Been
meaning to do a post on
Olivo's Fashions, a homey and unusual little shop at 55 Avenue C near Fourth Street. It has been here for 36 years, and is a father-son operation. Part of the store is devoted to yarn and fabrics and other things sewing related.
In 2007, though, the store started to be more known as a serious place for video games. In fact, just last Tuesday,
Crispy Gamer did a feature on the place titled, "World's Greatest Independent Game Stores: Olivo's Games Depot."
As the second deck of the headline reads,
"Welcome to pretty much the only place on earth where you can buy skeins of yarn, adult diapers and a still-shrinkwrapped copy of Rez ($99.99)." True.
Here's an excerpt from the article, which nicely captures the vibe of Olivo's:
The store is one of those rare, old-time New York places that are almost impossible to find these days. Two-thirds of the store is devoted to yarn, knitting, mannequins, candles, homemade lollipops, porcelain hands designed to hold your rings, and blouses. It's like a thousand five-and-dime stores crammed into 600 square feet. The remaining third -- the front corner of the store -- is devoted to videogames.
And now I buried my lead...I was dismayed to walk by Saturday to see the following...
The elder Mr. Olivo, I believe, was hanging garmets outside on Saturday morning. He said they were closing and had to have everything out of the store. There seemed to be a sense of urgency to this. I went back yesterday to take some photos of the interior and, I hoped, to talk with one of the Olivos. Unfortunately, the gates were down. I'm afraid I'm too late.
