Atlantic Avenue is home to a plethora of Middle Eastern shops and restaurants, mostly concentrated on the block between Court and Clinton Streets. The Middle Eastern population arrived on Atlantic Avenue in the early 20^th century largely as a result of the construction of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel on Manhattan’s Lower West Side, which had been home to a sizeable Middle Eastern community. This displaced population came to Atlantic Avenue and self-identified as the “South Ferry community,” in homage to their previous home near the South Ferry terminal and also in reference to the South Ferry at the foot of Atlantic Avenue.