A Brooklyn Landmark Holds Its Head High Again

All buffed and polished from the gaslight-era chandeliers to the menu, Gage & Tollner is once again a compelling destination.

Walk along Fulton Mall in Downtown Brooklyn. Ignore the wig shop, the pawnshop, the tattoo parlor, the second-floor dentists, the cellphone stores. Look both ways, twice, and dart across the narrow street, keeping an eye on the double-length buses that shoot by just inches from the curb. You’ll pass sheets of plywood and for-lease signs. When you see two tall white columns holding up a porch, turn in and give the revolving door a shove. It will wheel around and deposit you in the 19th century. Blink. It’s really true. Gage & Tollner is back. The graceful chandeliers have gone electric, but their long, curling brass tendrils seem to glow more warmly than they did in the gaslight days, which lasted until the original Gage & Tollner closed in 2004.