Weird run-down shops that appear to sell bugger all and only ever open at obscure times

There exist in most large towns shops that basically exist as fronts to launder money for crime.

The second one is probably a) a front or b) an inherited business or a small part of some private empire that isn't worth running properly but can't be sold.

Robinson

its my favorite shop in the world, of course

PIMP MY AQUARIUM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_Spanish_Kitchen

Archel is clearly some kind of expert ;-)

It's run by a woman of about 60 years old (I assume Brigitte) who is extremely unfriendly. The window displays have not been changed since about 1985 and the racks are full of new copies (this is not a second hand shop) of 70's and 80's pop and schlager music - nothing past about 1990. The whole place is like a time-capsule.

While browsing their 7" section, I found brand new copies of a Johnny Mathis promo from 1960 and an original Kid Baltan 7" from 1959! Cost me a euro each.

Next time I go past I must take a photo...

In Barmouth there are brothels in Kinmel Street. The helpful site www.knowhere.co.uk told me so.

(so, yes, it's a brothel)

There is a brothel opposite my current house, quite a posh one I think.

Err... perhaps it had closed down, Archel.

There's a truly screwed up record shop (and i use the term loosely) in Vienna. It's called Schallplatten Brigitte (Brigitte's Records) and it only opens for 2 hours on a Tuesday and Thursday - or whenever she can be bothered.

It's run by a woman of about 60 years old (I assume Brigitte) who is extremely unfriendly. The window displays have not been changed since about 1985 and the racks are full of new copies (this is not a second hand shop) of 70's and 80's pop and schlager music - nothing past about 1990. The whole place is like a time-capsule.

While browsing their 7" section, I found brand new copies of a Johnny Mathis promo from 1960 and an original Kid Baltan 7" from 1959! Cost me a euro each.

*makes fantasy travel arrangements*

1950s cans? Twelvty of them?

There's also a tattooist a couple of doors down that I think now is shut. It hasn't opened at all in 3 years, as far as I can tell.

Currently in earthquake retrofitting. There is a shed behind it with who-knows-what in terms of illegal/awesome imports. Probably op!um p!pes and stuff like that. His family is a friend of my family. There's been a 'Gone Fishin'' sign on the front for the better part of a decade and a half and I can't even remember the last time I was in it, really.

open TWO days now!

I went a month or later after going with Jody and geeta, and the shop girl remembered us.

unless it means something different in the US?

-- JTS (knife_of_justic...), August 10th, 2005.

It's weird looking back at this. Two women were found bludgeoned to death in 13 Frankwell yesterday (it's all over the UK National News). And yes, it was a brothel after all.

They are doing things to Al-Barakah's Emporium! It's sat there next to the Straw Hatter launderette doing seemingly nought for decades, but it looks like they're renovating it. My guess is that it'll join the teams and teams of takeaways in Nightingale Road.

1) energy snack bars for bodybuilders,

2) a couple of computer programming manuals,

3) some weird Christian science fiction books a la "Left Behind".

I can imagine what they thought their target group was, but I lived in the same building for almost two years, and I never saw anyone enter the store. I think it's closed now.

My girlfriend used to live a block north of that place on Western and it always intrigued me. I was bummed because the ONE time I saw it open I was running late for an appointment and couldn't stop in. It was closed an hour later when I came back.

http://www.northend.org/new_photos/hollywood_200.jpg

http://www.boiseweekly.com/binary/f3d2d723/Volume1Feature25.jpg

you know that chick that looks like an evil, gothic, school master that outside every show holding a clipboard and is like the master guest list lord of hollywood? she owns this place off of melrose:

http://static.flickr.com/70/179568765_b4a56fa089.jpg

the end of an era... al barakah is now the mysterious "Paprika"!

Just reviving this thread for the sake of it, although there was an electrical shop near us just like this. Had three toasters in the window.

mark s once started a very similar thread about shop owners who seemed to be against the entire idea of people actually going into their shop and buying things but now i can't remember what it was called :(

Ned, central Leicester question: is the very strange little shop on High Street (past The Shires, towards Highcross Street) still there? Dark, no real indication of its purpose (maybe no sign), bits of model train track and a few random second-hand books in its window (faded Haynes car manual? The display did not change much), no customers. Once went in (it was an object of fascination to me and my school friends) and a red-bearded man - the owner? - just sort of stared.

Alfred Lenton Books! Still there.
See pics and here Alfred's son speak here.

Indeed here's a photo inside the shop showing Philip Lenton who now runs it.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3119/2571117268_6eb3c36a70.jpg
From Dave W Clarke's flickrstream.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/pegasus-food-shop-san-francisco

I visited here when I was in SF cause apparently the owner is my friend's uncle; unfortunately when we went (afternoon on a weekday) it was, of course, closed

Thank you! I will listen when I get home. Damn it looks quite nice in those pictures, like an actual working bookshop (which isn't how I remember it).

I am enjoying that site. It's like some hyper-personalised pre-pubescent nostalgia trip: Kirby & West, St Barnabas library, Cossington St.

Seemed to have reached the age where I start sending letters to Mr Leicester's column.

There's a "gift" store on the main street in Hoboken that's open normal hours, but I never see anyone actually go in. It has a hodge-podge of cheap jewelry, personal electronics (like headphones, walkmen, alarm clocks, etc) in the faded original boxes (stuff must be at least 10 years old), knock-off designer handbags, watch bands, etc. They also have a sign "Watch Repairs" so I went in there to replace my watch battery and band. The proprietor, an older Chinese or Korean guy who came out from the back of the store, was helpful though not overly so. I resisted the urge to ask him how he managed to stay in business. I know rents on that street are expensive, and shops are going out of business all the time, so I'm baffled.

I think the Edinburgh Armenian restaurant mentioned upthread is this place:

http://edinburghmenus.com/directory/aghtamar_lake_van_monastery_in_exile_eh88ea/

Been (sort-of) running for years. I've never been, and I've heard mixed reports - an experience, by all accounts.

shop owners who seemed to be against the entire idea of people actually going into their shop and buying things

Hi dere second hand book and comic shops.

There was a shop near me in Vancouver called the Lido Cafe which was in an unfashionable part of town and famous for always being closed (I personally haven't seen it open since about 1998 when it would open two afternoons a week maybe) and only selling dutch crackers and maybe a few tins of soup. This caused a certain amount of speculation about the property being a front for a drug dealer and the usual kind of thing. It existed in that state for years until the owners finally died a couple of years ago.
When a renovation company moved in they found hundreds of thousands of dollars in antique notes hidden all over the place.

The best example of this in Edinburgh was the Armenian Restaurant. It's a nondescript, run-down building next to a railway bridge, with boarded-up windows and no signs anywhere; nothing to say what it was. According to my old boss, it was a nameless Armenian Restaurant, run by an old man who opened when he wanted, didn't have any menus and charged what he liked. I never dared try to find out if this was true.

You'll all be glad to know the Armenian restaurant rumour is true, and it's still going. Sorry to resurrect an almost dead thread, a friend of mine managed to get a table at the place a few months ago. Here's his review: http://www.jemmaeatworld.com/2011/08/aghtamar-lake-van-monastery-in-exile/

Sorry, saw folk talking about it and just had to share! I've lived in Edinburgh for 25 years and this was the first I'd heard of it.

http://static.tvfanatic.com/images/gallery/bender-gets-made_558x480.jpg

We were greeted by the proprietor and led through a candle-lit passageway to a cavernous room decorated with enormous flags, rusty bicycles, traffic cones, church pewes and a moose head staring down on our table.
The room itself was quite cold but thankfully a candle was provided for us to sit round- when it got really cold, we lit it.

wow Jemma, that review is amazing. The place sounds so fascinating that I could almost imagine renouncing my hatred of pork for it.

If I'd known about that Armenian place I would have tried to go there when I was in Edinburgh last week (I assume it wouldn't have been open though). I've already sent the review link to three people.

I like shops like this...there was one in Brentford, it would never be open, but the window displays would always change.

There was one of these in waterloo but it closed down recently ;_; I never ventured inside but someone else did.

http://www.nothingtoseehere.net/2008/10/eniss_cafe_london.html

The man explained that he had put his “special sauce” in the food but that this sauce was “not suitable for children”. The sauce was for sale at the back of the shop for £100.

Wow, loving this:

It is the healthiest substance of the world.
It is the elixir of all time.
It is the best recipe since time.
It is as if is the oil of mankind....

However, a closer inspection reveals an area that is well worth a visit should you be passing through or find yourself with a slow connection at Waterloo station. There is the Hole in the Wall pub under the arches of the station, Caprini’s Italian restaurant with original fittings that remind me of my Polish granny’s house, the fantastically named “Fishcoteque” fish and chip shop and then there is the strange coffee hatch on Alaska Street...

Oh man I know exactly where that is. Fishcoteque is my fav named fish and chip shop ever. I even have a picture of it tucked away in an album somewhere.

That place sounds os bizarre.

Wait I just read the whole Enis entry. WTF?! That is completely insane. I love it.

Also, lol

The man explained that he had put his “special sauce” in the food but that this sauce was “not suitable for children”. The sauce was for sale at the back of the shop for £100. As I left I started to panic... what was in this special sauce?? Why couldn’t children have it? My suspicions took a turn for the worse as I stared at the name of the cafe.

can we also talk about tropical fish stores and why they're only located in ghettos?

― you people and your friends are fake (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, August 9, 2005 11:35 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark

LOL

I live sorta near shady area and there's totally a bizarre tropical fish store there. What is that?

Oh I found more reviews of Enis's: http://morechipswitheverything.blogspot.com/2010/05/enis-cafe.html

I had asked him about the Elixir of Life, and he goes 'DISCOUNT OFF OF IT IS GONE, DEAL IS OFF, DEAL IS OFF' and ripped the card out of my hand and started to fold it up and balanced it on the table.

O_O

There was a signboard outside that read "There is nothing more beautiful than real cappucino". Always riled me because no matter how much of a weird coffee freak you are, "beautiful" is an inappropriate adjective.

I have felt aesthetic beauty from drinking many things