5. Magic Touch, 396 Hoyt Street
Little has been written about Magic Touch, an Italian bar and restaurant in Carroll Gardens. The Lost City blog investigated in 2008 and learned that “it had closed in the ’70s sometime (proof that it had been an Olde Brooklyn kinda joint) and that the space was now an artist’s studio.” The blog states that the bar reportedly opened in the 1940s and, according to a local, was a “shady club” where racketeering took place and “girls” could be found. It was “the kind of place where you saw nothing and said nothing,” the source said.
A commenter on the blog disputed those claims, writing, “The establishment featured live music nightly, and pretty good veal and pasta. While it was very popular with the boys, as was Monte’s Venetian Room on Carroll Street and the Diplomat on Third Avenue, it was in no way a place where prostitutes could be found or any nonsense like that would be tolerated.” The double-sided Magic Touch sign on the corner of Hoyt and Third Streets was once lit with neon. It’s hard not to love the top hat and cane logo.
