Cornbread soul food opens on Belmont Avenue in Brownsville, sharing a storefront with a planned indie cinema

Cornbread, a farm-to-table soul food restaurant, opens Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 82-84 Belmont Ave., near Watkins Street in Brownsville, Eater NY reported in its weekly openings list. The restaurant comes from Adenah Bayoh, an entrepreneur, restaurateur and affordable housing developer.

Eater described the opening as bringing one of the city's most historically underserved neighborhoods its first sit-down restaurant in nearly 60 years, as part of a $3 million investment connected to the city's Brownsville Plan.

Restaurant and movie theater under one roof

The formerly dilapidated storefront is also set to house Stuart Cinema & Café, an independent movie theater founded by Emelyn Stuart, who also runs a theater in Greenpoint. When the project broke ground in June 2025, its organizers billed the cinema as Brownsville's first movie theater in more than 60 years. The sources reviewed for this story did not give an opening date for the cinema.

According to earlier reporting by BK Reader, the combined project was budgeted at $4 million, including $2.9 million from the lender Momentus Capital and $200,000 committed by Assembly Member Latrice Walker. That reporting described Stuart's plans to bring over the pricing from her Greenpoint theater: $8 Wednesdays, a $10 senior ticket, and $5 movies once a month for kids in families that receive SNAP benefits. Stuart told the Brooklyn Paper that the building's ceiling was too low for a theater at first, and that Walker's $200,000 grant paid to raise the roof.

The project grew out of a partnership with the Central Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation, whose executive director, Brownsville native La'Shawn Allen-Muhammad, connected the theater with Cornbread, BK Reader reported.

What's on the menu

Cornbread bills itself as "farm to soul." Its menu, posted on its website, is built around cornbread, fried chicken and catfish; the 2025 groundbreaking announcement described it as a fast-casual, farm-to-table restaurant. Its other locations are in Crown Heights and in Newark, Maplewood and Montclair, New Jersey.

Know before you go

• Address: 82-84 Belmont Ave., near Watkins Street, Brownsville, Brooklyn.
• Opening: Wednesday, Oct. 28, per Eater NY.
• Hours: not yet listed on cornbreadsoul.com as of Wednesday afternoon. Check the restaurant's site or social media before heading over.