Brooklyn Dip & Burger closes in Mineola

Brooklyn Dip & Burger has served its last Brooklyn dip — and burger. After six years, owner Matt O’Hara has closed the eatery, which specialized in roast beef sandwiches and elaborate burgers.

"We had great reviews," he said, "but with our prices, we just could not get the volume we needed."

The restaurant’s prices (most burgers and sandwiches were between $15 and $20) were based on tight margins but, he conceded, "for a family of four, they are looking at a $120 bill" and that those customers are more likely "going to a chain like Outback that has an unlimited advertising budget. If that’s 80% of customers, then all of us independent restaurants are battling for the other 20% — customers who seem to be out of money right now. It’s become really difficult."

O’Hara, a former finance guy with a longtime interest in food, opened Brooklyn Dip & Burger in 2019 in East Meadow. The Mineola location opened in 2023 with the same menu and sports-bar-meets-gastropub vibe. "Brooklyn Dip" referred to the roast-beef sandwich drenched in jus that was first popularized by Brennan & Carr, which opened in 1938 in Sheepshead Bay. There was no financial arrangement between the two establishments — just a friendship — but Brooklyn Dip used the same cut of meat (top round) for the roasts, the same secret blend of other cuts to make the savory jus, and a very similar roll that could withstand being drenched. There were also pork and turkey "dips," smashburgers, fat burgers, wings, tacos, mac-and-cheese and milkshakes.

Last year, O’Hara transformed the East Meadow Brooklyn Dip into The SportsBook, a proper sports bar with dozens of televisions, but he closed that establishment in December.

For now, he’s back in the finance game. The Mineola property has a new tenant and a Mexican concept is imminent.