10 Brooklyn Shops and Restaurants to Check Out This Small Business Saturday

Now that the Thanksgiving meal has been gobbled up, the pressure to tackle the holiday shopping list has begun. If you want to check some items off your list while strolling through some Brooklyn neighborhoods and supporting local shops and restaurants, you can spend your dollars during Small Business Saturday this weekend.

The annual nationwide event, originally started by American Express in 2010, encourages patronage of local businesses on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. This year, that date is Saturday, November 30. Organizations as Shop Small Greenpoint and NYC Ferry promote mom and pop venues under the “Shop Small” moniker. Shop Small Greenpoint is hosting an in-person crawl, and shops across the borough are open (either in person or online) for gift purchases. Eateries offer a break amidst shopping and, in some cases, gifts, and gift certificates.

To start you off on making a shopping list, we’ve rounded up 10 Brooklyn shops, businesses, and restaurants and their owners that have been featured in Brownstoner so far in 2024.

Nonbinarian Book Bike’s First Store Will Open Next Month in Crown Heights

The Nonbinarian Bookstore, possibly the first in Brooklyn to carry exclusively queer books, is setting up shop at 1130 President Street in Crown Heights. The store will be open to the public from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily starting Friday, November 8.

The Nonbinarian Bookstore is an expansion of the Nonbinarian Book Bike, a mutual aid effort that’s been delivering free queer books around Brooklyn for about two years via a bright pink cargo bike. K. Kerimian, a veteran bookseller, started the bike as a way to get books by LGBTQ+ authors into people’s hands in book deserts (geographic areas where it might be hard for people to access books) across Brooklyn.

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Palestinian Restaurant Ayat to Open Outpost and ‘Nonprofit’ Cafe in Bushwick

Popular Palestinian restaurant Ayat is expanding to Bushwick’s Knickerbocker Avenue with a new outpost, and next door on Starr Street it is debuting what it describes as a nonprofit cafe that supports humanitarian causes locally and across the globe.

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Beloved Williamsburg Comic Store Desert Island to Close Due to Rent Hike

Desert Island comic store announced on Instagram in October that it would be closing its doors come the end of the year due to the landlord almost doubling the rent. After the news hit a fundraiser was launched to help the store secure a new location. The shop will remain in its current location until Christmas of this year.

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Williamsburg Restaurant Shalom Japan Fuses New Traditions

Sawako Okochi and Aaron Israel fell in love over food. For the two chefs set up on a date at a Chinese restaurant, food became a way to get to know each other and learn about each other’s backgrounds. Okochi, who came to the United States from Japan for school, and Israel, who grew up in a Jewish American family on Long Island, shared their cultures through late-night home-cooked meals on Okochi’s Crown Heights fire escape.

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Longtime Bushwick Business Krown Hardware to Reopen on Broadway

Bushwick’s Krown Hardware store will continue its more than 70 year run on Broadway when it reopens to the public in its former building but in a scaled-down space.

The three-generation mom-and-pop is one of the few local businesses to survive the arson fires and looting of the 1977 blackout. Owner A.J. Adipietro is taking the reins from his father, longtime owner Anthony Adipietro, who took over the business from his father, Pat Adipietro. Located at 1325 Broadway since the 1980s until its closure more than a year ago, the store plans to reopen in a smaller area walled off from the neighboring business L Train Vintage.

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Tokyo Listening Rooms, Istanbul Taverns Inspire Middle Eastern Eatery in Bed Stuy

A new Middle Eastern restaurant and bar with an equal focus on food, booze, and music has opened on Bed Stuy’s Malcolm X Boulevard, with the aim to bring the feel of Tokyo listening rooms mixed with Istanbul taverns.

The name Laziza means “a good thing” in Arabic, and for owner Jilbert El-Zmetr, who is Australian Lebanese, the inspiration for the restaurant came from all the things he said he loves in his life: Middle Eastern cuisine; good drinks; funk, soul, and groove music; and spending time with friends, family, and neighbors.

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Huge Danish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Furniture Warehouse Opens in Red Hook

A big Danish mid-century modern furniture warehouse with a devoted following has swapped its Jersey City store for one double the size on the waterfront in Red Hook next to Ikea.

Lanoba Design is known for its sharp prices, high quality, and vast selection. Founders and married couple Lars Noah Balderskilde and David Singh move nine or 10 containers a year of items sourced by Balderskilde in his native Denmark, mostly directly from the original owners (or their children) who bought them in the 1950s and ’60s.

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Bakery and Cafe With Basement Cocktail Bar to Open in Bed Stuy

A bakery and cafe that will blend Middle Eastern and South American flavors for its signature recipes opened its doors on Hancock Street in Bed Stuy.

When Brownstoner visited in April, before the cafe opened, an eye-catching black and white mural had been painted on the exterior of the building on the corner of Hancock Street and Howard Avenue in preparation for the opening of Bakery by Textbook. The new eatery is related to Textbook Cafe in Fort Greene.

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After Delay, Mediterranean Restaurant Dar525 Plans Bed Stuy Opening

After more than a year of having its sign up on the corner of Malcolm X Boulevard and Hancock Street, Mediterranean restaurant Dar525 will be opening by mid-May, an employee told Brownstoner.

The brown paper has come down from the restaurant’s windows at 231 Malcolm X Boulevard, and long gone is the “coming soon” sign we spied last year. Gold letters advertise brunch, lunch, dinner, and drinks on the window panels, and signs of activity are visible on the interior. Tables are stacked in the dining room, the bar appears to be set up, and art covers the visible walls.

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Cafe Xoco-latte Bushwick Brings Mexican, Ecuadorian Treats to Wilson Avenue

When Isrrael Martinez and David Almagro met working behind the bar at a late-night spot in Astoria in 2018, they formed an instant friendship sparked by their shared Latino heritage and love of hospitality. “We just click, we work together as a team,” said Almagro, who moved to New York City from Ecuador seven years ago. “I like how he works, how he interacts with people, and I just started following him.”

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• 11 Brooklyn Shops and Restaurants to Check Out This Small Business Saturday
• 9 Brooklyn Shops and Restaurants to Check Out This Small Business Saturday
• 11 Brooklyn Shops and Restaurants to Check Out This Small Business Saturday

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