Alfredo Paredes Steers Sailor’s Nautical Expansion

Sailor, the first Brooklyn restaurant from Gabriel Stulman’s Happy Cooking Hospitality group, has expanded its Dekalb Avenue footprint with a cozy new addition designed by Alfredo Paredes Studio. A critical darling since its September 2023 opening, the Fort Greene hotspot took over an adjacent pizza shop, which Paredes transformed into a slender bar with a smattering of stools, booths, and a takeaway window out to the avenue.

“I envisioned Sailor to be something for the neighborhood where locals could feel at home,” Paredes tells Surface. “When Gabe came to me with this new bar space, I knew we had to carry that same feeling forward and let it evolve. I designed the bar to feel like it had always been there with the same patina and ease as if it had aged alongside the original space.” Paredes successfully conjures this lived-in vision, buoyed by a comfortable elegance.

The addition retains the primary restaurant’s warm woods and maritime accoutrements. “We brought in a lot of vintage pieces so it really feels like another layer to the existing narrative through the use of rich oak, collected nautical artwork, and infusing the space with undertones referencing New York’s boating industry,” he adds. With Skylar Mosca now positioned as executive chef (and chef April Bloomfield still a partner), Sailor’s ever-developing menu remains as delectable as it was upon its debut.