Danny Meyer to open full-service restaurant at former Hotel Bossert
Reviving Brooklyn Heights landmark, once known as 'the place to dine'
Scaffolding surrounds the former Hotel Bossert at 98 Montague St. as SomeraRoad develops it into luxury co-ops. Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group has announced it will open a full-service restaurant on the ground floor. Photo: Mary Frost/Brooklyn Eagle
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Fine dining is returning to the former Hotel Bossert at 98 Montague St. in Brooklyn Heights, according to restaurateur Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group.
Meyer, known for the highly-rated Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern and The Modern, among other eateries, has chosen a prime site for his first full-service restaurant in Brooklyn — 3,200 square feet on the ground floor of the historic 14-story, Renaissance Revival-style Bossert. The restaurant is slated to open in 2028, according to the Union Square team.
An elegant dining room was presided over in 1910 by hotel manager Walter M. Briggs. Photo: Mary Frost/Brooklyn Eagle of historical document from Souvenir Post Card Co.
Once known as “The Waldorf-Astoria of Brooklyn,” the Bossert is a leftover from Brooklyn’s grander era. Built in 1909 by Bushwick lumber millionaire Louis Bossert, head of Louis Bossert & Sons, the residence was designed as an apartment hotel of a type popular in the prewar era. A back section extending to Remsen Street was added in 1914, and the two-deck Marine Roof in 1916, according to the Jehovah’s Witnesses publication JW.
The Hotel Bossert’s opulent grand foyer in 2025 — with its pillars of imported Italian marble and crystal chandeliers. Photo: Mary Frost/Brooklyn Eagle
The Jehovah’s Witnesses (Watchtower Bible & Tract Society) had purchased the building in 1983, and restored and maintained the building so well that the Bossert won a Lucy G. Moses Award from the New York Landmarks Conservancy. The Witnesses departed in 2012, and it has been shuttered since then, despite several famously-unsuccessful attempts at redevelopment.
The landmark site is currently being restored and redeveloped into luxury residences by SomeraRoad, a New York and Nashville-based real estate investment and development firm founded by Brooklyn resident Ian Ross.
SomeraRoad said in May last year it “plans to honor the property’s rich history,” as it restores and reopens the building as luxury residences.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses purchased the Hotel Bossert in 1983, and carefully restored many of the exterior and interior details. Photo: SomeraRoad
Dining at the Bossert was once quite the thing
Meyer has not divulged his specific plans for the new restaurant, or whether it will be located in the former ballroom or one of the smaller dining spaces. However, the Bossert has a history of being “the place to dine” in Brooklyn Heights, a prominent social hub that welcomed high society, celebrities and business leaders.
A “new and elegant dining room,” under the supervision of hotel manager Walter M. Briggs, was advertised in 1910 as being open until 1 a.m., with after-theatre suppers a specialty, according to the Ellen Terry and Edith Craig Database.
One of the glittering chandeliers in the Hotel Bossert’s lobby. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle
There was no problem getting home after a fine meal — the Montague Street trolley line operated until 1 a.m. (The restaurant’s phone number at that time was “4980 Main.”)
The Bossert Ballroom, also on the ground floor, was the scene of galas and black-tie gatherings, where guests ate and danced beneath crystal chandeliers. A lobby bar was next to the entrance of a marble staircase, which still exists. The Brooklyn Dodgers celebrated there when they won the 1955 World Series.
Brooklyn Dodgers players Johnny Podres, Duke Snider and Clem Labine, left to right, celebrate their World Series victory in the Hotel Bossert, on Oct. 4, 1955. Photo: Marty Lederhandler/AP
Meyer’s group Union Square says the new restaurant will once again become a social hub, and “reestablish the property as a gathering place for the neighborhood, reinforcing Brooklyn Heights as one of New York City’s most established residential enclaves.”
The Bossert Ballroom was once the scene of galas and black-tie gatherings. Photo Mary Frost/Brooklyn Eagle of historical document
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