Why hello! Storefronting is Curbed's regular look at the evolving retail scene, and how it impacts your neighborhood. Okay, not necessarily your neighborhood, but someone's neighborhood. Probably. Got retail goodness for us? Hit up tips@curbed.com with intel. Thanks.
1) Union Square: Trader Joe's new neighbor on East 14th Street? According to a bevvy of tipsters, it's going to be Straight from the Crate. The store appears to be the "lifestyle furniture" brand's eighth Manhattan outpost. [Official Site]
2) Soho: The Shophound reports from the new Kate's Paperie at Home (photo, top) on Spring Street, and adds this to the mix on the (redacted) rumor that Kate's is abandoning its Broadway store: "Sadly, Kate's will be moving, but not for about a year or so. It probably will take over the Spring Street space, depending on how the new concept performs." [The Shophound]
3) Union Square: From the Observer gang: Is Ben & Jerry's looking at the old De La Guarda theater space (right) on Union Square? Hell yes: "Would they really convert the theater space to an ice-cream mega-store? Their answer: yes. By August. But when we called the theater, they denied that anything was in the works, mentioning that they're booked through the year." De-vel-o-ping! [The Real Estate]
4) Park Slope: Sweet Melissa, Cobble Hill's Court Street bakery is opening a Park Slope branch in the Seventh Avenue storefront vacated by the Microchip Cafe at 175 Seventh Avenue. Meanwhile, Tempo Presto is going to occupy the space vacted by Mojo Cafe at 207 Seventh Avenue. The Seventh Avenue branch will be a cafe featuring coffee and dessert. [OTBKB]
5) Brooklyn Heights: More major changes at the always-changing corner of Montague and Henry. Fishs Eddy, which has been open for about a year and a half, is closing and Taco Madre, the Mexican restaurant next door, is already gone. Across the street, Washington Mutual is opening a branch in the space formerly occupied by Walden Books. Also on Montague, toodles to Mr. Souvlaki, who is retiring. [Storefronting Inbox]
6) Ridgewood: Apropos of nothing, Bosnian grocery shopping! [Slavs of New York]