The Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn is often referred to as “Little Poland,” thanks to its claim of having the second largest concentration of Polish-Americans and Polish immigrants in the United States, after Chicago. The signs of this still-strong ethnic population, which started settling here in the late 1800s, are abundant. I was finding them in the surnames of doctors at their offices, in the Polish-language magazines available for sale on newsstand racks, in the Polish bakeries and food stores, in the new headquarters of the Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union, and at St. Stanislaus Kostka Roman Catholic Church. All of that put me in the mood for a lunch of traditional Polish food. I found it at Relax Restaurant, a small, homey place that has been satisfying customers since 1997.

I claimed a table in this unpretentious eatery and scanned the menu, in English and Polish. The sounds of conversations in Polish, among both the staff and the customers, seemed to solidify that this was, indeed, a wise choice for my midday meal. After ordering at the counter, I admired the wood ceiling and the fine wall paintings of everything Polish: cuckoo clocks, city crests, Krakow’s Barbican, and the fantastic Wawel Hill and its castle, also in Krakow. My meal arrived promptly, served in traditional glazed Polish dishware—authenticity right down to the smallest detail.

Try This: Start with an excellent soup with cauliflower florets and chunks of winter squash, with some herbs and a handful of chickpeas. Then tuck into slow-cooked pork goulash in brown gravy, along with a side of buckwheat groats with sautéed onions. You’ll get a couple of side salads to choose from, like the cucumber salad and the lettuce in sour cream. You can opt for a Polish beer, or even better, the homemade kombucha, a cold fermented green tea with a hint of ginger that becomes stronger the longer it remains at room temperature in its country-fair drinking jar.

I’d Love to Hear From You!

Have you been here? Have I inspired you to go? Let me know!