A Thrifter's Guide to Gramercy Park

Some history, some wine, some vintage Yves Saint Laurent...a mini plan for the perfect NYC afternoon 🚕.

A few months ago, the jewelry brand Catbird invited me to an anniversary party at their new Rockefeller Center store. It was a sweet little post-work affair, and the best thing I left with, other than a tiny “R” charm necklace, was my new friend, Anna Albury, a textiles designer, artist, and the co-creator with her partner Garrett of the ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ insider NYC newsletter coolstuff NYC.

Since meeting, we’ve texted, chatted, sipped a little wine…and somehow, from our very first encounter, we decided we needed to work on something together. In the same way that other people express love, gratitude, affection through cooking or gift-giving, I suppose you might say my own (strange) sort of love language is thrifting. Getting to know people while you simultaneously dive headfirst into a jam-packed thrift store, surfacing only to share a fistful of gems, is my kind of friend “courtship.”

And so, a few weeks ago on a particularly sunny and cool fall afternoon, Anna and I spent the afternoon thrifting together in one of my favorite areas, Gramercy Park. If you know me, you know that Vintage Thrift is possibly the only place in the Manhattan area that I visit as often as my own grocery store. Is it an addiction? Maybe it is. But nobody (I know of) ever drove themselves to ruin by continuously adding to their collection of embroidered hankies.

Vintage Thrift is right on the perimeter of the historic Gramercy Park area…you know, where Carrie upgraded recently relocated in the last season of AJLT. And also holds a plethora of history, architecture, and cultural relics that have helped define and fancify the most famous petite private park in all of NYC. According to the AIA Guide to New York City Architecture (a must read!😃), Gramercy is a “handsome, picturesque architectural unit, notable more for the sum than its parts. No single building is of great distinction; still, it is one of the best places in New York. Tree-lined with limited traffic, it is quiet, serene, urbane.”

So, we began our adventure at one of the Best Places In New York with a morning coffee on Irving Place and three or four hours to spare. Which is all you’ll need to hit all the very best spots, take in the local, leafy wonders, and hopefully, discover lots of things you weren’t even expecting as you wander from one address to the next. Which, let’s face it, is the BEST kind of beauty in this city—not just the landmark galleries, taverns, and thrift shops…but the tiny moments of magic apt to be waiting for you on an ordinary side street (I mean, there are likely loads of other things waiting for you on a NYC side street, but this story is exclusively about the good surprises:).

Me, on our way to one of our stops, never not looking for something weird + wonderful to capture…and finding it✅.

I think that’s one of my favorite parts about making this newsletter. Being reminded that mini plans like this make us remember what a spectacular city this is. In the midst of so much global hardship and doom-scrolling, that this city is/was/always will be a home for artists, dreamers, and folks in search of beauty…on the sidewalks, in thrift stores, and etched in the brass plaques of 200-year-old brownstones. Sometimes, when the sirens are loud and I can’t make a left turn because a tractor trailer is blocking my entire street, I think maybe it’s time to move on. But then I spend an afternoon with a friend thrifting, sneaking two seats at a speakeasy-style bar for lunch, and soaking up a few legends of NYC’s original art club or oldest operating tavern, and I never, ever want to leave❤️.

If you love what we did here—replete with a printable map so you can go full luddite and enjoy the sites sans phone—we might follow this one up with a few more mini thrifting trips. Rest assured, each spot has been fully vetted—we spent the day walking the whole route, and we even edited out a few spots that, in the end, we didn’t think fully made the cut. So, while the skies are still sunny, let’s get into it…

(Psst—you can print me!)

• Follow coolstuff on Substack!

• And check out coolstuff’s website!