Originally a beach resort, this Coney Island community has once of the best smatterings of restaurant and café offerings in Brooklyn. Home to many displaced ethnic groups during the Second World War, Brighton Beach is a marvel of diversity, with a distinct character that has made it a popular background in movies like Requiem For A Dream and plays like Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs. The neighborhood brings a bit of the old country--all such applicable countries, in fact--to Brooklyn.