They've been on the corner of 7th Avenue and 25th Street for a long time. Maybe 40 years. Luckily, they're not closing--only moving off the corner and into the block. So that's a good thing.
Still, I'll miss seeing their hand-painted sign on that corner. And I like the old feeling inside the cluttered shop.
Now and then, I'll go inside to be among the bolts and the kids from FIT buying fabric for their designs.
The shop felt like a survivor, an anomaly in a neighborhood rapidly homogenizing.
Winick has the listing. In the rendering, they've slapped their own name over the antique sign. The neighboring businesses they crow about include: "Whole Foods Market, Buy Buy Baby, Papyrus, Astoria Bank, FIT, Caffe Bene, Starbucks, TD Bank, Argo Tea, GNC, Chase, Jamba Juice, Chipotle, and many more."
I bet none of them have Frank Sinatra's mugshot taped to the wall.
What can they do, they are surrounded? Whole Foods, Starbucks, half a dozen Chase banks, Duane Reades, 7-11s, etc, Gourmet Foods. Yes there are a handfull of survivors too like the hotdog place, Kove Bros Hardware and chinese takeout. Just down the block is the renovated Chelsea Hotel, which depending on your half full/half empty point of view is vanishing or is a reborn survivor.
ReplyDeleteI've shopped at TrueMart for years. I don't share your nostalgia, although I'm glad to hear it's not going out of business. I've had a lot of uneven purchasing experiences there and the feeling that if just one bolt tilted the wrong way I'd be smothered was not comforting. David, who took over after his grandfather died, is nice. The other salespeople, at least one of whom is another family member, are not always that helpful.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that grungy automatically equals historically interesting.