Wednesday, February 6, 2013

That's it for the Village Scandal on East 7th Street

After a nine-year eviction battle, the landlord took possession of the Village Scandal, the longtime vintage hat shop, at 19 E. Seventh St., on Monday afternoon.

A tipster with knowledge of the proceedings said that owner Wendy Barrett vowed to continue fighting this.

However, today, the store has been cleaned out...


There's no message on the store's website, Facebook page or outgoing phone message.

Previously.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sad to see it go. The hats were very high quality and it was a unique institution. I hope they can re-open somewhere nearby...
East Villager

Anonymous said...

sad how many viable businesses are driven out of business by landlords who want ever more rent.

i hope they reopen.

in the meantime, i can personally recommend three wonderful downtown milliners still in full swing!

the hat shop. linda, the proprietor, sells a number of independent milliners' creations in her lovely shop on thompson street. http://www.thehatshopnyc.com

lisa shaub fine millinery. lisa makes beautiful hats!
http://www.lisashaub.com

and barbara feinman, who sells her own designs as well as some vintage pieces.
http://www.feinmanhats.com


chris flash said...

Wendy told me that the whole problem was the managing agent's refusal to properly credit her for her payments of increased shares of real estate taxes so that he could get her out and rent to a higher paying tenant. She says they have been doing this to their other commercial tenants and that, in some cases, the real estate taxes exceed the fucking rent!!

She is a nice person (though a bit high strung) and she ran a fine little hat shop that made you feel like you were back in old New York.

kim said...

So sad. Does anyone know if Village Style thrift store is out of business on E7th? Or just renovating/painting? All the clothes have been moved out...

aveaisessex said...

What a shame. Nice store, eccentric lady. I'll miss it. It was the go-to for all my haberdashery-based needs.

Shit. Now I'm sadder.

Eden Bee said...

I am late to this party but I am glad she closed. I worked there for half a day..she left me alone within five minutes of meeting me(she is lucky I am an honest person!) to go and "meet a client" at McSorley's. She came back hours later blacked out drunk and proceeded to scream at the stack of bills that came in the mail I handed her..She said she was refusing to pay anyone anything including garbage pickup when they came in asking about the money she owed them. I also fended calls form others working there asking where their paychecks were as she hadn't paid anyone for weeks. She then told me to yank out the tags in the cheapo hats she had bought wholesale in midtown and replace them with her tags and say they were made at her store. Then she quadrupled the price on them. Then told me to say the plastic beaded necklaces she had been bragging about that she got in chinatown for 20 cents were glass and precious jewels..had to mark them at $30 each. She was wasted and trying to force customers to buy stuff..the UPS guy I know form my block started cracking up when he saw me working there and wished me luck as I would "need it." I was told to hit on customers, and stay past midnight to get the drunk crowds of guys coming from McSorleys and lure them in by dressing sexy and flirting with them. I did a decent job dealing with her and the next day i went back to get my pay and told her I didn't want to work late and wasn't happy with the schedule she wanted me on. She then screamed at me..was already drunk at 2pm and refused to pay me for the day before. Horribly, lying scammer of a woman and no one who worked there liked her and most did not get paid. This was years ago but I knew she would get evicted at some point. Surprised it took this long. This is one place I am not too sad to see go. Go to Barbara Feinman.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know where I can sell my hats in East Village area?