam chowder, lobster rolls, snappy house-made pickles and fresh, raw bar selections. Alan Harding (Gowanus Yacht Club) devised the menu. The East Coast–centric beer list is far more extensive than what you'd typically find in any roadside joint. The shellfish is sourced locally, though rest assured that none comes from the Gowanus Canal.