3rd Ward has long been a North Brooklyn institution. Their new in-house restaurant builds on their status as a neighborhood staple. Fitzcarraldo‘s iron arabesque doors invite us on a voyage.

The stained pine ceiling resembles the hull of a ship, and the muted lighting is reminiscent of a day when whale sebum kept tables aglow. Floral tiles, an open kitchen, and the floor-to-ceiling window that looks onto the urban jungle parallel the Werner Herzog film that lends this restaurant its name.

A little background: Fitzcarraldo was a real-life opera lover who dreamed of creating an opera house in the provincial capital of Iquitos, Peru. In order to access the rubber that would help him finance his project, he