Thank Goodness: Trader Joe's is Really Coming to the Upper West Side

Upper West Siders in New York are nothing if not picky about their food: complaining about the lack of good restaurants and comparing notes on where to get the best artisinal cheese is considered a badge of honor.
Now, residents above 59th Street have reason to rejoice--after literally years of rumor and speculation, iconic gourmet food store Trader Joe’s is coming to the city’s Upper West Side.
A new luxury tower, called The Corner, has just been completed on 72nd and Broadway in Manhattan. (Really? In this economy?) One of the stores that will anchor the ground-floor area is Trader Joe’s; it’s expected to open later this year. The building has 50,000 square feet of commercial space; the new store will take over two floors on the corner.
One of the other commercial spaces has been rented to Bank of America (of course), and a third remains vacant.
Trader Joe's is much loved for its lines of foods that cater to everyone from vegans to the stroller set, with an especially good line of their own products. Prepared meals, kosher foods, ethnic specialties, fat-free, vegetarian--they’ve got it all, and it all comes with a kind of cool, downtown vibe that adds to its appeal. There’s already a Trader Joe's store on 14th Street in Manhattan, but face it, who wants to bring all those groceries uptown on the subway?
With Citarella and Fairway just blocks away from the new location, and a new Whole Foods further uptown, Upper West Siders may have to find something new to complain about.

Craving Strawberries Above 110th Street? Now They Can Be Yours

Buying fresh produce and gourmet food was a challenge in upper Manhattan...until now. A Best Yet Market, part of a Long Island-based chain, opened yesterday on Frederick Douglass Boulevard between 118th and 19th Streets in upper Manhattan.
The store, which took approximately $2 million to open, offers such delicacies as fresh produce, olives, cheese and fresh fish to a fresh-food starved neighborhood. Half of the money needed for the opening was loaned from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone.
About 140 employees work at the store, which is located two blocks from a subway station, and about half of those are from the immediate neighborhood.
The First Bet Yet store originally opened in Brooklyn and sold fruits and vegetables. This evolved into a Long Island supermarket, and then into a chain of about 11 stores across Long Island.
Before the new store opened, neighborhood residents would often have to walk or take public transportation 10 or even 20 blocks downtown in order to purchase affordable (or even available) strawberries, melons, salad materials and other garden produce. Organic produce is also available.
Reaction from neighborhood residents has been overwhelmingly positive, with customers saying that the need for such a local emporium has existed for a long time. Most of the local food stores in that area tend to focus on staples, not fresh produce.
And if that display of lettuce and tomatoes looks so good that customers end up buying more than they can carry? Delivery options are offered from 96th to 125th Streets, between Fifth Avenue and the Hudson River.

Absolutely Love Eloise? Head to the Plaza Hotel

If you are in search of a rawther precocious shopping experience in New York City, then you must hurry hurry hurry to the new Eloise Shop at the Plaza Hotel (Fifth Avenue at Central Park South and 58th Street; 212 759-3000). The 2,100-square-foot shop opened last month, and it’s a tribute to Kay Thompson’s famous little girl who made her home at the even more famous hotel with her Nanny, dog Weenie and turtle Skipperdee.
With its child’s-playhouse-feel, the shop evokes the illustrations magically brought to life by Hilary Knight. The original series of books was written in the 1950s and has become legendary.
The store features a sea of pink in various colors—the full Pepto-Bismol experience awaits in the form of furniture, drapes, carpet, bean bags, and more.
A portrait painted on the wall mimics the original in the lobby; this one was painted by a local artist.
Mums and their darlings will enjoy the Fashion Room, with its tiaras, tutus, sweatshirts, bathrobes, and more, many with the Eloise logo. Across the floor, the Tea Party Rom will soon start offering private tea parties and other special events. A reading room offers Eloise books to read and DVDs to watch; computers will soon be installed.
Also upcoming: A beauty salon as well as an Eloise-theme suite designed by Betsey Johnson.
A ”Live Like Eloise” package was offered by the hotel starting June 1.
And if your little darlings want get in touch with the famed six-year-old directly; a pink mailbox beckons for their notes.
Perhaps, if they’re lucky, a pink note will await them in return.

A Holiday Under the Stars--But This One Also Offers Retail

The stars are often hard to see in New York City--unless you stop by the Time Warner Center one evening between now and January 3.
The “Holiday Under the Stars” show features 14-foot glass Moravian stars hanging from the 150-foot-high ceiling. Each star weighs approximately 1,000 pounds. (Don’t think about that part too much.)
The stars are so enormous they can easily be seen from outside. Every night at 5:00 pm (something to keep you homeward-bound commuters going) the stars are front and center in a holiday show featuring displays of light and color set to holiday music. Each number, created by a 12-piece orchestra, has its own choreographed light display; you can stand there entranced until midnight, if you wish, when the display ends for the night.
Each star can create literally millions of color combinations; the show itself is made up of 8,500 LEDs (light-emitting diodes; an electronic light source); 11,000 fiber optics; and 156 strobe lights.
Now in its fourth year, the show takes place in what is known as “The Great Room,” the enormous public space at the entrance to the Time Warner Center.
For the uninitiated, high-end shops and restaurants ranging from Coach leather goods to Dean & Deluca foods to Thomas Keller’s Per Se Restaurant inhabit the space.
So it has to be asked: Winter wonderland or thinly disguised prod to shop?
Either way, it’s certainly festive.

Think Small This Week, and Support Your Independent Bookstore

We love Barnes& Noble, we really do, but let’s face it, especially in a huge city like New York, it’s great to support the little guy--in this case, your local independent bookstore.
So you’ll be happy to learn that it’s the first ever Independent Bookstore Week NYC, ending on Saturday, Nov. 21 with America Unchained Day. (No actual chains are involved in this event.) Consumers across the country are urged to break free (Get it? Yes, it was an analogy…) of gigantic mega chain stores, and shop at neighborhood institutions.
Independent booksellers have banded together to promote interest in and awareness of their stores, and have tossed author appearances, readings, and special events galore into the mix.
Participating stores include veterans like Three Lives and St. Marks, as well as newbies such as Idlewild in midtown Manhattan. Other well-known names include Bank Street Books; Bauman Rare Books; the Scholastic Store; and the Argosy Book store.
There’s even a photo scavenger hunt for the plucky: To enter, participants take photos of themselves with various objects at designated stores across the city. (For more info. go to ibnyc.wordpress.com)
Despite the state of the economy and the inevitable closing of several independent stores, other bookstores in the city, continue, oddly enough, to thrive. Some stores, like Book Culture in the Columbia University area, are actually expanding.
So forego the big guys this week, and pick up that bestseller for Uncle Fred at that little shop around the corner, not the one with the two aisle-wide shopping carts.

Craving a Gallon of Salad Dressing? Costco Comes to NYC

Admit it: you’ve woken up at 3:00 AM longing for a giant tub of mayonnaise. Or maybe it was the 10:00 AM craving for 20 rolls of toilet paper. Whatever the desire for the oversized; the excessive amounts; or just the proverbial low, low prices, your wishes have been fulfilled: The first Costco has opened in New York City.
The mega-deal store is the first tenant in the new East River Plaza, a “big-box” shopping center off the FDR Drive on 116th street. The store, clocking in at 110,000 square feet, will also welcome neighbors Best Buy, Marshalls, and—be still my heart--Target in the next few months.
Costco execs looked for years to round out their offerings of Costco stores in the city (the others are in Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island). The same spot was deemed too pricey a few years ago--but thanks to the recession, the space is now going for 30 percent less than was originally offered.
Buyers must fork over an annual membership fee—but at the Manhattan location, offerings include wildly reduced Ugg Boots and Seven for All Mankind jeans—not to mention Cartier jewelry and Rolex watches.
Is it too far uptown for many New Yorkers? We’re willing to bet that for off-price designer goods, discounted bestsellers, coveted makeup brands and oversized boxes of pasta, New Yorkers will go just about anywhere--especially if it’s in their own backyard.

The Recession's Still Here? Let's Open a Store! Tommy Hilfiger on Fifth Avenue

If you are a retailer or designer and the economy is in terrible shape, you
A) Lie low, eat a lot of cookies, and hope the recession ends soon
B) 2) Open a multi-million dollar retail emporium on New York’s Fifth Avenue
C) 3) Start manufacturing rayon socks to sell in 99-cent stores
The answer is B—at least if you’re Tommy Hilfiger (or at least his sportswear company), whose company recently opened just such a store on Fifth Avenue in New York City in the middle of the worst recession in years.
Hilfiger is best known for his mid-priced American sportswear, and while Fifth Avenue may not seem like a natural habitat, stores like Abercrombie and Fitch and even the Gap have found a home there; it’s a natural Mecca for tourists. The 22,000 square-foot store (681 Fifth Avenue; between 53rd and 54th Streets) occupies the space formerly held by Fortunoff for 30 years. The store offers four floors of goods, and is the first to offer everything Tommy Hilfiger, from men and womenswear to accessories, denim and its home collection.
How much will this gambit cost? Estimates put the rent at around $1500 per square foot. If you're feverishly doing the calculations, trust us--that’s a lot of sunglasses he has to sell every year.
His clothes may not be couture--but opening a store like that in the middle of this economy is certainly a luxury.