Junior's is a

restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

chain with the original location at 386

Flatbush Avenue Extension Flatbush Avenue is a major avenue in the New York City Borough of Brooklyn. It runs from the Manhattan Bridge south-southeastward to Jamaica Bay, where it joins the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, which connects Brooklyn to the Ro ...

at the corner of

DeKalb Avenue At Fort Greene Park DeKalb Avenue is a thoroughfare in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, with the majority of its length in Brooklyn. It runs from Woodward Avenue (Linden Hill Cemetery) in Ridgewood, Queens to Downtown Brookly ...

Downtown Brooklyn Downtown Brooklyn is the third largest central business district in New York City after Midtown Manhattan and Lower Manhattan), and is located in the northwestern section of the borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is known for its office and ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Other locations include

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

area and the lobby of the

Fox Tower The Fox Tower is a 27-story, office skyscraper in downtown Portland, Oregon, along Broadway between Yamhill and Morrison streets. The tower was completed in 2000 at a cost of $64 million, and was named after the Fox Theatre that occupied the s ...

in the Foxwoods Resort in

Ledyard, Connecticut Ledyard is a New England town, Town in New London County, Connecticut, New London County, Connecticut, United States, located along the Thames River (Connecticut), Thames River. The town is named after Colonel William Ledyard, a American Revolutio ...

. The restaurant was founded by Harry Rosen in 1950, although his family had run a diner in that location, albeit not under the Junior's name, since 1929. The place is known for iconic New York-style

cheesecake Cheesecake is a sweet dessert consisting of one or more layers. The main, and thickest, layer consists of a mixture of a soft, fresh cheese (typically cottage cheese, cream cheese or ricotta), eggs, and sugar. If there is a bottom layer, it m ...

. According to the restaurant, it was named Junior's after Rosen's two sons, Walter and Marvin.

History

According to ''GO Brooklyn'', "At the corner of Flatbush and DeKalb avenues in Downtown Brooklyn, there has been a diner run by the Rosen family since 1929. In 1950, the name was changed to Junior's, and it has been serving its famous

and other goodies ever since." Rosen worked with master baker Eigel Peterson to create the cheesecake known today as "The World's Most Fabulous Cheesecake", based on a recipe that was in the Rosen family for three generations, a recipe that calls for sponge cake instead of graham cracker crust. In addition to cheesecake, Junior's features deli sandwiches (particularly

corned beef Corned beef, or salt beef in some of the Commonwealth of Nations, is Salt-cured meat, salt-cured brisket of beef. The term comes from the treatment of the meat with large-grained rock salt, also called "corns" of salt. Sometimes, sugar and sp ...

and

pastrami Pastrami (Romanian: '' pastramă'') is a food originating from Romania usually made from beef brisket, lamb, pork, chicken sometimes from turkey. The raw meat is brined, partially dried, seasoned with herbs and spices, then smoked and steamed. ...

), ten ounce steakburgers, cheese

blintz A blintz ( he, חֲבִיתִית; yi, בלינצע) is a rolled filled pancake of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, similar to a '' crepe'' or Russian ''blini''. History Traditional blintzes are filled with sweetened cheese, sometimes with the addition ...

es, and unique

onion ring An onion ring, also called a French fried onion ring, is a form of appetizer or side dish in British cuisine, British and American cuisine. They generally consist of a cross-sectional "ring" of onion dipped in Batter (cooking), batter or bread ...

s. Fans of the restaurant are not limited to Brooklynites. A

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

i prince was known to have taken several Junior's cheesecakes back with him. A shrine to the Brooklyn of old, Junior's has become a must-visit for politicians from borough presidents to President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

, who bought two cheesecakes and a couple of black-and-white cookies during an October 2013 visit with

Bill de Blasio Bill de Blasio (; born Warren Wilhelm Jr., May 8, 1961; later Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm) is an American politician who served as the 109th mayor of New York City from 2014 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he held the office of New Yor ...

, who was soon to be elected mayor. In 2020, the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' revealed after reviewing the Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings of Senator

Chuck Schumer Charles Ellis Schumer ( ; born November 23, 1950) is an American politician serving as Senate Majority Leader since January 20, 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Schumer is in his fourth Senate term, having held his seat since 1999, and ...

, that the Senate Minority Leader had spent US$8,600 on Junior's cheesecakes in a decade of purchases. Schumer admitted that he had spent a bundle over the years on Junior's cheesecakes calling them his "

guilty pleasure A guilty pleasure is something, such as a film, a television program, or a piece of music, that one enjoys despite understanding that it is not generally held in high regard, or is seen as unusual or weird. For example, a person may secretly like ...

". Holding a platter of the famous dessert at a news conference, he quipped: "Guilty as charged. I love Junior's cheesecake so much. It's the best cheesecake in the world. It is made in Brooklyn. I've been going to Junior's since I've been a little boy. And it's my guilty pleasure." In 1981, when the restaurant caught on fire, a crowd of people watching the firefighters started chanting "Save the Cheesecake!" The interior of the restaurant was modernized after the fire.

Building and future plans

The building, at the corner of DeKalb Avenue and Flatbush Avenue Extension, is of red-and-white-striped menus, flashbulb-adorned signs, rust-colored booths and a wooden bar. In February 2014 the third generation owner Alan Rosen put the building on the market for development as an apartment tower with the hope of striking a deal with a developer to allow Junior's to return as a ground floor tenant. Rosen received offers up to $45M, but that offer wouldn't accommodate Junior's on the ground floor. In September 2014 Rosen took the building off the market after deciding the existing building is Junior's identity. In April 2015, Junior's announced it would move its baking operations from Queens to

Burlington, New Jersey Burlington is a city in Burlington County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a suburb of Philadelphia. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 9,743. Burlington was first incorporated on October 24, 1693, and was r ...

. In 2016, the location inside

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...

was closed.

In popular culture

*Junior's cheesecakes have been sold nationwide through various outlets, including the television shopping network,

QVC QVC (short for "Quality Value Convenience") is an American free-to-air television network, and flagship shopping channel specializing in televised home shopping, owned by Qurate Retail Group. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Chester, Pen ...

. *The diner was featured in the

Brooklyn Public Library The Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) is the public library system of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is the sixteenth largest public library system in the United States by holding and the seventh by number of visitors. Like the two othe ...

's children's book of Brooklyn landmarks, ''Brooklyn Pops Up''. *In a 2003 ''

Making the Band ''Making the Band'' is an ABC/MTV reality television series that exists in separate iterations, each focusing on a specific music act. It spawned musical acts O-Town, Da Band, Danity Kane, Day26, and Donnie Klang. Except for the first iteration o ...

'' episode, "

Da Band Bad Boy's Da Band was an American hip hop group put together by Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and signed to P. Diddy's Bad Boy Records. The group's story was documented for three seasons of MTV's ''Making the Band 2'' reality series. Career During ...

" was assigned to walk to Brooklyn and get a slice of cheesecake from Junior's for Sean "

P. Diddy Sean Combs (born Sean John Combs; November 4, 1969), also known by his stage names Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Puffy, or Diddy, is an American rapper, actor, record producer, and record executive. Born in New York City, he worked as a talent directo ...

" Combs. They also filmed their single "Tonight" from their 2003 album '' Too Hot for TV'' in front of the restaurant. *In 2010, Junior's defeated fellow New York City cheesecake shop Eileen's Special on an episode of ''Food Feuds'' as chef

Michael Symon Michael D. Symon (born September 19, 1969) is an American chef, restaurateur, television personality, and author. He is of Greek, Sicilian, and Eastern European descent. He is seen regularly on Food Network on shows such as ''Iron Chef America' ...

's choice for best cheesecake in New York City. *Junior's featured as an impromptu gathering location in the 2014 movie ''

The Angriest Man in Brooklyn ''The Angriest Man in Brooklyn'' is a 2014 American comedy-drama film directed by Phil Alden Robinson and starring Robin Williams, Mila Kunis, Peter Dinklage, James Earl Jones, and Melissa Leo. It is a remake of the 1997 Israeli film ''The 92 Mi ...

'' starring

Robin Williams Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...

and

Mila Kunis Milena Markovna "Mila" Kunis (born August 14, 1983) is an American actress. Born in Chernivtsi and raised in Los Angeles, she began playing Jackie Burkhart on the Fox television series ''That '70s Show'' (1998–2006) at the age of 14. Since ...

. *In

Tom Robbins Thomas Eugene Robbins (born July 22, 1932) is a best-selling and prolific American novelist. His most notable works are "seriocomedies" (also known as "comedy drama"), such as ''Even Cowgirls Get the Blues''. Tom Robbins has lived in La Conner, ...

novel Still Life with Woodpecker, Junior's cheesecake is referred to in "How to make love stay".

References

External links

Official site

Timeline of Junior's history
{{Authority control Downtown Brooklyn Restaurants established in 1950 Restaurants in Brooklyn

History

Building and future plans

In popular culture

See also

References

External links