Fulton Street

Bed-Stuy’s Civic, Commercial, & Cultural Heart

By Jeffery Kazembe Batts
IG: @kazbatts
The “Heart of the Stuy” is a few commerce-lined blocks on Fulton St. from Franklin Ave to Marcus Garvey Blvd. Underground along the strip are three subway stations. Franklin Ave, where you can board the C or the elevated Shuttle; Nostrand Ave express A and the local C; and Kingston & Throop, a local C-train stop.

The B25 bus transverses the two-way street. Like most business corridors in NYC, corporate and franchise businesses like Chipotle, Cinnabon, Carvel, Atomic Wings, Champion Pizza, Dunkin Doughnuts, Blink Fitness, and Dollar Tree are abundant.

This strip also contains places of worship, barbershops, medical centers, banks, utility businesses, pharmacies, and cannabis stores. The following essay focuses on the Black / African-controlled establishments. These businesses are primarily food, fashion, hair care, business services, and social clubs.

Franklin Ave to Bedford Ave
Just before you get to Franklin Ave, in the shadow of the elevated Shuttle train is Hadja Marley Restaurant with “Best African Food in Brooklyn” on its awning. After selecting from steaming hot food the mostly male customers can sit down, chat, or watch the news, which is always tuned to CNN. Across Franklin B & B Beauty aesthetic-pleasing African American-owned salon is located. Moving up towards Bedford Ave Fulton St. is soon dominated by an African immigrant community.

Motorcycles line the street, with mostly young men lounging and strategizing about making money using their bikes. Enterprises include restaurants, clothing stores, barber shops, money transfer locations, and document processing enterprises crowded with patrons who mostly speak French and Arabic. The Pulaar Speaking Association has a headquarters for their West African ethnic community.

African-owned businesses that sell a mix of household goods include the Diaby African Market, the Arabian Market, and Fulton Gift Shops. Business and document services are available at Wague Business Center, BHS Sika Cash Money Transfer, and Kawral Fouta Business. Hafiz Travel Inc. stands out as a busy location with staff mainly assisting young men in processing documents while others sign into computers, using photocopiers while sipping coffee, and networking.

Restaurants serve a mixture of African and American food in several restaurants serving as meeting and hangout spots for the community. Inside the Fulton Food Court restaurant, men are crowded around the front section, sitting at tables after picking from a steaming selection of entrees at the back of the store.

More spacious and less crowded is Z Halal, which has a wide selection of meat, fish, and vegetables. Diners utilize comfortable seating, and the television delivers international news in Arabic, French, and native English. Long-time African American bakery Abu’s Bean Pie Company is near the corner just before the historic Masjid At-Taqwa where Fulton St. intersects with Bedford Ave.

Bedford Ave to Nostrand Ave
Crossing Bedford Ave, where new bike lanes are installed, the African immigrant community slowly diminishes. This block also has independent ethnic sit-down restaurants like Diwali Indian Cuisine and Le Baobab Restaurant Senegal Cuisine. In the middle of the block, a Bangladeshi community emerges. Their businesses are primarily restaurants, vegetables, and electronic stores. This additional mix of immigrants adds diversity to the Bed-Stuy community. Men in native attire occupy the wide sidewalk at the intersection of Arlington Place, sitting along benches.

Recently expanding into a nearby location, the Trinidad Roti Shop continues to offer a variety of ethnic choices for the eating desires of the community. A Haitian-owned Eclectic Wine & Liquor is a large enterprise in the middle of the block across the street. Long-term Charlie Record Shop, which used to host a pre-Labor Day Carnival on the Saturday before the parade, is no longer in business.

Nostrand Ave to Marcy Ave
Community leaders, representatives of the December 12th Movement and Men Talk organizations, are often seen engaging the community with empowering literature and giving well wishes at the busy Nostrand Ave corner. At the corner, three of the four locations are currently boarded up. Where Chock-Full-of-Nuts once stood, and, more recently, the Caribbean-owned business Fisherman’s Cove is shuttered. A closed fried chicken restaurant and newsstand occupy the corners.

The only open business on the corners of the busy intersection is a 99-cent pizza parlor selling slices for $1.25. Down the block on Nostrand Ave, going towards Atlantic Ave, people of Barbadian ancestry often gather on a side street. Going the other way towards Macon St. two new Caribbean restaurants franchise Jamaican Flavors which has another location in Bed-Stuy and also in Jamaica, Queens, has recently been joined by DJ Bird Soup Stop.

Back on Fulton St., Nigerian-owned Authentic Feets sells the latest casual wear, not just for products for your feet. Further up the block, people eat & socialize at Copacabana sports restaurant and bar. Across the street, the popular A & A Bake and Doubles Shop consistently has patrons lining up starting early in the morning.

Community favorite Billy’s Custom Print T-Shirt Inc. has shirts out on the sidewalk displaying past creations. Media-friendly Black Ink is located on the block, providing tattoo options. Adding to the ethnic mix of restaurants is the Senegalese and French Le Paris Dakar, which specializes in crepes and has another location on Nostrand Ave, near Macon St. On the corner of Marcy Ave, Tastee Patee, a Jamaican franchise restaurant, is no longer in business.

Marcy Ave to Brooklyn Ave
The historic Bed-Stuy Restoration Plaza occupies a full block, starting at New York Ave anchored by Applebee’s, a regular spot for family gatherings and sports watching at the bar, where community residents often gather.

Inside the complex are an African Museum, the Billie Holiday Theater, the Youth Arts Academy, Carver Bank, community meeting spaces, and offices for elected officials. Also, on the street level, Moshood, an African clothing store, sponsors an annual fashion show in the plaza. The elevated plaza is also the site for musical performances, movie screenings, pantry food distribution, vending markets, and political gatherings.

Within the Restoration Plaza complex, karate Master Sabu trains aspiring martial arts learners. Across the street, next to TD Bank, is the United House of Prayer for All People on one side and an open plaza controlled by the Bed-Stuy BID, which often has vendors or community-based organizations using the space.

Together these two plazas make the Marcy Ave & Fulton St. intersection one of the few open spaces within the strip where people can sit on benches or steps while reading, talking, and relaxing outside.

Another Black business at the Restoration is Nicholas Brooklyn. One of the few remaining places to buy books and cultural items along Fulton St.

The business often sponsors Kemetic and wholistic lectures and book signings regarding health and African empowerment as a condensed version that reminds long-time residents of meetings at the demolished Slave Theater that used to exist on Fulton St. near Bedford Ave.

Back across Fulton St. is the second store called Bed-Stuy Fly which offers the latest casual urban attire that encourages pride in the local community. Caribbean-owned K&S Grocery & Deli does business, while the long-time existing Gospel Den sells a mixture of Christian and cultural items such as books, cards, CDs, and art.

The Yaoain sign for the once thriving Black cream and haircare business is long gone, with nearby Caribbean-owned Next Level Fashions recently joining the “out of business” club.

Brooklyn Ave to Kingston & Throop Ave
Three 24 is a modest event space located where Tompkins Ave ends. A few doors down is Soldier Restaurant Buffet. With little seating, the mostly take-out Jamaican restaurant offers a wide selection of hot food. Across the street, Savant Studios sells an eclectic mix of original clothing and hosts community gatherings, including movie screenings. KRS Wireless Corp and A&R Postal and Multiservices are businesses on opposite sides of the street that provide electronic and mailing options.

El Jeffee African / Mexican restaurant and Ricky’s Jamaican American Restaurant offer limited seating and hot food for your palette. Also on the block is the headquarters for the Laundromat Project. A thriving social justice organization that focuses on the arts and creativity. The well-designed headquarters space hosts cultural events such as book signings and cultural events. Mundo Fashions offers products and tailoring for your attire. Garden Bar & Grill is a thriving sport and music night spot on the weekend, while Purpose, a once-popular sports bar, has recently closed.

Kingston & Throop Aves to Marcus Garvey Blvd
Above the local Kingston & Throop subway station, a concentration of African hair-braiding saloons are busy with customers. At least a dozen enterprises are in business, with many women in matching pink uniforms.

These thriving businesses employ dozens of women who speak French and various African languages while servicing the mostly English-speaking Black customers. One prominent business, Sogho Express African Hair Braiding & Beauty Salon, has expanded into an even larger second space across Fulton St. Aminata Braiding & Styling and Mbadinga’s Enterprises Fashion & Hair Accessories are two other popular hair salons that provide much-needed employment to mostly young African women by styling hair for women from all over the city.

Like Applebee’s, another corporate giant, a McDonald’s occupies the corner of Throop Ave. and is primarily used as a meeting and hangout space as much as it is for dining. Especially in the morning and in the afternoon, dozens of high school students crowd inside.

Off Fulton St., down Throop Ave, the Bichiu African Market sells Senegalese staples, and across the street, More Than Just Lobster has recently opened, increasing the number of edible options.

Next to the McDonald’s parking lot, Kebe African Fashions is an option for purchasing and tailoring fashionable African attire. Across the street, in the middle of this block, Swiingz Restaurant creates space for sports viewing and socializing. Underneath is a vast event space often used for birthday and graduation celebrations.

Heading towards the corner of Albany Ave, the short-lived Burger Hut restaurant has been transformed into the Muse Nails business. At the same time, Jami Restaurant continues to serve Jamaican food, and the Blue Café Restaurant serves Dominican & American food as a popular place for a hot breakfast or lunch.

Crossing Albany Ave and headed towards Marcus Garvey Blvd, is where the Men Talk organization has its headquarters in a community space used for parties, weddings, and church services. Community members consistently line up on Wednesdays to receive loaded bags of groceries to take home and hot meals to eat immediately. Men Talk also distributes clothing, hygiene, and medical supplies as part of its mission to support the needy.

With numerous restaurants, clothing stores, centers of worship, medical offices, social gathering places, and community-based organization headquarters, Fulton St. remains the place to go for business, culture, and networking in Bed-Stuy.

Most businesses and spaces are not Black controlled, but the spirit of being in a Black community still prevails. Although not as vibrant as commercial corridors in mid-town Manhattan, Chinatown, or 125th St., Fulton St. from Franklin Ave to Marcus Garvey Blvd. remains the “Heart of the Stuy!”