Junior’s

Sure, cheesecake, in one form or another, has been baked and eaten in Europe since the 1400s. But New Yorkers, as they do with many things, have appropriated its history in the form of the New York–style cheesecake. Immortalized by Lindy’s restaurant in Midtown, which was opened by Leo Lindemann in 1921, the particular type of confection served there – made of cream cheese, heavy cream, a dash of vanilla and a cookie crust – became wildly popular in the ’40s. Junior’s, which opened on Flatbush Ave in Brooklyn in 1929 and in Midtown just a few years ago, makes its own famous version of the creamy cake with a graham-cracker crust.