New York’s got no shortage of landmarks, each one recognized the world over. The Empire State Building. The Statue of Liberty. Rockefeller Center. And a slice of Junior’s cheesecake.
This week marks 75 years since one of the Big Apple’s most beloved addresses first opened its doors in downtown Brooklyn. Almost ever since, opinionated New Yorkers of all stripes have been able to find common ground, and a good meal, under the iconic neon sign at the corner at Flatbush and DeKalb Avenues.
“It’s the quintessential New York restaurant,” three-term borough president Marty Markowitz, 80, and a fan since the age of 17, told The Post. “If I was going on a second date with someone, I’d take them there.”
Everybody shows up at Junior’s. Back in his late-90s Hizzoner heyday, former mayor Rudy Giuliani called the restaurant “one of the tastes that makes the city what it is.” Spike Lee is a regular — he filmed his most recent flick on location at the restaurant, and celebrated this year’s Juneteenth holiday there with Rev. Al Sharpton.
“There’s people I meet who say, ‘My parents went on their first date at Junior’s’ or ‘I had my high school graduation there,’” Alan Rosen, third-generation owner whose grandfather Harry first opened Junior’s in the autumn of 1950, told The Post. “It’s an honor, quite frankly.’”
The restaurant might have ended up being just another noshery in a city full of them — but the New York-style cheesecake really made the place stand out.
Sitting on a sponge cake crust and made with full-fat cream cheese — Junior’s goes through 4 million pounds of the stuff every year — the house specialty was a customer favorite that gained citywide fame in the ensuing decades, with one local food critic calling it “the best cheesecake in the material world.”
Say cheesecake
For the first 20 years or so, Junior’s had plenty of fans — knocking it out of the park right off the bat when the Brooklyn Dodgers, who wouldn’t abandon the borough until 1957, became regular customers.
Then, in 1973, a columnist for the Village Voice raved about the cake — sparking a citywide conversation.
“There will never be a better cheesecake than the cheesecake they serve at Junior’s on Flatbush Avenue…it’s the best cheesecake in New York,” Ron Rosenblum proclaimed at the time.
A few months later, a panel of six judges was assembled by New York magazine — to choose the best cheesecake in the Big Apple. They unanimously picked Junior’s in a blind taste-test.
“When I eat there, it’s instant comfort and nostalgia,” Dan Pelosi, author of the recent comfort-food-focused cookbook Let’s Party, told The Post.
“What really stands out to me is the sponge cake crust,” Pelosi said. “I have never seen anyone else do it that way, because typically you would use a graham cracker crust. But Junior’s has stuck with this sponge cake crust from the start.”
For NYC-based chef Jake Cohen, “it’s all about tradition and attention to detail,” he told The Post.
“It’s consistently the best New York-style slice you can find because they focus on doing one thing perfectly,” said the author of the cookbooks Jew-Ish and the just-released Dinner Party Animal.
Never a dull moment
While the recipe for success may have been simple, Junior’s ride to the top hasn’t been nearly as smooth as its signature dessert.
Along the way to to creating a mini-empire that includes a brisk mail-order business, restaurants in Times Square and Las Vegas, and a 103,000 square-foot bakery in New Jersey to bake all those cakes, there have been as many lows as highs.
From the neighborhood’s dramatic decline in the 1970s to the devastating fire in 1981, where worried downtown Brooklyn neighbors chanted “save the cheesecake!” as firefighters subdued the blaze, to the infamous 2021 cream cheese shortage, which threatened to stop the business in its tasty tracks, Junior’s has endured it all.
And seen it all, too — and been seen, on television and on film, from LL Cool J videos in the 1990s to 2008’s Sex and the City movie, where Carrie Bradshaw and Mr. Big celebrate their long-awaited wedding with their cast of friends in tow. The restaurant didn’t close for the shoot — those waiters you see in the background are real.
Name a pivotal moment in New York history, and Junior’s has been there, too — through the 1977 blackout, when a then-8-year-old Alan Rosen recalls being called into work by his father to help out.
The restaurant stayed open on Sept. 11, 2001, setting up tables outside with drinks to sustain the scores of dazed workers flooding over the bridges. Junior’s kept going throughout the pandemic, too — takeout only — sending their cheesecakes far and wide.
These days, there are other concerns — gentrification has swallowed the neighborhood nearly whole; the original Junior’s is now dwarfed by skyscrapers, with development continuing unabated.
Junior’s almost became another one of those towers in 2013, when the family was offered $45 million, cash, to sell to developers, who wanted to demolish the legendary building.
Rosen calls it an agonizing decision — one that prompted him to see a therapist. One after another, customers came out of the woodwork to profess their love for Junior’s, which helped a great deal, he said.
“This is the life’s work of my family,” Rosen says, pronouncing himself pleased with his decision, over a decade later. “As I said at my dad’s funeral, his entire life was contained within these four walls.”
And whatever challenges come next, Junior’s will rise to them.
“We just keep grinding, pushing and plugging along,” Rosen said. “We’re still in love with the business.”
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