Historic Brooklyn Restaurant Is Ready for Its Rebirth

For 125 years, Gage & Tollner was the most famous restaurant in Brooklyn, New York. In fact, it was the third interior in New York City to be protected by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, after the New York Public Library and Grant's Tomb.

After the Fulton Street landmark closed its doors in 2004, it housed a couple of chain restaurants and a discount store. But three longtime friends and seasoned restaurateurs — Sohui Kim, Ben Schneider, and St. John Frizell — remained enamored by the rich history of the landmark space.

“We've all been fascinated with Gage & Tollner for over a decade," said Schneider, the restaurant's director of infrastructure. “Whenever we found ourselves in downtown Brooklyn we'd sort of go and pay homage to it, and try to peek behind the prop walls that covered the original landmarked interior while it was a costume jewelry shop."

Then, in 2015, lightning struck. As the trio was scouting locations for a potential new venture, a realtor showed them the vacant Gage & Tollner.

“It was like stepping into a cathedral, frozen in time," Schneider said. “The junk was gone and we could see all the beautiful, original design details."

From that point, they set out to restore the restaurant to its former glory. With the help of architect Eric Safyan and restaurant designer Joe Foglia, they did just that.

Because Gage & Tollner is a historic landmark, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission played a role in the restoration.

“They've acted as an invaluable partner throughout the entire process," Schneider said. “Their desire for the space was the same as ours; to bring Gage & Tollner back to life as a classic American eatery and a staple of the Brooklyn dining scene."

The late Italianate-style building was constructed in the 1870s, with a Neo-Grec wooden portico and storefront. Throughout the process of reviving Gage & Tollner, the three co-owners were committed to modernizing the space while leaving its original character intact.

“The interior of the restaurant is so spectacular and timeless that we really just worked on cleaning it up, dusting it off, and letting it shine," Schneider said.

The décor of the main dining room is original to the 1880s, complete with 24 cherry-trimmed arched mirrors and a mahogany bar. The original brass lamps, installed in 1888, are intact; though they once burned gas, the cut-glass chandeliers now run solely on electrical power.

The walls are embellished with Lincrusta, a hand-etched style introduced in 1877. The original hat hooks remain, designed to accommodate the top hats and other oversized headwear of the Gilded Age. And the circa-1919 revolving door of mahogany and brass is still in place at the entrance of the restaurant, though the team had to remake and refurbish the original panels and match the moldings.

For the new architectural and interior designs, Schneider mentioned that the team drew inspiration from the landmark space itself, as well as other New York restaurants of similar vintage. As they devised subtle changes, they kept history at the center. For instance, the design for pendant lights inside the front windows of the restaurant is based on historic photos of Gage & Tollner from the 1950s and 1970s.

New additions to the restored dining room include a Venetian-plaster ceiling, William Morris wall coverings, and stained red oak floors. The plaster for the ceiling is coated with silver wax in the center section and bronze paint in the coves. The upholstered wall panels are newly adorned with an embroidered silk pattern called “Fruit," which was first produced in 1864. And an old-school pay phone in the main dining room will function either as an intercom with a second phone upstairs, or as a device to play a recording of the oral history of the famous restaurant.

The two private dining rooms upstairs, which originally opened in the late 1970s, feature a marble-topped brass bar, two ornamental fireplaces, and white oak floors. The two rooms, which have been restored in the style of Victorian parlors, are separated by original pocket doors.

Of course, a historic restaurant also requires some modern upgrades.

“We changed the seating to be more comfortable and accessible with the addition of banquettes," Schneider explained. “We've also upgraded a lot on the back end to make the service and customer experience more amenable for modern diners."

A state-of-the-art kitchen, new equipment behind the bar, and plumbing and electrical upgrades were all necessary changes to accommodate a fully functional, 21st-century eatery.

Gage & Tollner was scheduled to reopen on March 15, 2020, as an oyster and chophouse — until the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered New York City restaurants. Now, the three co-owners are closely monitoring the situation to determine when it's safe and prudent to reopen the historic restaurant.

While they wait, the seasoned restaurateurs have kept busy with other culinary endeavors.

In March, Frizell transformed his first restaurant, Fort Defiance, into the Fort Defiance General Store. He is now busy creatively serving the community of Red Hook in Brooklyn with this unique grocery, general store and bar. And while Kim and Schneider made the difficult decision to close their first restaurant, The Good Fork, in June, they have been able to keep their Korean BBQ restaurant, Insa, open for business.

“In the meantime, Gage & Tollner is not dead — not quite, not again," Frizell wrote for Imbibe Magazine. “It took years for us to roll back the rock; we're not ready to put that beauty back in the grave."