We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gilbert Marte. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with gilbert below.

Gilbert, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The idea for my business didn’t come to me in a single lightning-bolt moment I started my career off as a CPA. Once the spot became available I knew I wanted to do something there. Something to bring me closer to the neighborhood that raised me. The restaurant sits in what was once my childhood home, and every day I walk through the same doorway I used to run through as a kid. Back then, our dining options were pretty limited: Chinese takeout, pizza, repeat. As much as I loved those meals, I always wished there was a place nearby that felt like home—somewhere serving real comfort food, made from scratch, with ingredients that actually tasted like someone cared.

I imagined a place where you could sit down to food that reminded you of your grandmother’s Sunday table—but elevated with quality, intention, and pride. And thats how The Brooklyn Tree was born.

The name The Brooklyn Tree came naturally. I’ve always loved the novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which takes place in the same neighborhood where I grew up. Its themes—family, resilience, community—are exactly what I wanted the restaurant to represent. The book tells the story of something beautiful growing in a tough, real place. That’s what this restaurant is to me: something rooted in history, shaped by the people around it, and built to nourish whoever walks through the door.

The Brooklyn Tree has taken root of our community and the people who walk through our doors every day, and we’re honored to celebrate a decade of serving them.

Gilbert, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I believe most of this was answered in my previous response.

But Im a third generation williamsburg native of dominican decent. I started off as a CPA working at KPMG and was looking for a change of pace. The aparment that I called home growing up was renovated to be a commercial space at that moment and it seemed like the stars aligned for me to bring something to the neighborhood that I always wished was there. A space for the neighborhood serving up food made with quality ingredients.

One of our prouder moments was during covid when we came together with some of our neighbors and worlds central kitchen to provide thousands of meals to the hospitals, public housing, and food pantrys to help make sure people werent going hungry during those tough times.

Ive been in this neighborhood all my life but The Brooklyn Tree has helped me connect with it on a whole other level.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think our reputation has grown primarily because of our authenticity. From the very beginning, I wanted The Brooklyn Tree to feel less like a restaurant and more like my living room—a place where guests genuinely feel like they’re being welcomed into my home. That feeling isn’t something you can fabricate; it comes from being present, being real, and treating every guest the way you’d treat a friend or family member who’s stopped by for a meal.

What’s helped us stand out is that we never tried to be anything other than ourselves. We didn’t launch with a big marketing plan or a fancy campaign. In fact, we’ve done almost no traditional marketing at all. Instead, we’ve grown almost entirely through word of mouth. People come in, they feel the warmth and the vibe of the space, they taste the scratch-made food, and they tell their friends. That’s how we’ve built a name for ourselves—one real connection at a time.

When I read our online reviews, there’s a consistent theme: guests mention how comfortable they feel, friendly the staff was, how the atmosphere reminds them of home and of course the food. That’s exactly the environment we wanted to create, and I think that emotional connection is what has shaped our reputation more than anything else.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Over the past ten years, one thing I’ve learned about this industry is that you have to be ready to pivot at any moment. The restaurant world changes fast—sometimes daily—and if you don’t move with it, you get left behind. Coming from an accounting background, I didn’t grow up in kitchens or on the restaurant floor. I had to learn nearly everything on the fly: operations, staffing, purchasing, menu development, even how to read the rhythm of a dining room. Every day felt like a crash course, but adapting quickly became a skill I had no choice but to master.

The biggest test of that adaptability came during COVID. Practically overnight, the entire business model we relied on was no longer possible. We had to shut down in-person dining and shift completely to online ordering just to survive. But beyond the logistics, the toughest part was figuring out how to restructure our workflow so we didn’t have to let anyone go. Everyone’s role changed. We reshuffled responsibilities, cross-trained staff, and leaned on each other in ways we never had before.

It was chaotic, emotional, and exhausting—but it was also a moment that showed me just how resilient we could be. That pivot didn’t just help us stay open; it strengthened our team and reinforced why we do what we do. Adapting quickly has become part of our DNA, and it’s one of the reasons we’re still here a decade later.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thebrooklyntree.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebrooklyntreenyc/?hl=en