In 2012, WNYC Transmitter Park officially opened as a green park space for Brooklynites to enjoy waterfront views; but long before that, it was where WNYC, New York’s radio station, planted its antennae. Up until televisions became widely available, WNYC's broadcasting was the main source of news for many New Yorkers.
This is the history that Sara Conklin wanted to honor with her new restaurant Radio Star, which is now located right next to Transmitter Park.
This isn't the first time Conklin has paid homage to a location — she also owns the nearby Mediterranean eatery Glasserie, which takes design inspiration from the old glass factory in which it is housed.
Conklin loves history, so she was originally unimpressed by the building at Transmitter Park because it was a new build.
“I was visually not interested, but I liked the location,” she said. “And because it kept coming back, I kept kind of marinating on it. And once I started sort of playing around, bringing out a little bit of the history of the park and the radio, it started to blossom in my head. … I was like, 'Can I go in there and destroy it, make it look old?'”
This moment marked the beginning of Conklin's deep dive into the history of WNYC, which she took on as a research project to inform what Radio Star could look like.
She was especially inspired by a vision of radio at its peak popularity that her father relayed to her — the image of a group of people sitting around listening to a box for entertainment. During the interview with BK Reader, Conklin was waiting for three boxy, vintage radios to arrive from various corners of Europe, which she planned to put up on the shelves of the space.
The rest of the dining room is filled with handpicked, original vintage pieces, hailing mostly from the 1940s. The largest piece of art in the space is a blown-up recreation of a Hungarian matchbook from the 1930s, featuring a futuristic depiction of a man in headphones holding up a wired instrument to get a signal.
“It’s a different radio than the radio we're talking about,” Conklin said. “But I wanted it to just feel kind of light and funny and here, even though there's a lot of quite serious detail.”
The menu at Radio Star is also an homage to the radio era.
Seymour Siegel, the legendary former head of WNYC who worked under five different NYC mayors over the duration of his tenure at the radio station, gets a shout-out in the form of his own drink: The Seymour’s Old Fashioned is made with apple-flavored brandy and a blend of rye and scotch.
Other drink highlights include the “Video Kills,” made with fennel-flavored gin and cardamom, which tastes like citrus on the way down and leaves aromatic spices lingering in your mouth.
The food served at Radio Star is branded as Mediterranean, taking notes from Conklin’s Lebanese heritage. Luckily for Glasserie's griddle bread fans, the popular fan-favorite is used in a couple of lunchtime sandwich options; but aside from that, the menu at Radio Star is totally new, more American, and more vegan-friendly.
Conklin’s favorite dish is the Merguez in a blanket, Radio Star’s elevated version of a pig in a blanket, made with lamb sausage and crispy filo dough. There’s also a fantastic labneh dish, served with syrupy figs and decadent, fall-apart-flaky pig cheeks. For vegans, Radio Star offers an oat shake for dessert that can be served spiked on request.
As cool as all the history is, Radio Star's most exciting feature hasn’t rolled out yet — in addition to a 40-seat dining room, there’s a massive patio on the side of the building that overlooks Transmitter Park, where Conklin plans to have at least 50 additional seats in warmer weather.
There’s also a large back room slated for special events from “sound bath” listening sessions to yoga classes, which can also be booked for private events.
What else does the future hold for Radio Star? Stay tuned.
Radio Star is located at 13 Greenpoint Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11222.
