Restaurant review, Bay Ridge Joins the Arab Peninsula.

In the 1890s, Atlantic Avenue south of Brooklyn Heights became the center of the city's burgeoning Arab population. The original residents were Lebanese and Syrians, but in the ensuing decades, they were joined by Jordanians, Egyptians, and Palestinians. The latter half of the 20th century saw a divided Yemen, and in the 1970s, many immigrants arrived from the southern People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. In the East Village, they ran newsstands and candy stores; at the corner of Atlantic and Court, they established a miniature real estate empire that came to include retail stores, apartment buildings, and four restaurants. Gradually, much of Brooklyn's Arab population has migrated southward to Bay Ridge. Two years ago, Bab al Yemen became the first restaurant of its type to be situated within sight of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Just recently, rival Yemen Café; claimed its own South Brooklyn beachhead. The new place is located along a bustling stretch of Fifth Avenue that feels like a Middle Eastern souk: Filigreed brass cookware dangles in glinting displays, bakeries mount racks of baklava in their front windows, and groceries flaunt barrels of olives in shades ranging from deep green to purple to midnight black.

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