For 165 years, the Brooklyn Navy Yard built some of America’s most famous fighting ships, from sailing frigates to aircraft carriers. Today, the Yard is home to hundreds manufacturing, technology, and creative businesses, providing thousands of jobs to New Yorkers across a wide range of industries. We offer a variety of theme-based tours about history, architecture, industry, and more, so there are many ways to discover what’s behind the walls of the Brooklyn Navy Yard by bicycle, bus, and on foot. All tours are offered in partnership with the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation.
This tasting exploration showcases the vendors of the Lower East Side’s Essex Market, founded in 1940 and now housed in a new, bustling facility home to over 40 vendors. This 90-minute walking and tasting tour visits 5–6 vendors, with generous tastings that may include top-quality olive oils, tacos, empanadas, fresh-baked breads, hearty soups, and a selection of cheeses and charcuterie. Along the way, we will explore the past and present of New York City’s public market system, from open-air pushcart markets, to the retail and wholesale network built by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, to markets’ role today providing quality food to communities and creating opportunities for food entrepreneurs to launch and grow new businesses.
For more than 75 years, New York City has had a network of publicly-owned markets to provide affordable fresh and prepared foods to local neighborhoods. These tours seek to highlight not only the history of the remaining public markets, but also the wonderful food and the people that serve it that can be found within their walls. In Williamsburg, Brooklyn, our Immigrant Foodways Tour of the Moore Street Market offers visitors the chance to try cuisine from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Mexico from the market and restaurants in the surrounding neighborhood, highlighting the connections between immigrant communities and local food systems. And we now offer tours of the Essex Street Market, showcasing the butchers, fishmongers, cheese purveyors, and more that make this market a cornerstone of the Lower East Side.
