Only the Bred Know Brooklyn

About a mile south of downtown Brooklyn, in the tree-dappled Carroll Gardens neighborhood, that idyllic stretch of locally-owned shops peddling locally-sourced goods, sits a relatively nondescript, multigenerational family business. It's easy to miss the place, its ivy facade spanning four brownstones, blanketed in thick shade and wading in a sunken garden. In fact, the only thing that really lets you know the property isn't in fact just housing for some well-to-do creative-class couple—possibly newlywed, possibly with young child—is the decades-old sign sitting angled on the corner, declaring its service in simple scroll-block lettering: Funeral Home.