This is the way the #storefront appeared in 2005 when we took this #film photo and interviewed the owner for our book “Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York”.
We just revisited Kossar’s (which has been renovated) in our latest YouTube video: Lower East Side Food Tour. To see how this iconic #bialy and #bagel bakery looks now and to hear about @kossars history and the crucial difference between a bagel and their delicious bialy please subscribe to our channel as we will be posting new videos weekly, highlighting small unique businesses in NYC.
"When Cassie Harwood-Jacquet moved to NYC from Adelaide, Australia eight years ago, she thought she’d only stay for a few months. But after scoring a job in a salon (she’d worked as a hairstylist for a decade back home), meeting her husband Matt, and having him move to New York from Paris to continue his career as a menswear designer, she decided to put down roots. Cassie and Matt now have an adorable three-year-old daughter named Fanella Rose and a lovely, family-friendly duplex in Chelsea. To balance her life as a working mom, Cassie set up her own salon, Maison Jacquet, in their apartment. 6sqft recently paid the Jacquets a visit and got a tour of their contemporary, colorful, and comfortable home and chatted with Cassie about raising children in Chelsea, working from home, and how she and Matt decorated their space."
We start the day with a visit to the iconic Economy Candy on Rivington Street, which specializes in old-fashioned candies 🍭🍬chocolates🍫, nuts 🥜 and dried fruits. @economycandy was founded in 1937 by the Cohen family. The interior is stocked from floor to ceiling with hard-to-find nostalgia-type candy including brands that you never knew were still in production. •
• To see the interior of Economy Candy and its extensive candy inventory and its collection of #vintage bubble gum and candy dispensers please watch our YouTube video on our JamesandKarla channel as we highlight small unique businesses in NYC and post a new video weekly.
In this Lower East Side food tour, we visit many independently-owned food businesses, some of which have been in operation since the 1930s.
• On Grand Street near Essex, we visit the newly opened snack bar, Diller @dillernyc where we have their signature fried pickles sourced from their next door neighbor, the Pickle Guys @pickleguys. •
• To see the beautifully designed interior including the neon pickle sign created by @noblesigns and see us and our dog @hudsonpittienyc try their delicious 😋 fried pickles 🥒 please subscribe to our channel. We will be posting new videos weekly, highlighting small unique businesses in NYC.
In this Lower East Side food tour, we visit many independently-owned food businesses, some of which have been in operation since the 1930s.
We start the day with a visit to the iconic Economy Candy on Rivington Street, which specializes in old-fashioned candies, chocolates, nuts and dried fruits. We then walk to Grand Street where we visit four food businesses all steps from one another.
We visit the newly opened snack bar, Diller, where we have their signature fried pickles and visit its next door neighbor, the Pickle Guys, which specializes in a wide variety of traditionally cured kosher pickles and pickled vegetables and fruits.
We then go inside Kossar's, a bakery famous for its freshly baked bialys and bagels and also visit the Doughnut Plant, where we get 2 delicious freshly made artisanal doughnuts.
We also visit a surprise family-owned business at the end of the video.
We would love for you to subscribe to our channel and hit the thumbs up and share if you enjoy the video. We will be posting new videos weekly, highlighting small unique businesses in NYC. SUBSCRIBE TO NEVER MISS AN EPISODE: https://www.youtube.com/c/JamesandKarla
"A few years ago, a date brought Nick Gray to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and showed him all of the pieces she really loved. Something clicked. “The passion was contagious,” Nick said. “I went back to the museum dozens of times, iPad in hand, doing a deep dive into the pieces I found most interesting.” As this became a serious hobby, Nick, who has no background in art or history, began inviting friends to join him at the Met to teach them fun facts about lesser-known works of art and artifacts. What started as a new obsession with museums, grew into Museum Hack, a million-dollar company that leads “renegade” small-group tours of museums in New York City and four other cities."
In this episode we visit @rayscandystore during the heat wave on Sunday, which was also #nationalicecreamday . We and our rescue dog @hudsonpittienyc cooled off with a delicious #softserve ice cream 🍦 from Ray’s. Ray’s is one of the few places in the neighborhood which stays open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and specializes in soft serve, egg creams, milk shakes 🥛, fried Oreos, french fries 🍟, hot dogs 🌭 and beignets. •
• To see more of the exterior details painted by @peacheeblue as part of the @100gatesproject and see more of the the interior details at Ray’s Candy Store including its #handpainted signage please subscribe to our YouTube channel JamesandKarla (as we highlight unique independently owned small businesses like Ray’s) visit: https://www.youtube.com/c/JamesandKarla
In this special heat wave episode that we filmed yesterday during the #heatwave in NYC, in honor of #nationalicecreamday, we visit independently-owned ice cream 🍦 shops in the East Village including Davey’s Ice Cream. Davey's Ice Cream on First Ave near St. Mark’s Place was founded by David Yoo in 2013 and from the start has focused on making #homemadeicecream using only quality ingredients which are sourced locally.
To see the interior of this #retro style #icecreamshop and hear more about the flavors they offer including #vegan options, please subscribe to our YouTube channel as we highlight independently owned unique small businesses in NYC .
We would love for you to subscribe to our channel and hit the thumbs up if you enjoy the video. We will be posting new videos weekly, highlighting small unique businesses in NYC.
In this special heat wave ice cream episode we travel around the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan on National Ice Cream Day and visit independently-owned ice cream shops to cool off.
We start our afternoon with a visit to Davey's Ice Cream, which specializes in homemade ice cream using quality ingredients sourced locally, and then visit the iconic Ray's Candy Store, which specializes in soft serve ice cream.
We end the day with a visit to Alphabet Scoop, an ice cream shop that also "changes lives one scoop at a time".
During our tour of ice cream shops, we also walk past sidewalk vendors, visit Tompkins Square park and highlight local architecture and see a great deal of street art and graffiti.
We would love for you to subscribe to our channel and hit the thumbs up if you enjoy the video. We will be posting new videos weekly, highlighting small unique businesses in NYC.
This iconic #costume and #magic superstore has three floors full of costumes, masks, 🎭, wigs, interactive props, novelties, gags as well as a large #makeup and magic section which caters to both amateurs and professionals.
We visited @abracadabranyc with our rescue dog @hudsonpittienyc and checked out the costume department, which stocks and rents many #cosplay and #halloween costumes. We had so much fun looking around this unique shop.
To see the interior and to watch the in-house #magician perform tricks for Hudson, please watch our latest NoMad & Flatiron video and subscribe to our YouTube channel JamesandKarla: https://www.youtube.com/c/JamesandKarla
“Asian fusion” is undoubtedly one of the most popular categories on Seamless, but for restauranteurs Lawrence and Ayako Elliott, it wasn’t about following the trends. “When we went out to dinner, we ate mostly [East] Asian food… so we wanted to create a menu that we would find interesting,” Lawrence told 6sqft. And this is exactly what they did at their Metropolitan Avenue restaurant Monarch Theater, which opened in February. Not only is the food influenced by traditional East Asian cuisine, but the design of the two-story restaurant–which the Elliots worked on themselves–was inspired by the former theater that occupied the site. Ahead, take a look around and learn more about this new Williamsburg gem.
In this episode we visit the iconic Rizzoli Bookstore @Rizzoli on Broadway near West 26th Street in NoMad. This #independentbookstore was established in #NewYorkCity in 1964 and for over 50 years has specialized in illustrated books 📚 on architecture, interior design, fashion, photography, cookery and the fine and applied arts 🎭 as well as literature and foreign language books.
We absolutely love 💕 this shop and they carry both our “Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York” and “Store Front II- A History Preserved” books in the Mini Edition. (A Staff Pick!). We always stop in to support the shop and sign copies of our books in case you would like to purchase a signed copy. Rizzoli Bookstore
To see more of their vast selection of books including their dedicated dog 🐕 section which @hudsonpittienyc enjoys looking through, please subscribe to our YouTube channel JamesandKarla ! SUBSCRIBE TO NEVER MISS AN EPISODE: https://www.youtube.com/c/JamesandKarla
In the Part 2 of our NoMad and Flatiron District walking tour of Manhattan, we visit many independently-owned unique small businesses, including the iconic Rizzoli Bookstore, which was established in New York City in 1964 and have a delicious matcha and vanilla swirl soft serve from Cha Cha Matcha.
We also visit Westpfal Henry and Company, a premier sharpening company and cutlery and tool store for New York City's professional stylists and culinary elite since 1874.
We end the day with a visit to Abracadabra NYC, a costume and magic superstore where Halloween is celebrated every day! We also look at some street art, water towers, and unique architecture these neighborhoods have, including the Flatiron Building.
We would love for you to subscribe to our channel and hit the thumbs up if you enjoy the video. We will be posting new videos weekly, highlighting unique small businesses in New York City.
The Moondance Diner opened in 1933 as the Holland Tunnel Diner and could seat 34 people with six tables and ten counter stools. Sadly this #vintage #Diner in SoHo closed in 2007, a victim of rising rents. The structure itself was saved from demolition and moved by flat bed truck to La Barge, Wyoming. It too sadly closed for business and its fate is uncertain (it was for sale as of 2012). In the lot in SoHo where Moondance once stood is the James Hotel @jameshotels.
Maman is French for Mom and many of the recipes used at @_mamannyc_ are childhood favorites used by the founders mothers. • To see more of the interior and to see what delicious items we ordered from this cafe, please subscribe to our YouTube channel JamesandKarla as we highlight unique and interesting small shops and places in NYC. Or visit: https://www.youtube.com/c/JamesandKarla
In this cake-centric 🍰 and vintage-inspired episode we visit N.Y. Cake @nycake flagship store on West 22nd Street which is a one-stop shop for the greatest baking and cake decorating products. This family-owned business was founded by Joan Mansour nearly 30 years ago as a school for cake decorating which led her to develop her own line of baking and cake decorating supplies. As avid bakers ourselves, we absolutely love 💕 their vast selection of cookie cutters (as #typography fans we purchased their “J” and “K” letters) and have purchased many sugars, sprinkles and edibles for decorating cookies, cupcakes and cakes 🎂.
N.Y. Cake also has its own cafe @nycakecafe and baking school @nycakeacademy run by the second-generation co-owner and well recognized #cake decorator, Lisa Mansour @lisamansournycake. •
• To see more of the interior of this amazing specialty #storefront and their enormous selection of #baking and cake decorating supplies and to listen to Lisa Mansour speak about the shop, please subscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/JamesandKarla
In this cake -centric and vintage inspired episode, we travel to NoMad and the Flatiron neighborhoods of Manhattan and check out the amazing selection of cake decorating and baking supplies at N.Y. Cake and then walk with our dog Hudson to get coffee and a slice of some delicious pistachio loaf cake from the café, Maman.
We look at a large selection of vintage and antique radios, telephones, phonographs, clocks and typewriters at Waves inside the Showplace Antique & Design Center in NoMad and also visit the Missing Link shop, which specializes in vintage cuff links for both men and women.
We also look at some of the unique architecture and notable buildings these neighborhoods have including the Beaux Arts Appellate Division Courthouse, sculpted by Frederick Ruckstuhl with statues of great lawmakers lining the roof balustrade and figures representing Wisdom and Force flanking the main portal. We also highlight the art deco Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower with its skybridge.
We would love for you to subscribe to our channel and hit the thumbs up if you enjoy the video. We will be posting new videos weekly, highlighting unique small businesses in New York City.
Chinatown Fair Family Fun Center On Mott Street near Bowery is one of the last #video arcade centers in the city. It was founded in 1944 and was known for its tic tac toe playing chicken 🐓 (look at the original #signage in our photo). We recently visited @chinatownfair in our YouTube video- Chinatown: Dim Sum, Cake & Porcelain and looked at all of their classic #arcadegames and driving and shooter games and watched people playing the #rhythm games including Dance, Dance Revolution.
To see the interior of this video 🎮 arcade center, please subscribe to our YouTube channel JamesandKarla as we highlight unique small shops and places in NYC please visit: https://www.youtube.com/c/JamesandKarla
In our latest YouTube video, one of the unique shops we visit is 8 Bit & Up Video Games on East 3rd Street, which specializes in retro #videogames made before 2002 like PlayStation 2 and earlier. @8bitandup also buys, sells and repairs video game 🎮 consoles and #arcade cabinets and super guns. •
To see the interior of the shop and lots of #vintage game consoles and accessories for many different systems, please subscribe to our YouTube channel JamesandKarla as we highlight small unique small businesses in NYC! Visit: https://www.youtube.com/c/JamesandKarla
@juliesvintage not only has a traditional #storefront but its stock, including #vinyl records and a large selection of #vintagecamera also spills out along the sidewalk leading to First Avenue. When we spoke with the owner, Julie she told us that she wouldn’t be able to survive if her landlord did not allow her to also sell items from her shop along the sidewalk.
To see the interior of the shop and lots of #vintagecameras and to see Julie arranging some of the custom costumes, headpieces and masks she designs, please subscribe to our YouTube channel JamesandKarla as we highlight small unique small businesses: https://www.youtube.com/c/JamesandKarla
In this episode we visit some of our favorite independently owned shops including Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery. Although technically located on the Lower East Side as it is located on the south side of East Houston Street which is considered the border of the East Village neighborhood, we still included it in our video as we absolutely love their freshly-baked #knishes. This historic bakery has been in business since 1910 and retains much of its original interior.
To hear more about @yonahschimmel history and to see more of its interior and watch its dumbwaiter in action, please subscribe to our YouTube channel JamesandKarla as we highlight unique small shops and places in New York City.
In this episode we travel around the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, starting the day with an iced coffee from Mudpark L.E.S., an independently-owned kiosk located within First Park which sells their own blend of coffee as well as teas, sandwiches and other healthy snacks.
We visit two different vintage shops in the neighborhood which also carry used vinyl records, including Julie's Vintage and Monk Vintage Thrift Shop.
We also stop in at 8 Bit and Up Video Games, which specializes in retro video games.
We end the day by getting a delicious freshly baked knish from Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery, which is located on East Houston Street at the boundary of the East Village and the Lower East Side.
We also walk past sidewalk vendors and highlight local architecture and see a great deal of street art and graffiti.
We would love for you to subscribe to our channel and hit the thumbs up if you enjoy the video. We will be posting new videos weekly, highlighting small unique businesses in NYC. SUBSCRIBE TO NEVER MISS AN EPISODE: https://www.youtube.com/c/JamesandKarla
"After spending many years designing theatrical lighting, Paul Gregory decided to transition into the world of architectural lighting. He started his career working on nightclubs and in 1987, founded his own firm in his neighborhood of Harlem. Eight years later, Paul and his team at Focus Lighting garnered international recognization for their work on the Entel Tower in Santiago Chile, the world’s first automated color-changing building. Since then, the firm has grown to have 35 employees and nabs commissions such as the Times Square ball, Tavern on the Green, and the Waldorf Astoria (and that’s just here in NYC)."
It was pretty steamy today in NYC with high humidity and temperatures so our thoughts went to having an icy ❄️ to cool ourselves off. We loved the #handpainted advertisement for “ICY” in this #storefront as well as the interesting #font used for the DIXIE DRIFTER #signage.
#Film photo from 2008 appears on our book “Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York”.
In this Chinatown food -centric episode, we walk through the anything-but-quiet ethnic enclave of Manhattan, which has one of the largest Chinese communities outside of Asia.
We start the day by visiting a third-generation family-owned bakery, Kam Hing Coffee Shop and get some of their famous Chinese-style sponge cakes. We walk along busy Canal Street and stop at one of the street vendors, Ling's Fresh Made Sweet Mini Cakes, where we purchase a paper bag filled with their puff-ball cakes. We also peruse the many produce and open-air street fruit markets and check out various exotic and strange Asian fruits, including Durian, the "King of Fruits", with its thorny exterior and strong smell.
We also visit the oldest store in Chinatown, Wing on Wo & Co., which opened in 1890 as a general store and is now being run by the fifth-generation family member, Mei Lum. We even have a chance to speak with Mei about the history of the her family's shop and her involvement in saving and securing its future.
We also stop in at the Chinatown Fair Family Fun Center, one of the last video arcade centers in the City. This arcade has classic video games, driving and shooter games and rhythm games including Dance, Dance Revolution.
We end the day, by visiting Nom Wah Tea Parlor on tiny crooked Doyers Street, the oldest dim sum restaurant in Chinatown.
We announced last year that the Federal row house building that houses Ideal Hosiery is up for sale and we recently checked up on the shop and found that it is still open for business. This long-time men’s hosiery #storefront on Grand Street (its been open since 1950) which we photographed for our book “Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York” in 2004 never ceases to amaze us as the window displays are full of dusty faded undershirts 👕and inside are rows of boxes 📦 of products that form a narrow aisle, and don’t look conducive to a vibrant business. The building is landmarked (it was built between 1831-1833 by John Jacob Astor) and has a pitched roof so it’s unlikely that a developer will be allowed to build higher than its present 3 1/2 stories but the air rights can be transferred to an adjacent lot.
