Summer Weekend Guide: Greenpoint
Shop
Over the past few years, the neighborhood has quietly turned into a surprisingly comprehensive one for shopping, whether your thing is indie bookstores, vintage, elaborate hand-crafted furniture, records, dried meats or all of those things. Our own Jeff Klingman wrote a couple weeks back about Greenpoint’s usurpation of Williamsburg as the most reliable Brooklyn neighborhood to buy records, and if you need a place to start, Permanent Records and Co-Op 87 are both good jumping off points. It’s also worth doing some digging over at The Thing, though, which isn’t so much a traditional record store as a compendium of anything and everything the owners can get their hands on that’ll fit in the store (be ready for a little dust).
The neighborhood is also home to Shana Tabor’s beloved line In God We Trust, which has expanded to include Williamsburg and Soho locations but is all still designed and produced in Greenpoint (and having a huge sale as we speak). Alter has become something of a destination in its own right, and has three separate locations in the neighborhood—one for men’s, one for women’s, and one that’s “co-ed.” Both Dalaga and Old Hollywood have locations in the neighborhood, as well.
Word is consistently one of the very best independent bookstores in the entire borough, and this weekend is hosting the Morley Walk, a marathon Christopher Morley reading and neighborhood walking tour. And, whether or not you’re really in the market for any kind of furniture, it’s worth devoting some time to From the Source, which is housed on the ground floor of a building full of studios and local artists, surprisingly cavernous, and a perfect place to wander around taking in the cool, pleasant wood smell, and incredibly wide range of pieces.
And, inevitably, some overlap with the “snacking” part of the day: Eastern District is in the neighborhood an has an incredible array of beer, cheese, and other locally made goods, and even people who don’t actually like candy will love Slodycze Wedel, which gives us an excuse to dig through baskets and baskets of Polish mystery candy in shiny bright wrappers. We don’t get to do that nearly enough.
Permanent Records, 181 Franklin Ave.
Co-Op 87, 87 Guernsey St.
The Thing, 1001 Manhattan Ave.
In God We Trust, 70 Greenpoint Ave.
Alter, Multiple Locations
Old Hollywood, 99 Franklin St.
Dalaga, 150 Franklin St.
Word, 126 Franklin St.
From the Source, 69 West St.
Eastern District, 1053 Manhattan Ave.
Slodycze Wedel, 772 Manhattan Ave.