Runner & Stone

Sometimes it’s nice to find a beautiful eating/cafe experience in an industrial- chic- artisan - and down to earth - location such as Gowanus in Brooklyn … and Runner and Stone is such an experience. The food and ambience is pure art and simply DELICIOUS. My friend and I meandered over on a sunny late morning and stepped into a gourmet heaven. There’s a sandwich menu on the wall with lovely choices, a bar with pastries and various food items. There’s bread, coffee, coolers with salads and drinks … wine for sale … tables here and there. (Yes it is humane and there is a restroom). We were there for a quick lunch and chat and it was lovely seeing a steady stream of people getting items to go and shopping for gourmet grocery items. It seems like it has dinner too and would definitely like to try that real soon! Thank you Runner and Stone.

Holy PHENOMENAL dirty chai latte! Croissant was great too! Cute spot will def be back for dinner

Finally made it to R & S for diner. I’ve known about their magnificent bread, Buckwheat & traditional Baguettes in my trip advisor Review (Best Baguette in NYC). But here I came on a Saturday night to discover the food served. Lots of choices but what caught my eye was the Homemade pasta selection. So we went with the Panzella Salad & Eggplant Crostini to start. Crostini has roasted Almonds & a light cumin taste. Both were excellent, especially the Crostini. Superb. Then as a Main course we opted for the Braided Ricotta Ravioli & Squid Ink Bucatini. Both dishes were delicious This sweet tomato sauce complements the ricotta rich ravioli. The Squid Ink dish was as a good with the seafood and its sauce not overwhelming the pasta. Cant wait to go back. If youre a Bread fanatic like myself, mornings seems to be the time to go and try their specialty breads... Highly recommended. Pour tous les expert en Pain, testez Runner & Stone. Pour moi, cest la meilleur baguette a NYC et pour son prix $3 de meme. Une baguette sarrasin ($4) et un vrai delice comme en France, on peut toute la mange en rentrant chez soi. Lol. Mais la jai teste le resto et cest vraiment excellent. Un touche italienne, pasta fait maison. Vous verrez mes suggestions en Photo. A visiter ou passer acheter du pain. Mes félicitations a Chris Pizzulli Exec. Chef & Peter Endriss Baker in Charge.

Wow the food and service are incredible. The bread is artisanal. Such a gem in Brooklyn. Highly highly recommend. Incredible wine list too! And they have a garden where they grow their own vegetables and flowers!

I don't use the word, "GEM" lightly. You know those "rare finds", that leave you in awe?.... This, is IT. I was walking to the nearby Whole Foods & decided to, "check it out" as I passed by. EVERYTHING is made fresh, sauces, spaghetti & even the bread, that your sandwich comes on. FRESH Daily Homemade loaves, croissants, etc. WINNER!.. WINNER! 🤩

This restaurant is a doubtless win. Every time I’ve been here it’s a stunning experience. Incredibly detailed service, unique and tasteful dishes, you can’t go wrong. A great place for a celebratory dinner. Thanks, Runner & Stone!

I absolutely love runner and stone. All their baked goods are delicious (recommend the baguettes, brioche, and chocolate croissants). Also have great sandwich options for lunch (recommend the mozzarella and the lentil quinoa burger).

Edited Dec 2025 - added photos. Been here a couple of times now. The baked goods are phenomenal. I love it here!

All I will say is that they do not disappoint. excellent food and great service

Best sandwiches in the neighborhood! Love the BLT and Smoked Turkey.

Excellent almond croissant. Everything looked delicious. When I’m back in the area, I’ll definitely stop again.

Good vibes and nice service. VERY GOOD FOOD, that i forgot to take pictures of it omg!

Got the pretzel, sourdough cookie and duck pastrami sandwich. Sandwich was incredibly good. I would say cookie was good to very good and the pretzel was fine to good. Pretzel was kind of dry. Would absolutely go again and recommend though. Sandwiches are top notch and baked goods look great. Super delicious

Went for dinner. All the food was fab. We got a bunch of different dishes to share. My favorite was the orecchiette, my husband's was the calamarata, and my friend's was the short rib.

Amazing vegan Caesar and delicious handmade pasta! Wonderful wonderful find on a Saturday night with no wait. Would love to return again!!!

Great almond croissant and amazing chocolate chip cookies! This is a small spot, and while I haven’t tried much else from the menu yet, those two items alone are worth coming back for. The almond croissant was flaky and flavorful, and the chocolate chip cookie was soft, rich, and just the right amount of sweet.

one of the best sandwiches i’ve had in the city - it was mozzarella and eggplant on semolina. such a cute spot

stopped by during the gowanus open studio weekend. delicious ginger chai tea and lovely space.

Lovely out-of-the-way cafe/restaurant. Their lunch sandwiches are all (or at least all the ones I've had) stellar. But the absolute standouts are their baked goods. The sourdough chocolate chip cookie and rye brownie (they serve it as a sundae during dinner) are absolute favorites for me. A little less sweet, a touch of savory, and the complexity of the sourdough and rye, respectively, add a welcome riff to some classics/favorites while not diminishing the great qualities of the typical forms of these pastries. Add to that that they make some good coffee and the service is always kind and pleasant! The drawbacks are you can easily spend more than you want to at lunch and not necessarily be as full as you'd like, but I think the tradeoff is worth it for the quality.

Came here from Colorado. I've lived in Colorado for 16 years and I've NEVER had a sandwich or wrap as good as the "braised lamb wrap" - i actually had to come back my second day in Brooklyn and eat it AGAIN! ITS PHENOMENAL! Get the Braised Lamb and thank me later!

Really considerate staff recognized my dad had some mobility issues and made sure we knew a more accessible table was available for us. The food was ridiculously good and they're flexible with substitutions if you're a vegetarian, which I appreciated. Best dang chai of my life. So glad to have stopped here.

The food is so delicious and reliable at Runner and Stone. The bread is scrumptious but somehow I always have room for the carefully crafted savory starters and mains. The food is enhanced with real seasoning (not just salt like many other establishments), and is so friendly for everyone from GF to Vegan to carnivores. The ingredients taste so well sourced and are prepared to maintain their freshness. So much prepared here is from what is in season. We celebrate many family birthdays here. And the desserts! Leave room for them!! Enjoy!

I’ve finally found my favorite local bakery. You can tell they use high-quality ingredients because the bread tastes like it's straight out of the oven. Plus, the team there is wonderfully kind and helpful. A must-visit!

Read about Runner and Stone as one of the top croissant places in NYC. Can absolutely verify what I read is true and can also recommend their espresso, Parker House rolls and whole wheat baguette. Drip coffee was dark roast and too hot. We can let that slide. Stick to espresso if you’re having coffee.

What a cute place! The service and food were top notch! I met some friends for dinner and there was a great selection of vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free options in addition to meat dishes. I had the chickpea gemelli pasta with mushroom bolognese. It was a large portion, which was so good I ate the whole thing. I don't eat meat, but my friend said the burger was one of the best they've ever had. To finish, we shared a beautiful cobbler. Highly recommend this place to catch up with friends or have a cute date night.

Quite literally the BEST sandwich in nyc. Possibly the world. Amazing staff. Get the smoked turkey on focaccia it’ll blow your mind. Best tuna melt I’ve ever had.

Best Baugette in NYC! A lovely bakery/patisserie that has been quietly and consistently also serving wonderful food as well. This establishment is run by folks who care deeply about their creations. Full stop. That's pretty much all you need to know... everything the do here is executed with intentional skill and passion.

A forgotten gem for dinner. Food is amazing, as is the service. Only reason it gets 4 for atmosphere is because no one else seems to remember how great it is Go back and enjoy the duck pastrami and the squid ink pasta

Absolutely in love with this place. Have been here on multiple occasions during lunch and then at night for drinks and the service has always been super notch, the food is on point and the drinks are tasty. Really good place to chat and not be overpowered by loud obnoxious music.

If I could give 10 stars, I would! We had an amazing time- excellent wine (orange pinot!), amazing food (jimmy nardello peppers! handmade pasta!), and the most welcoming, warm service ever. I will go back just to say hi to Natasha and wish I could come here every day for pastries and conversation. You must give it a try, and check out the little garden in the atrium in back. Thank you!

Came here for breakfast, service was great and quick. Pastries were delicious. Croissant was light, airy, fluffy and buttery. The chocolate croissant had the same texture but with a nice dark contrast of the chocolate inside without being too sweet. The apple turnover was delicious!!! The filling wasn't overly sweet and nice bold flavour of apple and cinnamon. And the monkey bread was also nice with a hint of cinnamon

I had their casserole with latte. Food are nice, waiter is friendly. They have more seats downsdownstrs. The canele has a hard cover and very moisture texture inside. Its $3 for each. Plain croissants are crispy. The wheat bread also has a hard skin. Overall I'll say their bread are more baked but I like it.

Complementary breakfast that came with our hotel room , we stayed at the Union Hotel and they gave us tickets to redeem at the place. Service was good , orange juice and tea was perfect, the pastries (croissants) were not that fresh and fluffy, other than that was ok.

Really solid lunch menu. soup and sandwich were really good. The potatoe soup (daily special) was sooo good and filling

The restaurant has a nice atmosphere and interesting decor. The service is great. The pretzel was somewhat dry. The arancini was good, a bit dense, the sauce was flavorful. The squid ink pasta was slightly overcooked, both the pasta and the squid and the sauce didn't have a lot of flavor. Overall the food was fine but nothing was memorable.

I've wanted to come here for a long time, based on the good reviews. Went there for brunch and I've been extremely disappointed unfortunately. Coffee and orange juice were, but the Fritata and the side of house-made bacon were really "meh" - sizes are small, taste ok but overall feel like they didn't put a lot of "research" into it. I should try the dinner and lunch menus to give a full appreciation but I would recommend not going there for brunch.

It's okay. I am not sure why the high rating. The coffee was disgusting and the food was bland

Fantastic food and warm staff, but service is very slow (waited 10 min for someone to take our order, had to get up to find someone). Another time, we were waiting in line for several minites to pick up bread. Someone came in, reached over the side and grabbed the last ones with his hand (cutting everyone waiting) and gave cash to cashier, who didn't even blink or object.

Came here for a sunday lunch/brunch with my partner, and unfortunately had a very negative experience all-around with both service and food. Starting with food: veg chowder was an absolute mess, sandwiches were ok. The vegetable chowder was topped with way too much finishing oil, and had almost 0 flavor to it, incredibly under-seasoned. For sandwiches, we got the fried lemon and zucchini sandwich, and the lemon slice that was fried was too big to be edible. I love lemon, but had to pull the large wedge of lemon off of my sandwich to eat it. It was decent flavor-wise. Coffee was good. Hush puppies were dry. Now for service…they informed us when we walked in that it’d be counter service ordering. No big deal, fine. Where this gets strange is when they told us to use the server’s station to get our water and utensils…not a station set up for guests really, but going and grabbing things from where the servers would usually take. Then when paying, the reader automatically had a 22% tip on it! For us to serve ourselves. We were the only people there besides when people stopped in to get from the bakery, and when people did stop in, one woman literally had to walk to the back of the store to fetch one of the baristas from the back, where they were sitting and talking. The cooks brought the food to the server station, couldn’t find any of the baristas/servers, tried to get their attention from the back and were ignored, and luckily the cooks saw we were the only people there and brought us our food. We had to put our plates and glasses away at the end too, and scrape off our plates. I could’ve just rolled with all of this if the food was good, but the food being bad really just made this one of the worse lunch experiences I’ve had in the area. Seems like a nice coffee spot though!

Venue is NOT wheelchair/ADA accessible. They have a sign outside that suggests they are, but it is wrong. I called and spoke to them. They don't have a ramp or an alternate entrance. Their "solution" was, "oh, uh, I guess we can have someone carry you in." That doesn't qualify as accessible. Restaurants that do not understand accessibility should not just make a claim about something they do not know.