Fifth Avenue - NY Post

Wasn't Cucina here before 200 Fifth...and Aunt Suzie's there before both of 'em? Cucina was mos def the first of the Nice places, and the only one for a loooong time.

If my history is correct, Aunt Suzie's, A&S and a few others were there when that area of the Slope was mostly working class Italian and Irish. Cucina's and 200 5th were trying to cater to the "gentrifiers" moving in during the late '80's and early '90's. After that it seemed everyone who opened a upscale restaurant was trying to not only keep people from going to Manhattan for the same thing, but trying to lure Manhattanites as well.

200 5th: 1986; expanded in the 1990s
Aunt Suzie's: 1987
Cucina: 1990

Incidentally El Viejo Yayo has been open since 1963 if we include previous owners & a previous name (Blanco's). It too expanded in the 1990s.

Not sure about Tonio's, but the Patrick Nagel-style artwork on their walls strongly suggests an early-to-mid 1980s vintage.

Idlewild wrote: Aunt Suzie's is only 1987??? I could swear that I remember them to at least '75 when my family moved to Park Slope. How about Tonio's?

OK, that makes sense, I remember Aunt Suzie's opening about the same time I had moved here.

Before Moutarde, there was a steakhouse there for maybe a couple of years, far from forever! Before the steakhouse (which I believe was there maybe 2 years), that corner was a funeral home. The funeral home however had been there forever, LOL

Beso I am not sure about, but it certainly was not an old timer.

Beso: late 1999 or thereabouts till 2007; before that it was Firebird Café

Snooky's: late '60s/early '70s till 2007

Amateur sleuthing! The best place is to look at old restaurant reviews in newspaper or magazine archives (the Times has an online one; so does New York magazine). It's best when they say something like "this new eatery is only two weeks old" or something like that, so then you can date it precisely. Lots of restaurants frame their earliest reviews & put them on display. I've also learned a lot just talking to owners or staff. When 5th Ave. started to explode I got curious & starting asking a lot of questions of oldtimers. And then, I guess I have a good head for remembering dates. If you really want to geek out, the main library has old telephone directories on microfilm you can look through, including special ones indexed by street. From 1999 on the Chowhound archives will tell you everything you want to know about restaurant openings & closings.