Gifted: A Holiday Market

This is, sadly, another Brooklyn Brew Shop complaint. I wasn’t able to find this business anywhere else on Unilocal,so I am posting under the Gifted Holiday Market. I placed an order with them two weeks ago and keep checking on the status of my order and it has yet to ship. I’ve sent multiple emails asking about the status of my order with no response. I understand this is a local homegrown business, but that still does not excuse the fact the this is a business. In this economy you’d think they would be a little more customer service oriented with the hope of creating repeat customers..

I have the same complaint as the previous reviewer. I showed up a week ago to buy some more grain for the Brooklyn Brew Shop kit I bought a month or so ago. To be safe, I checked their website to see if they had any twitter postings about being out of any supplies and not seeing any, I spent an hour going there only to find out they have been out of grain for a while (no apology either, just a «we’ve been busy»). With twitter on their site, their is no excuse for this. The rest of the market was nice, but having a vendor who essentially has no product to sell is ridiculous.

I had to curb my need to scream «Go Back To Brooklyn» after every damn vendor in the place assured me that everything was hand made in Brooklyn (god’s gift to other Burroughs. Thank god for Brooklyn!).
But once you cut past the pretentiousness, it’s damn cool to look at some of the wares being hocked here. I do love me some arty, homemade crafts that are high on the cool and quirky scale, but I could do without the Brooklyn holier than though attitude that I loathe so much.
I was born and raised in Queens, so that distaste is hard earned. Sure some might call it jealousy, but what-​ev-​er. I’ve been trying to get over it, and I’m not sure if Gifted hurt or helped.
But someone still needs to explain to me why the hell this was in Manhattan.
And thus ends my old man on a rocking chair review of Gifted. Bah!

Cool place.. it’s the old Tower records clearance spot, now its a full-​on flea market with some cool crafters, old stuff and yummy food vendors. I haven’t been to the Brooklyn Flea so I cannot compare it, but it was a good variety of shops set up in little stalls. I left with a few cupcakes from kumquat, and a home brew kit from brooklyn brew shop. it was pretty crowded and some of the people were a little pushy, but overall it was an awesome little setup for the holiday season and it makes me realize i need to get over to the Brooklyn Flea soon. Worth checking out if you like the old retro hip crafty vibe.

So I passed this space tonight and saw that the famous Brookkyn flea (as in market) is setting up camp in what was a Halloween costume store just a few short weeks ago. I’m excited to see what they offer and after doing some research, I found that Timeout Magazine had some more info. Here’s their write up:
«Brooklyn Flea is bringing its Gifted holiday market to Manhattan, and that’s cause for holiday cheer. This downtown spot offers hipster T-​shirts, vintage jewelry, stuffed animals, household wares and much more. We especially love painter Kate Durkin’s wonderfully simple handmade stuffed animals.»
It’s not open yet but I’ll update my review when I can actually check it out!