When design shop Brooklynski opened in Greenpoint in 2007, shoppers could be forgiven for confusion over its provenance. The merchandise is decidedly New Greenpoint—Saltbox tote bags, John Derian-esque decoupage trays, jewelry by local designers—but the name and the store's mermaid symbol, which represents the city of Warsaw, seemed more representative of Greenpoint's Polish population. Turns out, Brooklynski bridges the gap: Owners Basia Grocholski and her husband Douglas Friedmutter are New Greenpoint types who chose the name in honor of their Old World Polish families.
But then their building sold, and the new landlords raised the rent, and so the great Greenpoint experiment ended. Less than a month ago, Brooklynski moved to a bigger, brighter, less falling-down location at 351 Graham Avenue in Williamsburg. Since then, they've "literally had an artist a day come in" asking if the store can sell their work, so they're going to start carrying local products. The store has also seen traffic of a different kind: Confused patrons of computer supply shop Mikey's Hook-Up, which used to occupy the space. "People will run up on their bikes with their arms full of Apple equipment," says Grocholski, "and their faces just fall." It's no longer a good place to buy a thumb drive, but it might be the best place to buy a girl a present east of the BQE in Williamsburg, so it seems like a fair trade-off.
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