Snedeker’s Roadhouse

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“Going to the Trot” (detail), Currier & Ives. Although produced in 1869, the picture actually depicts an earlier era, probably the 1840s.

Even though it was out of town on the Jamaica Plank Road at the edge of the Kings County line, Snedeker’s was very much a Brooklyn institution in the mid-nineteenth century, especially in winter. To the young and young-at-heart in the city, a snowfall was synonymous with Snedeker’s, as nags and ropes and bells and harness were hauled out and hitched for the perfect eight-mile sleigh-ride. “John I’s,” as it was known, could be counted on for huge hickory hearth fires, steaming punch in deep tankards, and bountiful meals that were much admired for their culinary achievements.

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