Break

Those Summer Clouds

Covering the Small Stuff

Update: 7/25:

We make a correction - the War is ramped up, with a big bold corner sign.  Yes!!

Back in 2017 it looked like Harbor Fitness might be expanding into the space occupied by a vintage clothing store, a sally perhaps in the Fitness War with newly opened right-across-the-street Crunch.

Since 2017, business at the Crunch building, 555, doesn't appear to have been as successful as its owners might have hoped.  Longstanding paint company Sherwin-Williams took up one of the ground-floor retail spaces, but the other ground-floor space has remained vacant. 555 was put up for sale last year, though no sale is on record.  The sale ad revealed the rents in the building, unusually high for the area. You can read more about Crunch on Fifth here.

There are plans for medical offices in part of the 544-50 retail space on Fifth, but no gym expansion evident on this side as yet.    From DOB records it appears there'll be medical offices in at least part of the retail space at 544 - 50 Fifth.

Back in 2012 I noticed a great old Sherwin-Williams sign in Borough Park.

Sherwin-Williams Paints Cover The Earth.  Look at that paint go!

On the Move

Swallowtail mad for the parsley and cypress vine today.  It's been busy in the garden for the past few days, and it's almost impossible to catch it still.  Even the sad phone cam pics can't mask its beauty.

Doomed!

Let Us Pray for You

Where was the singing coming from?  I heard it blocks away and finally saw the members of the Pentacostal Roca de Seguridad out on the sidewalk.  Their building was put on the market a few years ago, but it looked like the church had managed to keep it.  I swung back to the corner half an hour later to see if I could take a picture or two up close, only to find it empty.  I'd missed at least a couple of opportunities.

Aaron Rose's Coney Island

Aaron Rose  (Museum of the City of New York)

"July is here, and so, for many, is beach season. Aaron Rose, who made his art-world début in his late fifties, at the 1997 Whitney Biennial, spent three summers in the early nineteen-sixties photographing the beaches of Coney Island. Shooting inconspicuously with a 35-mm. Leica, Rose caught his subjects unawares, and, in the process, captured the sweaty languor of New York City’s most iconic summer attraction."  (New Yorker)

Summer of 1973

Shade 2 and King Kool 156 - photograph by Jack Stewart (Museum of the City of New York)

Rider

Hair Fair

Retail Prospects

The Prospect Care pharmacy that replaced Caesar's carpet store (moved across the street) has just opened.  Opposite the pharmacy there's been action at the empty Bravo store across the street, and good, it's another supermarket.

What's more, it looks like it'll be a decent one, if it's run like the Prospect Market on Prospect Park West in Windsor Terrace.  It should be a good addition to the avenue.

Young Ethel's, the new bar that at 13th that will replace comedy bar Salzi's is still in the works, and a block north, the long-empty store that housed the fascinating hanger-on Mezini/La Royale/Beba's La Royale will re-open as Winemak'her.  It's unclear if it's open yet, as the business website suggests, but if not, it looks like it's nearly there.

Winemak’her is a wine bistrot in Brooklyn Park Slope, offering woman winemaker wine from France and other countries of origin, and featuring an indoor pétanque (French popular ball sport) track.
We offer wine, beer, sweet wine, cocktails as well as French aperitif alcohols such as pastis. And small plate with organic and local food, to share.
We don’t aim to be too upscale, our prices are mid-range and aligned with the competition, but featuring a women winemaker-centered wine list, with lot of biologic wine, and also food that’s healthy, organic, and locally sourced.

Jukebox NYC boxing club/boot camp, a reincarnation of Rise Brooklyn Fitness, appears to have made a successful jump to its new location at Fifth & 12th & is always buzzing with activity when I walk by, a marked contrast to some of the other small gyms that have opened round here.

Food, booze, fitness & of course, nails.  And pets.  Petland Discounts closed (people order pet supplies online these days), but for now, at least, pet sitting isn't virtual.  Thus, on Fourth & 19th: