Jamie Larson Bookshop owners Terrence McCoy and Bob
Contant.The constantly-embattled St. Mark’s Bookshop surpassed its goal of $23,000 today, though that doesn’t mean the beloved store’s survival is certain.
“This first big chunk at least guarantees that we will keep fighting because you have shown everyone that there is a reason to,” the owners wrote in a thank you note posted online.
Currently, the store has raised over $24,000 and still has three days of fundraising left.
But in a phone conversation co-owner Terrence McCoy said many hurdles remained. For one, the store’s shelves are disconcertingly empty due to the fact that some publishers have stopped shipping new books due to unpaid bills. The owners are seeking investors who could fund the new storefront, but thus far, any potential backers have favored the existing location, Mr. McCoy said.
“I can’t say that we’re going to instantly move,” he added. Read more…
Sarah DarvilleThe designer who outfitted Chloë Sevigny’s apartment as well as her brother’s club, the Beatrice Inn, is moving to bigger digs in the East Village.
According to a Craigslist posting, David Cafiero’s art gallery and home goods store, Cafiero Select, will soon vacate its East Sixth Street location near Cooper Square. The post advertises two side-by-side storefronts, each “325 square feet with painted exposed brick walls and 11′ ceilings”: one is going for $2,800 per month and the other for $2,750.
It won’t be part of the wave of furniture-shop closings in recent months. Mr. Cafiero said the store was moving to a bigger, better space in the neighborhood. He declined to go into detail.
Photos: Sarah Darville.
At Forbidden Planet’s new location, which opened last Tuesday, the shelves still overflow with comic books, graphic novels, and action figures – but according to manager Jeff Ayers, there’s one big difference from the old store at the corner of Broadway and 12th Street. “It’s not a cave,” he said, pointing at windows in the front and a skylight in the back. “There’s a sense of actually being able to breathe.”
The new location at 832 Broadway is the store’s third on the block south of Union Square where it first opened in 1981. For those who remember sky-high shelves and bumping into other customers in the aisles, the 40 percent increase in space will likely be a shock to the system.
“F.P. has always had that cool, grimy — not dirty… but that reputation of being jam-packed,” Mr. Ayers said. “We want it to be the same, and a little classier.” The store’s most recent Yelp reviewer appreciated the upgrades, writing, “So much more room and THE A/C WORKS!!!” Read more…
Photos: Daniel Maurer
The Patricia Field store, which was on East Eighth Street for many years and then moved to a former kitchen supply store at 302 Bowery, moved a couple of doors over last week and has reopened at 306 Bowery in the designer’s former home.
Ms. Field, who has outfitted everyone from drag queens to club kids to Carrie Bradshaw, first made a home at 306 Bowery in 2005, after many years of living above her previous store in Greenwich Village. She eventually acquired the ground floor of the building behind her apartment, at 298 Elizabeth Street, knocked down its exterior wall, and connected it to her home by building a skylight between the two buildings.
Now that Ms. Field has moved to a smaller place in the Seward Park area, her former Bowery digs are serving as the new location of her boutique. At 4,000 square feet, the bi-level space is nearly twice the size of the previous location, leaving space for more inventory from brands like Boy London, M.Y.O.B., and Noir. Read more…
A tipster notes that renovations are underway at 98 Avenue B, the future home of the Alphabet City mainstay Gruppo, which has served thin crust pies for the last 11 years. Last week Community Board 3 voted in favor of the transfer of Gruppo’s beer and wine license, provided it agree to several pro forma stipulations related to quality-of-life concerns. An employee said that the restaurant would open in its new location sometime this summer.
