The old, gruff-but-lovable Trade Fair on Queens Boulevard has been turned over to Associated.

Honestly, despite its flaws, lack of style and over-crowding, we loved Trade Fair. We usually preferred shopping at Trade Fair over Key Food and The Natural. We found Trade Fair to have better prices and better selection.

The Last Trade Fair Show

 Sure, you could find obscure ingredients like “Newman’s Own authentic Turkish roasted pine nuts - or whatever - at The Natural, but why spend the extra money when you could find actual pine nuts from Turkey, complete with actual Turkish labelling and odball graphics, at Trade Fair for 30% less?

When you got home at <cough, cough> A.M. from a fun night out, and you realize you need milk, did you really want to pay an extortionist’s rate for milk at Duane Reade? No, of course not. What you could do is walk over to Trade Fair, open 24-7.

When you were planning that extra-special dinner, and wanted to try being Mario Batali or Wylie Dufresne, could you just waltz into Key Food to get a goat’s head, or pig’s ears? No. You went to Trade Fair.

Well, not anymore.

Associated's grand opening

Associated seems to be in the middle of its make-over, and the first thing you’ll notice is the shortened hours! What is this “closes at 10 pm” business?  Hopefully that will change.

Autumn on Austin Street is coming to a close, and my foot is not completely healed yet! Argh, 12 weeks and counting. Nevertheless, I did manage to take a little stroll around Austin Street to check out the scenery on an unseasonably warm day.

Speaking of fall, Rouge has officially fallen off Restaurant “Road.” Anyone know what’s going in that space?

 “La vie sans rose…”

Great colors in the falling leaves of the Bradford-Callery Pear trees.

But don’ t blink! Since the Feds are bailing out the turkeys this year, we’re jumping from Halloween to the Winter Holiday Shopping Season. Do not stop at Thanksgiving, go directly to Christmas!

The snowflakes have been strung across Austin Street…

…and the winter blossoming of temporary closeout stores is starting already.

Fox’s? U-bet!

The only thing that’s not turning white and wintery is the nursing home on 110th Street and 71st Road. Hooray! One less horrid white-brick building! Great face-lift.

Hmmm, would that make this a “phlog?”

Not much color - foliage or otherwise - to photograph this week. Most pics here are simply confirmations of the new stores popping up around the area, plus some intriguing bits of scenery around the nabe.

Halloween fun in front of Renegade salon. I hope your haircut doesn’t come out scary!

Pink Tree in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

The Tap Room (the old “Cafe Moda”) - open for business, just in time for football!

Overheard: “That’s cool, but I can live without one more sports bar in my life.”

Site of new Fro-Yo competitor, OKO (where ColdStone Creamery used to be.)

Dollar Chic on chic Austin Street. Gimme LotLess anytime…

“This has nothing to do with the bailout! Really.” - TD Waterhouse buys Commerce Bank

New and improved Broadway Bakery on 71 Road! Still great coffee and cleaner equipment!

коли под наемThe new GameStop location on QB and 63rd Road, next to gas station, north side.

Menorah on top of T-Bone diner. Was this ALWAYS there, and I just never noticed it?

Now that I have succesfully predicted the arrival of Ricky’s Cosmetics to Forest HIlls (some say I successfully recruited Ricky’s here, but, please, please, your humble blogger is not comfortable with  that kind of flattery), I am riding a wave of clairvoyance and declaring that Lot-Less and the new competitor, Dollar-1, will be the discount duo to watch this fall!

I know I’m not the only one who enjoys what my family affectionately calls “schlock stores.” Anyone else’s mother bought them a popcorn maker, toaster oven and an ironing board for college at National Wholesale Liquidators? Who else cried when “A Real New York Bargain” closed? Who thinks that Jack’s 99¢ is just a poseur?
I don’t know if I can put the words “connoisseur” and “discount store” in the same sentence, but I will right here, right now, because I admit, I am one.  Look what’s available at the Lot-Less on the QB near 63rd Drive! Adidas bags!

They carry my preferred brands of shampoo, conditioner, my underarm deodorant, but much cheaper than at Duane Weed because I’m willing to tolerate their dowdy appearances in their old, discontinued packaging design. And, I don’t know about you, but I am a firm believer that Godiva chocolate has a very, very long shelf life.

But, it’s not just about the essentials. If you find yourself in an emergency situation where you need a necktie - and how many of us can relate to that? - rest assured that you can find these limited-edition beauties at extreme discount prices to complete that suit you got at Xios.

As part of my research, I conducted some reconaissance at the newbie’s. Frankly, Dollar-1 did not impress. Sure, their shower curtains were half the price of those at Lot-Less ($1 v. $2, respectively), but you get what you pay for. I’m willing to fork over the cash for those extra nanometers of vinyl.

Spet 22: Just added this photo of Dollar 1:

The winner is clearly Lot-Less, and I am confident they will prevail!

From the Daily News:

George Tutaya, 41, of Rego Park, sold over 2,000 hot bras online over the past two years - and had another 650 bras worth an additional $26,000 in his home when he was caught, prosecutors said.

Read the full story here.

Newsflash, it’s Williamsburg.

They’re paying $150 per square foot. On Bedford Ave. In the “North Side.” At N. 7th Street, near the subway station.

Anyone who is familiar with Williamsburg knows how incredibly choice that location is.

Next location for a Ricky’s? Surprise, it’s Park Slope.

 Here’s a reminder of what Ricky himself wrote to me in February about why they’re not in this area:

We looked on austin. Speak to the landlords and tell them not to ask for rents higher then we have in the city. Let them know they r in forest hills not manhatten, until they see this, u will only see what u see now. Rents in queens should be $35-$50 for prime not a penny higher. They r aslong $85-$125. More then triple what the market.

Sorry
Ricky

Returning NYC ex-pat Michael Jaye sure hopes so!

In about a week, he is opening NY Diamond Boutique, a new fine jewelry store on Austin Street - which happens to be diagonally across the street from Chateau Jewelers! Wow, talk about having big rocks!

While window-shopping on the strip this Sunday, I came across preparations already in progress at his new store. I had a short chat with Mr. Jaye about his store and business on Austin Street. He’s been in the fine jewelry business for 20 years and returned to NYC after business was flagging at his store in the tony Buckhead area of Atlanta, GA — “Where old money lives, new money parties.”

So, nu? Why Austin Street, when other small retailers are closing? Why put up with the high rents? Why so near other jewelry stores like Chateau, Stoa, GemStory?

Mr. Jaye was very relaxed and confident about competing with the other jewelry stores in the area. He told me that, after extensive research, he found Forest Hills to have the best demographic and parameters for his store: lots of pedestrian and street traffic, “buyers, not browsers,” and, in general, shoppers with “Manhattan tastes” who come to Austin Street from all over as a “shopping destination.”

Obviously, we had never met before. [RIMSHOT]

In the name of full-disclosure, I showed Mr. Jaye my engagement ring, which was indeed purchased at Chateau, and it garnered a moment of respectful admiration.

Mr. Jaye expects to open his store around July 1, and you’ll get a free gift that he promises to be “much better than a refrigerator magnet” just for stopping in.

Good luck to NY Diamond Boutique!
P.S. By the way, if anyone else was out shopping on Sunday and was lucky enough to enjoy the sunshine - despite typhoon-like rain predicted - who was that guy next to Giorgio’s who seemed to be selling something, talking up anything that moved? He was a tall, white, brown-haired, middle-aged guy, and his product was a bunch of flat rectangles that looked like packages of lox. He seemed to have a “posse” of 3 or 4 guys hanging on the stoop assisting him (mostly by sitting on the stoop and watching him.) My investigative journalistic energy having been spent, I didn’t take the time to inquire. As our eyes and ears, gentle readers, it’s up to you to gimme the scoop!

Suddenly, it seems like a lot is going on–or, more accurately, not going on–’Round These Parts™:

• That McDonald Park-adjacent Italian restaurant most recently known as Positano is changing hands. Again. The new name, purportedly, will be “Casa Positano.” Creative! The “casa” really adds extra homeyness, don’t you think? I ate at this restaurant the day I looked at my very first Forest Hills rental apartment, back when it was called–oh, who knows. The strange thing is that the owners change but the restaurant never does, and from the table settings I saw when I walked by there today, we might be in for more of the same. But maybe we’ll luck out! I’ll try it anyway, even though I don’t think I ever tried the last two incarnations. Oh, also, the new owners “will not be serving alcohol,” reports Splitting Hairs. Huh?
• Legendary Austin Street pizzeria AJ’s is closed, forever. AJ’s was your ultimate neighborhood polarizer. Some thought it was an embarrassing eyesore, others swore the pizza was great. I have no opinion–I don’t eat pizza (I know, I know) and have never even been inside. And now I never will be. The replacement? Inside sources say a Chinese restaurant. Given the high-rent location, there’s a slight chance that might be creative and interesting, but oh my, I certainly wouldn’t wager money on it.
• Forest Hills 72’s usual intrepid reporting reveals that the Staubachplex may never happen. But is it true? I could go either way on this. On the one hand, the sign advertising it is still up on the roof and I don’t see a major national real-estate company like Staubach just canceling this out of nowhere. But on the other, it’s supposed to open in January 2009 and I sure don’t see that happening what with no demolition having started yet, plus all of FH72’s evidence. The Staubachplex was no architectural gem, but this is somehow still kind of depressing.

Hey! I’ve been gone forever, but what better event to bring me back (besides an extended Mickie T. vacation) than the always-fun Forest Hills Festival of the Artsкомпютри? I was on the scene, and despite being the World’s Worst Photographer™, I took loads of photos. Did you see me awkwardly fumbling around with my hand-me-down Elph?

The FHFotA is one of the events that makes me proud to live ’round these parts. It seems classier than your average New York street fair, with its discount socks and stand after stand after stand after stand selling mozzarepas. (I only counted two at ours!) What I liked most about this year’s FHFotA was its distinct local character, with many local businesses and organizations represented–more, I’d venture a guess, than in previous years. After the jump, a sweaty photo journey down Austin on a humid-as-all-get-out 96-degree day.

A sign of the times at the corner of Church Street and Warren Street in Tribeca, Manhattan.

“Would you like a large Slurpee, Mr. DeNiro?”

A report from the field, otherwise known as “my work neighborhood.”

This large commercial space has been empty since before Sept. 11, 2001. For a while, it housed a closeouts store and a temporary Chirstmas decorations store. Otherwise, this juicy piece of property right above a major subway station laid dormant for over eight years, in one of the hottest, trendiest, most popular neighborhoods in all of NYC.

During those intervening years, in addition to ever-increasing numbers of tourists, the neighborhood has experienced tremendous residential growth (mostly via the conversion of office buildings into luxury rentals), including a massive baby-boom enough to make the sole elementary school in the nabe dangerously overcrowded.

Now that Robert DeNiro’s brainchild, the Tribeca Film Festival, is “Tribeca” in name only, and the WTC site (sorry, “Ground Zero”) is considered “boring” by tourists because it is just a construction site, perhaps the “riff raff” felt they could finally move in. There goes the neighborhood!