POTW: Foffe's

[Foffe's Restaurant, Montague Street.], 10/10/1958, V1974.4.714; John D. Morrell photographs, ARC.005; Brooklyn Historical Society.

Pumpkins and other autumnal decorations are sprouting up everywhere in Brooklyn now that we are well into the fall season. Though it’s hard to pick out in this black and white photograph, the round objects are pumpkins, displayed as part of the Halloween decorations at Maison Foffe on Montague Street in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, on October 10, 1958.

Maison Foffe was an Italian-French restaurant run by Alfred Foffe. It was known for its annual game dinner, occurring just before the Christmas holiday. Foffe was an avid hunter and would serve game from hunting trips during this meal. As the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported in December 1949, “Alfred recently returned from a hunting sojourn during which he personally bagged with his trusty shooting irons some of the delicacies which will be served on the dinner. Lovers of game have made this a big affair in past years.”

Foffe was known to display game from these hunting expeditions above the store (in the location of the pumpkins in his photograph). This display was a signal of the feast to come. Maison Foffe closed in the years following Alfred Foffe’s death in 1984.

The photo of the week comes from the John D. Morrell photographs collection. Morrell was an assistant librarian at the Long Island Historical Society (now Brooklyn Historical Society) and donated over 2,000 photographs to the Photography Collection. The collection is primarily documentary in nature and covers nearly every Brooklyn neighborhood from 1957 to 1974. To view more photographs from this collection, check out this gallery.

Interested in seeing more photos from BHS’s collection? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images. Interested in seeing even more historic Brooklyn images? Visit our Brooklyn Visual Heritage website here. To search BHS’s entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections visit BHS’s Othmer Library Wed-Sat, 1:00-5:00 p.m. library@brooklynhistory.org