Top Holiday NYC Shops Off the Beaten Path
Sure Rockefeller Center is the go-to holiday shopping epicenter packed tight with festivity and crowds, but this year is different right? These are hard times so forget the chains or high priced boutiques, and explore some of NYC's lesser known unique retail outposts. You might just have enough cash and good cheer left over to spike your egg nog in style!
1.
Cadillac's Castle 333 E 9th St, A meticulously displayed consignment boutique named after the owner's black dog, who's usually lounging on the shop's sanded pebble floor, Cadillac's Castle sells lightly worn designer clothes at discount prices. While not quite high-end or quite thrift, it's true you won't find rock-bottom bargains here. However, much of the merchandise has original tags yet is sold at about one-third original retail. Most notable is their huge vintage collection of punk-inspired dresses, psychedelic polyester shirts and jewelry. Keep an eye out for their $10 or $20 rack they sometimes have out front!
2. Trixie and Peanut - 23 E 20th St, For those pampered pooches on your list, Trixie and Peanut won't let you down. You don't want your pup's ears and feet to get cold in the winter wind do you? Dress him up in style with designer hats, boots, jumpers, and even bath wear and pajamas for winding down in the evening. And with dog beds like the Furrari, your kids just might want to curl up and play in them. Think the hair on your dog is thinning? Well you're in luck because Trixie and Peanut sells wigs! Please, what ever you do, when you take Fido for a walk, don't even think about a run-of-the-mill leash! The horrors! Step out in style with a studded or twinkle crystal lead sure to be the envy of the dog park!
3. Evolution Store 120 Spring St, Packed to the rafters with natural wonders like prehistoric shark jaws, softball-size ostrich eggs, fossils, skulls and skeletons, and tribal art, Evolution has been a landmark in SoHo for fans of the natural world in since 1993. The emphasis here is on real biological specimens and fossils not plastic alligators and nature t-shirts. More off-the-wall objects perfect for next Halloween include bear teeth, woolly mammoth fur, skeleton of a young human with 2 heads, a coiled up stuffed python on the floor, and Siamese snakes. If you're in need of a sugar rush matching the theme, check out their tequila lollipops with worms or scorpions inside. They also have candied crickets and larvae. And just in case you're worried, all goods are legally procured from scientists and others who supply museums and private collectors across the globe
4. Union Square Farmer's Market - Searching for the perfect ingredients for your holiday party? Wow your guests with fresh seasonal ingredients and locally grown organic delights! NYC's largest farmers market is open year round Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 8 AM to 6 PM sprawling over most of Union Square Park. Stroll through and you'll see that this market doesn't just cater to upscale vegetarians. In addition to browsing the over 1,000 varieties of fruits and vegetables including 8 to 10 varieties of potatoes, bushels of heirloom apples and pears, and a mind boggling selection of mixed greens like mesclun, red mustard, arugala, tat-soi, bok choy, broccoli raab, and broccoli sprouts, prime cuts of grass-fed beef and pork, breakfast sausage, pork chops, and spare ribs await. Try pairing some gourmet brick oven bread, sunflower millet, sour seeded rye, or exotic Focaccia with artisan farmstead cheeses like Brigid's Abbey (a nutty Belgian Trappist). For some extra energy at breakfast, take home some maple or cinnamon butter, fine honey from the Albany-Saratoga region, or a poppy-prune coffee cake to pair with your pumpkin latte.
5. Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company - A destination for real super heroes or wannabes like the rest of us, this shop is truly surreal. Everything is tongue in cheek from cans of courage, custom capes, secret identity kits, to wall-climbing suction cups. Want to try on a cape before buying? Just stand on a special platform they have set up complete with a high-velocity wind tunnel and test out how it will look in action. Posters on sale include one of Brooklyn and Manhattan demarcated by good/evil neighborhood affiliation. Once you're ready to make a purchase, announce your superhero name at the register before you insert your payment into the secret vault, recite your pledge, and have your superhero name run through the devillanizing machine just to verify you're one of the good guys. Best of all, accessed via a trick bookshelf behind the shelves stocked with disguises, invisibility juice, telepathy gel, and bottles of chaos, lies 826NYC. A nonprofit writing program funded by your purchases, they give free after-school one-on-one tutoring on a drop-in, first-come-first-served basis to kids age 6 to 18.