For the past two years, I’ve been on a mission to catalog every small business retail shop in New York City. By my estimate, there are at least 17,000 brick-and-mortar independent retail shops in the city.
To study the city’s small business scene, I’ve walked or biked each borough, cataloging shops as I go and following leads to any particularly interesting ones. Last summer, to better know Staten Island, I rented an Airbnb and drove around the borough until I’d been just about everywhere.
So far, I’ve covered more than 40,000 blocks, more than 2,000 miles and documented more than 14,000 shops in what is very much a work in progress called The Locavore Guide, a digital directory for IRL shopping in NYC. I still have about 20% of the city left to explore.
Muzik City in Cypress Hills sells hard-to-find reggae records.
Courtesy of Muzik City
In the process, I’ve been consistently impressed by the shops I’ve discovered — the sense of determination of small business owners, the ingenuity they need to navigate the multitude of skill sets required and, especially, the strong community ties that form around them when they do their jobs well.
After closing my own beloved retail shop, CW Pencil Enterprise, during the pandemic, I felt disheartened by the way many consumers understand and treat “shopping local.” It’s as if it’s an act of charity for a virtuous thing that’s relegated to specific occasions, say, during holiday seasons, but not for everyday consumer practice.
I decided to take what I’d observed as a shopkeeper and apply it to this resource, in hopes of giving consumers new tools to help them shop local, better and more often.
Kidult Brick in Brooklyn specializes in preowned Lego mini figures.
Courtesy of Kidult Brick
The landscape of our city is constantly changing, and it’s increasingly difficult for brick-and-mortar shops to compete with the ease of online shopping. Still, there’s an unfathomable diversity of specialty shops here, run by experts in their niche fields and worthy of visits just for the sake of adventure.
Here are some of the specialty shops you’ll find in New York City.
One-stop-shop for horseback riding
Manhattan Saddlery in Kips Bay is a beloved resource for equine enthusiasts, who visit for the full range of show garments, saddles, accessories, helmet, horse care items — truly everything you need for horseback riding. It has been around for more than 100 years and has the vibe and merchandise of a luxury shop, but with service that makes you feel like you’re being helped by an old friend.
Manhattan Saddlery
117 East 24th St.
Kips Bay, Manhattan
Specialty fabric dyes
Aljo Dyes is a local manufacturer of dyestuffs for professionally dying fabrics and has kept a retail space in Tribeca for decades. With dyes suited for every type of fiber, Aljo is a vital resource for the textile and art communities. Find acid dyes, basic dyes, direct dyes, disperse dyes, fiber reactive dyes and vat dyes, plus all of the materials you need to use them.
Aljo Dyes
72 Walker St.
Enter on Cortlandt Alley between Walker and Canal streets
Tribeca, Manhattan
Need fragrances? Try Enfleurage in the West Village.
Courtesy of The Locavore Guide
Rare fragrances
Fragrance folks come to Enfleurage for rare wildcrafted absolutes — potent fragrance oils made using a complicated extraction process. A few are even made using the ancient technique of enfleurage, which involves soaking plant matter in animal fat until it’s saturated with scent. Another specialty includes frankincense essential oil from the shop owner’s distillery in Oman. The comprehensive, alphabetized library of oils on display is a welcome place for even the most novice shopper to explore the more than 150 options for home and body.
Enfleurage
237 West 13th St.
West Village, Manhattan
Hard-to-find reggae records
The legacy of Clement “Sir Coxsone” Dodd, reggae icon and founder of Studio One Records, lives on Cypress Hills. Jamaican-born Dodd’s label was widely regarded as the “Motown of Jamaica,” and in the 1980s he moved his studio from Jamaica to Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, where he ran a recording studio and record store. His grandson Ian has recently reopened the record store, with plans to revive the label. Visit for hard-to-find reggae records.
Muzik City
3135 Fulton St.
Cypress Hills, Brooklyn
Tools for Working Wood merchandise in front, and a workshop in back.
Courtesy of The Locavore Guide
Historically inspired woodworking tools
Hidden away on an industrial street in Brooklyn, Tools for Working Wood is a warehouse with a front space for browsing merchandise, while the back is a workshop. There, they make many of the house-brand tools, which are designed with excruciating attention to detail and inspired by historic woodworking tools.
Holdfasts, spoonmaker’s drawknives, handmade rasps and American-made shellac brushes are for sale here, alongside finishing products like traditional milk paint and special waxes and oils.
Tools for Working Wood
112 26th St.
Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
Looking for a bonsai tree? Try Dandy Farmer in Fort Greene.
Courtesy of Dandy Farmer
Modern bonsai trees
While bonsais are known for being miraculously beautiful but extremely fussy plants, Matthew Puntigam has a special way of making anyone feel empowered to adopt their very own tiny work of botanical art. He trained with a bonsai master in Japan before opening his store Dandy Farmer, where you’ll find plants you’ve never seen before in miniature form. They’re all potted in signature Dandy Farmer acorn-inspired pots, which are made locally.
Dandy Farmer
14 Clermont Ave.
Fort Greene, Brooklyn
The Lego mini figure you can’t find
I did a double-take while walking through this quaint business area in Gravesend, because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing: a glass counter full of unbagged Lego mini figures lined up like little plastic soldiers. That’s right, Kidult Brick is an independent dealer of Lego products, with a specialty in preowned and unbagged mini figures. Come here for the set you can’t find anything else, or for rare mini figs.
Kidult Brick
269 Avenue U
Gravesend, Brooklyn
Anything you need for radio-controlled cars
While cataloging a residential area of the Bronx, I was surprised and delighted when I encountered a group of grown men nerding out over their souped-up RC cars on a sidewalk. They were standing in front of Redline Hobbies, a true specialist in the world of radio-controlled vehicles. You can get parts for your existing vehicles, buy new ones and also troubleshoot issues with the expert staff. Trucks, boats, places, helicopters — they have it all here.
Redline Hobbies
3192 Webster Ave.
Norwood, Bronx
Hellenic Aesthetic is in the historically Greek neighborhood of Astoria.
Courtey of The Locavore Guide
Clothes by contemporary Greek designers
Aptly placed in the historically Greek neighborhood of Astoria, Hellenic Aesthetic specializes in contemporary womenswear and resortwear by Greek brands like milkwhite and Greek Archaic Kori. Find flowy, embroidered dresses, a spectrum of blues, swimwear and an in-house fine jewelry brand featuring charms and nameplate necklaces in Greek.
Hellenic Aesthetic
30-91 31st St.
Astoria, Queens
Unusual Aquarium coral
Aquarium culture is alive and well on Staten Island, which is also home to a rare coral specialist Frank Fairechio. Frag Farm sells sustainably grown coral fragments, or “frags,” and a tightly edited selection of exotic saltwater fish.
Frag Farm
227 Main St.
Tottenville, Staten Island