The Swingle

One of the best pies in the world is located in an industrial area of Brooklyn, an area where tourists would not normally go, because it is not located in Manhattan. 

If you are planning to visit New York City, please consider visiting one or more of the "outer boroughs". (admittedly, it does help that I grew up in NYC-in an outer borough- and still have friends/family in Brooklyn and Queens.) This will be a way different experience from what people expect from NYC.

You owe it to yourself to buy a pie, or a Swingle (more on that later) from Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pies in the Red Hook area of Brooklyn.

The neighborhood of Red Hook is the last place you would expect to find an authentic Key Lime Pie.  Or, at that, a key lime pie-let, covered in high quality dark chocolate and served frozen on a stick.  Very handy for munching on when visiting the other nearby sights.

Hence, the Swingle.

When driving through Red Hook, keep in mind that this is what I would call an "up and coming area" i.e. an area that has been down on its luck for many years and is finding its way back.  Yes, it is gritty, to put it mildly.  But don't turn around.  Just be sure you have very good directions.

Once in Red Hook, you will want to head to "Pier 41".  Once there, you will see a sign like this:

Outside, you will find some lime trees in pots.

On the door you will find this sign...

And this sign...

And as soon as you enter the very plain retail space, and I do mean "very plain", you will find this.  Don't run!  You are almost in culinary heaven!

You can buy either a Key Lime Pie (a REAL Key Lime Pie) or the Swingle.

This is the Swingle.

 I can only wish I could communicate how delicious this was to you.  I've talked about  my wish for "Blog-O-Smell";  I can also wish there was a "Blog-O-Taste" plug-in.

There are some other interesting places near Steve's, which I will blog about in the coming weeks.

Do you have a favorite local "find" that tourists don't know about?