La Mexicana on Broadway Kingston

March 29th, 2010

La Mexicana, at 638 Broadway, is one of at least two Mexican-American grocers in the city. As such, it’s not really a one-of-a-kind retailer, but, as a representative of Midtown, it does sell numerous one-of-a-kind items. If you haven’t been to Oaxaca, no need to board a jet: just check out La Mexicana’s shelves, which include beautifully crafted straw bags, tortilla baskets, blankets, shawls and clay pots and a wide range of CDs playing salsa, banda and other south of the border musical styles.

The family business, which is owned by Aldegundo and Laura Juarez, sells queso Oaxaca, a large ball of white cheese similar to mozzarella. For a change of taste, check out the fruit sodas, aloe verde drinks, and coconut waters, some of which are relatively low calorie, when the weather gets warm. Raw cane sugar is sold in packets, large cans of hominy are excellent for soup, and Abuelita is chocolate in a can, that’s dissolved in milk in Mexico for the traditional breakfast drink. Small plastic bags of spices include flax seeds, $1.99 each, which are a healthy addition to fruit and yogurt, and cacao beans. On occasion, homemade goodies, such as coconut sweets and rice putting, are for sale.

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Kingston’s One of a Kind Finds-Blue Byrd’s

March 29th, 2010

Blue-Byrd’s Haberdashery & Music, at 297 Wall, opened in 1992 in the Rondout before moving to Uptown in 2005. Owners John Blue and Maureen Byrd were looking to open a family business, and since Blue was unable to find decent hats in the area—he’d always worn one, first growing up on a farm, and then in college to attract the girls—they decided on the haberdashery. Besides pork pies, fedoras, and stingy brims—perennial favorites–they also sell leather caps from the Australia Outback, summer panama hats, and handcrafted hats from Nigeria. Prices range from $25 to $51, with higher-end fur felts priced from $150 to $190.

 The store also sells walking sticks–“a tribute to Dr. John,” Blue said—harmonicas, calendars, suspenders, performer’s shirts (including Charlie Sheen bowling shirts), and of course, blues CDs. While the Internet has led to a decline in those sales, Blue said his resources and knowledge of the genre give him an edge over the Web. “I have a catalog of probably 1,500 different blues artists and collections,” he said. “I’m a special order guy who can get you what you want as long as it’s still in print, or used.” He’s also starting to stock vinyl recordings for collectors. Not surprising, the store’s clientele includes a number of noteworthy musicians, “We are still the neighborhood music shop people grew up with, “said Blue.

Blue, who has a full-time job with the New York State Office for Children and Family Services, is in the store on Saturdays. He credits his wife, Maureen Byrd, who presides during the week, with running the business. Blue also steams, cleans, and reblocks hats as a side line. The store is open Tuesday through Friday from 11:30 to 5:30 and on Saturday from 11 to 5.

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Kingston’s One of a Kind Finds-Vinyl Record Store

March 29th, 2010

Ed Butler opened Wright Gallery Vinyl Record Store, at 50 North Front Street, four years ago, attracting customers solely by word of mouth. He currently stocks more than 20,000 records, which are priced from $1 up to $150 (that’s for a 1952 10-inch disk featuring jazz saxophonist Allen Eager). He also sells $40 brand-new reissues on vinyl. College kids buy his records because they want to play the music, while collectors in search of a first pressing just want to have the record.

Entering his store is like traveling down memory lane, with at least one of your favorite albums likely peeping out of the rows of cardboard boxes. Butler, who formerly ran a gallery in the store, does rotating themed displays of record covers (current theme: dance records). Also adorning the walls is a cover with a fetching photo of Edith Piaf, the album cover for Godz (an early art rock band), an early Johnny Cash album, and a cover for Tex Larabey, pasted with a photo of his tombstone.

When Butler still had the gallery, he did a show of album covers, borrowing records from friends. On the opening night, he set up a table, started selling albums, and the rest is history. Butler also plays guitar, and the jam sessions that used to happen in the back of his store led to the building of a recording studio. He now records musicians in the facility and also fixes guitar amps. Wright Gallery Vinyl Record Stores is open from 10 to 5:30 Monday through Saturday.

50 N. Front Street
Kingston NY 12401

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Kingston’s One of a Kind Finds-Pirate Upholstery

March 29th, 2010

Pirate Upholstery just opened at 25 Broadway moving from its uptown location to the Rondout. Besides a sewing machine, bits and pieces of seats, and a test seat rigged up on a sawhorse, there’s some cool stuff to peruse, including owner Jay Teske’s 1962 blue Vespa—his first—and a snazzy Triumph, plus vintage photos of his in-laws scooting around in Israel.

Pirate Upholstery specializes in custom motorcycle and Vespa leather and vinyl seats, but it also does a lot more: Teske, a former tattoo artist from Staten Island, does leather tooling and makes handsome leather bags that fit on the back of a motorcycle (or a bike, for that matter). He also repairs briefcases and purses and can fabricate just about anything in leather.

The motorcycle seats average around $300 and are fashioned from memory foam, a material designed for NASA that conforms to and supports the body. Teske, who works with Vespa dealers from all over the country, gets most of his customers from the tri-state area. However, in the short time he’s been open he’s already gotten some walk-ins. He’s open from nine to five Monday through Fridays and does appointments.

 Teske and his wife bought the building on lower Broadway and plan to move in upstairs once renovations are complete. “I love it here already,” he said. ‘I’ve met every business owner on my side of Broadway, and everyone’s really nice.” Teske and his wife left the city in 2007 and opened a shop in New Paltz. However, they missed city living, and so moved to Kingston a year and a half ago. Kingston’s walkability and relatively stress-free lifestyle, compared to NYC, make it the perfect place, said Teske.

Pirate Upholstery - 25 Broadway – (718) 909-0764 Info@pirateupholstery.com

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Forsyth Nature Center, a Kingston Jewel

March 22nd, 2010

Founded in 1936, Forsyth Nature Center is perhaps Kingston’s most beloved institution. The city-owned facility has undergone a transformation in the last eight years, doubling in size, with new fences and animal pens, a heated turtle house, picnic gazebo, and wheelchair-accessible boardwalk around the pond. These improvements wouldn’t have been possible without the support of local businesses, according to caretaker Mark DeDea.

Its interpretative center has more than a dozen animals and gardens and is an important environmental educational resource for school groups. The center also offers a robust program of guided nature walks in the region, as well as kayaking on the Hudson in season.

 In 2005, DeDea launched Friends of Forsyth Nature Center, initially as a way to raise money for the new fence, with silver ($250), gold ($500) and platinum ($1,000 or more) levels. The nature center now has more than 25 partners and sponsors, many of them Main Street businesses.  One is Barcone’s Music, which has donated financially. “My grandchildren, who live in Stone Ridge, love coming there. I think it’s very important for the children of Kingston to have a place to go,” said Janice Barcone. “Forsyth Park when I was a teenager was a pretty sad little place for animals, but now there’s been a total revamp. They’ve expanded a lot. ”

During the fall festival, Artcraft Camera & Digital, owned by the Fitzgerald family, contributes staff and equipment to take pictures of kids with the animals. “They just take out the cost of film, and in the last festival we raised several hundred dollars this way,” said DeDea. The Fitzgerald family’s membership in the Friends program extends to Blimpie’s, located in Kingston Plaza, whose owner donates and helps with the fall festival, as well as donating subs at the events, he said.

Another loyal supporter is Herzog’s True Value Hardware, which has provided the fencing material and other building supplies and products at very competitive prices. “They are a lot about the kids in this community and are our bread and butter,” said Fred Seeger, Herzog’s general manager. “I went there as a kid, and it’s a gem.”

In fact, the nature center has a broad base of support. The most generous donors are civic groups—the Junior League (which donated $20,000), Rotary Club (donated $10,000) and Heart Healthy Coalition (donated $5,000).  Hillside Manor donates their venue for formal fundraisers, while Hurley Avenue Veterinary provided a huge discount on the bill for treatment of a sick macaw. Lucas Avenue Pet Supply “funnels donations from specific local businesses,” said DeDea. Alcoa, the parent company of Huck International, donates volunteers and cash.

DeDea said the center currently has $25,000 of Friends’ donations in the bank, which should cover most of the remaining capital projects. While he hopes the money doesn’t have to go towards operational expenses, if the allocation from the city runs out before the end of the year, as it has in the past, it’s good to have a back up.

Besides donating money and providing discounts on needed materials and services, local businesses also help raise awareness. For example, Forsyth Nature Center sets up a table with a petting turtle at the annual yard sale fund-raiser held by Rondout Savings Bank, according to marketing administrator Gaelen Doughman. “We’ve supported them since 2005,” she said. “They understand the importance of protecting the environment and are one of the cornerstones of our community.”

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Hot Cross Buns and Other Goodies Entice People to Kingston

March 16th, 2010
Once upon a time, the scent of fresh-baked bread wafted over the city’s streets. On a corner of North Front Street, it still does: family-owned Deising’s Bakery & Restaurant has not only survived the many changes that caused the traditional neighborhood bakeries to fade away, but flourished. To the bakery’s many fans, Kingston just wouldn’t be the same without the morning ritual of ordering a pastry and a cup of coffee from the counter at Deising’s.

 

Actually, the city has a couple of other bakeries, both located in Midtown. Cynthia Bakery and Paisano’s Bakery are roughly located across the street from each other on Broadway. Like so many of Midtown’s newer businesses, the bakeries are a tribute to the city’s vibrant Hispanic community. And downtown, at the corner of Broadway and Spring, you can look into the windows of the Reher Bakery Building and still see the marble counter tops, bread shelves, and signage of a once venerable Rondout institution/ Late owner Hymie Reher deeded his former building and shop to the Jewish Federation of Ulster County, which plans to turn the building into the Reher Center for Immigrant Culture and History. The project is an inspiring example of how a rarely preserved historic site can foster tourism and other new economic initiatives.

Deising's Uptown

Deising’s was founded in 1965 by two immigrants from Hamburg, Germany, and under the expert management of four of their children—Eric, Norman, Kirsten, and Wright—the European-style bakery has thrived. The company has two locations—the main store is on North Front Street, along with a satellite location at tk Broadway—and 80 employees. What’s the secret of the bakery’s bustling business? “Good service and quality food at a reasonable price is a good formula for success,” says Eric. “Plus, good loyal customers.”

The goodies displayed behind its capacious glass counters represent a variety of traditions: bienenstick and black forest cake from Germany, napoleons and eclairs from France, baklava from Greece. There’s also a selection of Deising’s original concoctions, available no place else on earth; a favorite are the toothsome cheese crowns—puffed pastry filled with baker’s cheese. But what’s “anchored this store” are the hard rolls, Eric says. “People who’ve moved south and travel here stop by to pick up the hard rolls,” he notes. “They get bags and bags of them,” Another reliable item is the danish.

Forty percent of the business is wholesale: Deising’s supplies numerous restaurants, delis, hotels, and schools. The uptown store includes two catering facilities, and the bakery also has a restaurant altar ego, serving breakfast and lunch. Omelettes, waffles, burgers, deli sandwiches, and freshly made soups are on the menu.

Deising's Midtown

While the Uptown business climate has improved over the years, Midtown has been more problematic, with the former population of blue-collar workers replaced by a welfare contingency. After years of disappointing sales, the company considered closing down the Midtown location, said Eric. However, it instead hired a new manager last April, and for the first time in five years, the store (which also serves breakfast and lunch) has been making a profit.

Deising’s has a website, www.deisings.com, and ships its rolls, breads, pound cakes and cookies. Store hours are 6 am to 5:30 pm Monday through Thursday, open til 6 pm on Friday, til 5 pm on Saturday, and to 3 pm on Sunday; Midtown location is open 6 am to 1 pm every day.

Cynthia's Bakery

If you’ve never tasted Mexican sweet bread, head over to Cynthia Bakery, at 579 Broadway. The brightly lit store, which is near the Indian restaurant in Midtown, opened two years ago and specializes in round, delicately sugared breakfast rolls, which sell for 80 cents to $1 each. Owner Raymando Ojeda and his sister are immigrants from Oaxaca who now live in Poughkeepsie, where they bake the bread and maintain another store. Ojeda said business is a little bit better than when he opened, but he’d like to get more customers; he’s eager for non-Hispanics to sample his bread. He also sells groceries. Cynthia Bakery is open 9:30 am to 9:30 pm, closed Sundays.

Another Mexican bakery, Paisano’s, located at 680 Broadway, opened a year and a half ago. Besides sweet bread, it serves a whole menu of traditional Mexican food. There’s also a pool table and festive music, so that a visit to the store is like taking a mini vacation to Mexico. Owner Hidalith Zapatita is from Newburgh and said she opened the shop in Kingston because she didn’t want to compete with other family businesses in her home city. Paisano’s is open Monday to Thursday from 7 am to 8 pm.

Reher Bakery Building

When Hymie Reher died in 2004, he deeded his family bakery, located at 101 Broadway. to the Jewish Federation of Ulster County. The non-profit organization has obtained grants for preservation of the property as well as for establishing the Reher Center of Immigrant Culture and History, which will function as a museum and research and education center related to the immigrant and mercantile history of the Rondout and surrounding area. The 1885 building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is graced with an Italianate cast-iron facade that is the last intact storefront to survive in the Historic Rondout District.

 The Jewish Federation has so far obtained more than $500,000 in grant money to restore the building, with the final phase of construction due to commence this spring or summer. It still needs to raise $25,000 in matching funds to qualify for some of the grant money; if you’d like to contribute, call the federation at 338-8131 or e-mail info@ucjf.org. The historic structure will help attract more visitors to Rondout, improve the street appeal, and hopefully spur business interest in the area, besides utilizing local contractors.

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Make Your Dollars Go Farther By Shopping Local

March 9th, 2010

Shopping at local businesses isn’t just a nice, feel-good thing to do. It also ensures that your money stays in the community, strengthening the city’s commercial base—which helps ensure Kingston’s quality of life, affordability, and attractiveness to potential home buyers and tourists.   

Now a handful of local businesses are joining a national shop local campaign to bring the point across. Nine Kingston businesses, the Business Alliance of Kingston and the Queens Galley have joined the 3/50 Project. This project asks the simple question “What 3 independent local business would you miss if they were gone?”  Then, can you commit to spend at least $50 a month at these three locally owned businesses—be it a restaurant, gift store, auto repair shop, lumber supply lot, you name it to keep them opened? Retail consultant and professional speaker Cinda Baxter launched the website www.3/50project.net a year ago as a way to strengthen independent brick and mortar businesses. By signing up as a supporter, business owners and local organizations can download a free flyer or stickers to put in their store windows, promotional banners for their websites, and other marketing materials to publicize the initiative and build support.

The Mezzanine

Larry Zalinsky, co-owner of Mezzanine Antiques Center, signed up a month ago. “It’s free to join, and you’re making a commitment to try and spend your money locally,” he said. “People need to understand the benefit to them of shopping locally,” which includes “more open storefronts, which make for nicer neighborhoods and more people wanting to move here.”

According to the 3/50 website, for every $100 spent in local independently owned stores, $68 re-circulates throughout the community, in the form of payroll, taxes, and other expenditures. If the money is spent at chain stores, only $43 stays in the community. If it is spent on-line, the local economy loses out entirely.  The site also notes that “commercial property tax is one of the largest lump sum contributions a brick and mortar makes to a community,” another important reason to support locally owned businesses.   

Gifts with a Twist

Karen Adin, owner of Bop to Tottom, spread the word locally about the 3/50 Project after learning about it from an independent manufacturer of goods for the gift industry she met at a trade show in Atlanta. “Shopping at a locally owned business has a huge impact on the community,” she said. “It’s been proven time and again that when you buy locally the ripple effect of the dollars spent stays within the community.” Adin buys her bags from local supplier Spiegel Brothers Paper Co., which has a synergistic effect: “[local] people stay employed and they shop locally. When they get a coffee in town they might come into my store.”

.

And shopping at a local business doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll pay more. When Zalinsky and his wife recently were shopping for a stove, they compared the price at Feiden’s to the chains and found it was a little more, though “in the ballpark.” However, Feiden’s only charged $80 for the delivery and installation, compared to $165 at Sear’s and $150 at Lowes. “It’s not always about the price, it’s the lowest cost,” Zalinsky said. When there was a minor problem with the stove two days later, “Feiden’s was out there right away.  Supporting local shopping is about price and service.”

So to help support the local economy, consider joining the 3/50 Project and spending at least $50 a month at independently owned local businesses.

Here’s a list of local 3/50 Project Brick & Mortar independent businesses:

Armadillo Bar & Grill
Artcraft Camera & Digital
Bop to Tottom
Burts Electronics
D&J Distributors
Marigold Home Interiors
Mezzanine Antiques
Sav-On Party Centre

Here’s a list of local supporters

Business Alliance of Kingston
Paula J Kitchen Real Estate
The Queens Galley

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Kingston’s Art and Photo Supply Stores, From Soup to Nuts

March 1st, 2010

Catskill Art & Office Supply, located at 328 Wall Street, has been an anchor of the Uptown shopping district for 24 years and currently has eight employees. “We offer quality products and services at a good price,” said manager Nick Peluso. (Owner Paul Solis-Cohen also operates two stores in Woodstock and Poughkeepsie.)You can easily spend an hour browsing the fine art and graphic art materials, canvas (raw and pre-stretched, in a variety of sizes), gift cards, boxed notes, personal stationery, calendars, instructional art books, and studio furniture (including drawing tables, lamps, and easels). Framer Ginny Ballard, a 16-year veteran of the store, has won a following for her custom framing. There’s also a custom printing division, which includes banners, business cards and laminating, according to Peluso.

 Even compared with the chain office supply stores, “our prices are pretty reasonable,” said Peluso. Xeroxes are 10 cents for a single copy, four cents for 100 copies. “We’re competitive in all those areas. Our copy paper is cheaper and our inkjet cartridges are in some cases $1 more and $1 less” that those sold in the big box stores. Catskill Art also runs frequent specials, with a sale on canvas the next couple of weeks. In addition, it offers a 20 percent discount to art students and professional artists. You can get an additional 10 percent off if you sign up for the custom rewards program ($10 coupon with every $100 purchased).    

 What’s the advantage of shopping at Catskill Art over buying on-line? “Experiencing the product firsthand and being able to ask someone for advice,” according to Peluso. Open Monday through Friday from 9-5:30 and Saturday from 9-5.

 Artcraft Camera & Digital, located at 300 Plaza Road, in Kingston Plaza, has been in the same family since 1972, when it was purchased by owner Todd Fitzgerald’s father. It now has a sister store in Poughkeepsie, with a total of 18 employees. The store sells four lines of cameras, both digital and film, along with darkroom supplies and accessories including flashes, filters and bags. The store’s custom framing division does laminating as well as large-format printing (digital and other) and DVD and CD duplication services (it can also transfer 8 mm film to DVDs). Fitzgerald said Artcraft also has a custom framing division, which is presided over by Elaine Bragg, who has 26 years of experience. 

Todd Fitzgerald

 Fitzgerald said the store does a brisk trade in scanning slides, negatives, and photos digitally, with some people bringing in shoeboxes full of photos that are “scanned in a clip.” Artcraft also has an archiving service to organize all those photos. One growing line of business is creating a DVD, collage, special photo book or 23 x 54 framed image for “Celebration of Life” services when a person dies. The store also can produce registration books, with the photos positioned on the left hand side and a place for signatures on the right.

 Perhaps the fastest growing segment of the business is gifting, in which personal photos are transferred onto mugs, puzzles, T-shirts, and blankets. Most of the photo gifts cost under $40, with a mug starting at $8. Fitzgerald said the store will soon be expanding into printing on dozens of types of textiles, ranging from shower curtains to scarves, as well as glasswork, aluminum and tin. “You won’t buy art at Target, but have your history and family tree printed on the shower curtain, your linens, a pillow,” said Fitzgerald, noting that the store will also print personal photos on a stretched canvas. “Photo décor is where it’s going.”

Fitzgerald said one advantage of shopping at Artcraft is the employee’s expertise.  “You may find cheap cameras at Target, but you won’t find the service.” Plus, no one’s trying to rush customers who come in with a box of photos commemorating a loved one. “When you walk in here, you can sit in one of our chairs for two hours,” said Fitzgerald. “We have compassion for your memories. It’s not just about your photos.” Open Monday-Friday from 9 to 6, Saturday from 10 to 5, and Sunday from 11 to 4.

 R&F Handmade Paints, located at 84 Ten Broeck Avenue, is the industry leader for encaustics, the wax-based paints that were used by the Egyptians thousands of years ago and which founder Richard Frumess helped popularize as a viable medium for contemporary artists. Located in Kingston since the mid 1990s, the business also manufactures oil sticks, and—perhaps not widely known–has a store on the premises that sells a full line of materials for painters, including brushes, Williamsburg oil paint (which is manufactured in upstate New York), canvas, and palettes, in addition to its paints and oil sticks.  

R & F Handmade Paints

R&F also sells artists’ supplies on-line, but the prices in the store are 15 percent less, said director of operations Darin Sein. It sells items in bulk: while linseed oil, for example, is sold in expensive pints at most art supply stores, R&F sells it by the gallon. The store also carries a high-grade, sweet-smelling turpentine (“we spent a long time researching this to find it,” according to Sein). Of course, it also sells a full line of equipment for encaustic painters, including hand-assembled heated palettes and heat guns, torches and electrically heated tools.

The store features holiday and back-to-school sales, said Sein. Besides its three- and five-day workshops, it also offers one-day workshops that are popular with residents, including an encaustic class from noon to four every third Saturday (cost is $40). R&F also runs a gallery, which shows works by distinguished artists in both encaustic and oil. The store is open Monday through Friday from 9-5 and Saturday from 10-5.

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