ABC

Photos do not do justice to the experience of being in a place like ABC Carpet and Home with its enormous loft-like floors and the look and feel of a Victorian emporium. Some floors have separate boutiques. There are even restaurants, a bakery, cafe and a French chocolatier. The stores sells an enormous variety of home furnishings featuring furniture, antiques, jewelry, bed & bath, lamps, chandeliers, fabric and drapery, baby and children's goods, gifts, collectibles etc. Click here for more photos. This is another one of those "only-in-New York" type of places with a unique feel - an amalgam of quality goods in a historic space that is slightly worn - not the very immaculate, sanitized type of place you would find elsewhere for merchandise of this quality and price. Not that long ago, ABC was a relatively drab, utilitarian carpet outlet. From the New York Times article: "ABC has come a long way since 1897, when Sam Weinrib, an Austrian immigrant, began pushing a cart loaded with used carpeting and linoleum around the Lower East Side. Sam's son, Max, abandoned the cart for a store under the Third Avenue El at 29th Street, and Max's son, Jerome, moved it to the current site in 1961." The business occupies the 7 story building (which it now owns) at 888 Broadway and 19th Street and the building across the street at 861 Broadway. Read more about it here. I highly recommend visiting if you are able and enjoy the atmosphere ...