‘We Do Things the Old Way’ | Sandwich City | NYT Cooking

Why It Matters

The profile illustrates how artisanal processes and operational discipline create a distinctive product and loyal customer base, offering a model for small-restaurant resilience and brand identity in a crowded market. Preserving such craft can be a competitive advantage amid mass-produced alternatives.

Summary

Brennan and Carr, a longstanding Brooklyn eatery, prides itself on making roast beef sandwiches the “old way,” roasting top-round beef in-house, collecting pan juices into a long-simmered broth, and dipping each sandwich to order. The video follows owner and staff routines — from early-morning bread runs and meticulous cleaning to a longtime butcher’s trimming — highlighting hands-on techniques and rituals that sustain flavor and consistency. Customers and staff describe the restaurant as a neighborhood institution whose service and product are rooted in multi-generational practice. The piece emphasizes the careful, time-intensive steps behind a simple menu of roast beef, fries and beer.

Original Description

On Avenue U, in the northeast corner of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, is Brennan & Carr, a neighborhood joint known for its roast beef sandwich.

This hot roast beef on a roll is beloved. Open since 1938, the staff and customers tend to measure their loyalty in decades, not years. Time seems to stand still at Brennan & Carr, but the quality, care and genuine hospitality never do. “Everything is done exactly as I remember as a kid,” the owner, Eddie Sullivan, said.

Customers have some options when it comes to how they want their sandwich dipped in “the broth.” There’s the “dingle dangle,” where only the meat is dipped; 2) the standard dip, which is meat and then the top bun; 3) a “double dip,” which goes meat, then top bun, then whole sandwich; and 4) a “K.F.J.,” which stands for “knife and fork job,” which is a double dip plus more broth ladled on top.

Read more about the Brooklyn institution: https://nyti.ms/43tPfvS

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