While traveling through Greece and Italy, he found inspiration in the local businesses and the people who ran them. When he returned home, he wanted to discover what locals were making in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got on my bike with my clipboard, and I would create a map on Google Earth,\u201d Gervasi said. \u201cI put all the places that made things in Brooklyn, ride my bike around, visit them, get off the bike with the clipboard, figure out where I\u2019m gonna go next.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DSC7961.jpg\")
Dom Gervasi, founder of Made in Brooklyn Tours, has spent 15 years introducing visitors to Brooklyn\u2019s small businesses and neighborhoods.Photo by Emma Delahanty<\/p>\n
On one of his expeditions, Gervasi was invited on a private tour of Gillies Coffee Company<\/a> on 19th Street and Fourth Avenue. The hospitality he received stuck with him and opened his eyes to the possibility of producing tours for others.<\/p>\n An instructor in an entrepreneurial course offered by the city\u2019s Department of Small Business Services<\/a> inspired the name Made in Brooklyn after Gervasi took the class while considering creating tours with the same theme. As soon as he left the course that day, he bought the URL.<\/p>\n Sites such as Groupon, LivingSocial and Amazon Local helped Gervasi promote his tours when he first started.\n<\/p>\n In 2011, his tours involved full days of walking, even in 90-degree weather, and drew larger crowds. But over time, he realized that intimate groups of no more than 12 people and tours lasting no more than three hours would leave a more lasting impression.<\/p>\n The Red Hook tour \u2014 one Gervasi had not led since the COVID-19 pandemic \u2014 was the first tour he designed.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll do a walk in a neighborhood,\u201d Gervasi said. \u201cI\u2019ll make, and I\u2019ll walk that route, and I might come late at night just to see who\u2019s around, when places are open. For this tour, I was originally doing Thursdays, but then I was visiting the neighborhood and seeing that places weren\u2019t open.\u201d<\/p>\n To create the tours, Gervasi scouts neighborhoods and ensures businesses not only offer quality products but also welcoming environments, which means using different tactics to get to know local business owners.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m this big bald guy, and they think I\u2019m this inspector,\u201d he said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n For Gervasi, however, it is about more than visiting places in Red Hook and mapping out points of interest with facilities such as restrooms, access to public transportation and other amenities. He wants people on his tours to understand the history of a place by introducing them to business owners and offering behind-the-scenes looks at how the businesses operate.<\/p>\n Using press releases and the New York City Landmarks Commission as resources, Gervasi does extensive online research, taking time to learn about businesses in the area and their stories. During his tours, he lets business owners tell those stories themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re like superheroes,\u201d Gervasi said. \u201cThey have an origin story, they have an arch enemy, they have allies and you can learn that story. I learned that story.\u201d\n<\/p>\n All the stops on Gervasi\u2019s tours must fit the Made in Brooklyn theme and usually fall somewhere along the creative spectrum. As long as they add character to the neighborhood, they are a good fit, according to Gervasi, who always makes sure to end his tours on a high note.<\/p>\n In February, Gervasi celebrated the 15th anniversary of Made in Brooklyn Tours, but said that even after 15 years, he is still learning the business and how to better promote his tours to English speakers around the world despite ongoing challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cost of travel has gone up,\u201d he said. \u201cThe hassle of getting into the United States seems to be more difficult. I\u2019ve never had a tougher year.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Like the creative businesses he highlights on his tours, Gervasi has had to get creative to keep his small business running. In such an unregulated industry, he finds promoting his tours locally and using partner channels such as Viator and GetYourGuide to promote them internationally helpful.<\/p>\n As a proud small-business owner, Gervasi is passionate about entrepreneurship and wants to encourage others to start businesses of their own. He also wants New Yorkers \u2014 whether they are originally from South Brooklyn or moved to the city from other countries \u2014 to become more interested in understanding what makes the city where they live unique.<\/p>\n Starting his own business and becoming a tour guide was not something Gervasi was encouraged to do. Growing up in an Italian household, his family wanted him to pursue a career in medicine. After a year at New York University, he transferred to Baruch College and graduated with a business degree.<\/p>\n \u201cMy father wanted me to be a doctor. So, he was pushing me, all sorts of ways,\u201d he said. \u201cI do not want to be a doctor.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Without financial support from his family, Gervasi helped people with computers to pay for college. Years later, in addition to leading tours, Gervasi cares for his mother full time.\n<\/p>\n Competing with companies such as Gray Line and Big Bus New York, Gervasi needed to create a niche experience to attract customers.\n<\/p>\n That has given Gervasi an \u201cedge,\u201d because he \u201ctakes you off the beaten track tours,\u201d said David Sharps, a friend of Gervasi and local business owner.\n<\/p>\n The revival tour in Red Hook lasted three hours and began at Pier 12, offering a view of Manhattan and the peninsula. After a brief history lesson about the area, Gervasi led the group to its first stop, the Red Hook Pinball Museum<\/a>.<\/p>\n There, museum worker Kevin Murray gave a short history of the space and the pinball machines, explaining how the older models worked by showing their insides. The tour continued to Widow Jane Distillery<\/a>, then to a viewpoint overlooking the city, New Jersey and Governors Island.<\/p>\n After providing tours in the area for more than a decade, Gervasi has become a familiar face in the community. But with the tour paused for several years, he was unfamiliar with some of the newer businesses in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n Right before the tour, Gervasi met Meya Ebbersen, co-owner of Fr\u00f8<\/a>, and later brought the group through the Danish rye bread shop to hear its story.<\/p>\n Ebbersen and her business partner opened Fr\u00f8 because it was something that \u201cdoesn\u2019t exist here,\u201d she said. They saw an opening in the market and began producing the bread in Red Hook.\n<\/p>\n Leaving Fr\u00f8, Gervasi led the group to a cidery where worker Ezra Fiovi, who had met Gervasi years earlier, gave a short tour of the space. \u201cThis is a hole in the wall neighborhood,\u201d Fiovi said. \u201cIt feels like you\u2019re getting out of the city.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Following a tour of Flickinger Glassworks<\/a>, a long-standing glass-bending studio in the neighborhood, the group was taken to the back of the studio to view the art of glass bending.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DSC8318.jpg\")
After being laid off during the 2009 recession, Dom Gervasi created Made in Brooklyn Tours to spotlight the borough\u2019s local businesses and makers.Photo by Emma Delahanty<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DSC8007.jpg\")
Kevin Murray, a worker at the Red Hook Pinball Museum, shows visitors the inside of a vintage pinball machine during a Made in Brooklyn Tour led by Dom Gervasi in Red Hook.Photo by Emma Delahanty\n<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DSC8181.jpg\")
Visitors watch the art of glass bending during a stop at Flickinger Glassworks in Red Hook.Photo by Emma Delahanty\n<\/p>\n