By Scott Etkin and Lisa Kava
Utsuwa Botanical Design, a Japanese-style plant store selling bonsai trees, air plants, kokedama (an ornamental ball-shaped plant), and more, is opening at 80 West 86th Street just east of Columbus Avenue on Saturday, April 6th at 11 a.m. The business started in Japan and was located in San Francisco for the past 15 years. “I thought it’s time to move to the East Coast and it’s time to learn something new,” said Hiro, the shop’s owner, on a call with West Side Rag. Hiro, who runs the business with his wife, learned about botanical and floral design in Japan from his grandmother and another relative who was a bonsai master. Prices at Utsuwa – which means “flower pot” or “vase” in English – range from $20 for small plants up to $450. “We’d like to make this like a small botanical museum where [customers] can also buy,” said Hiro. “So if something’s stressing [people in] daily life, I’d like them to come and just enjoy nature.”
Just A Little Higher, a legal cannabis dispensary, is opening at 157 West 72nd Street (between Amsterdam and Columbus avenues) on Friday, April 5. “We basically want it to be a place where people can come not just to get weed, but to learn about it,” said Tyler Stalworth, who helps run the company with her father and two brothers. Just A Little Higher will be added to New York State’s registry of legal dispensaries once it opens, she said. “The waiting game is the hard part – putting everything into it and just hoping your application gets pulled,” said Stalworth when speaking about the licensing process. She noted that a few stores on the same block offer weed and related products, but are not licensed to sell cannabis. (WSR has not covered the opening/closing of stores that sell weed illegally in this column.) “It’s going to be our job to make sure we’re educating the community and make sure they know they’re smoking clean,” she said. “We’ve got to close them down sooner or later.” The space was previously Goodwill, a thrift store.
Boisson, the non-alcoholic soft drink company with a shop at 326 Columbus Avenue (between West 75th and 76th streets), has papered over its windows amid reports that the business might be closing its retail locations. WSR was unable to reach a company representative, but the UWS location, along with its five other NYC stores, are listed as “temporarily closed” on Google. Boisson opened its UWS store in the fall of 2021 and earlier this year announced an expansion of its national wholesale distribution business. (Thanks to Marta for the tip.)
L’Artigiano, an Italian gelato brand, is running a pop-up on the Ground Floor of The Shops at Columbus Circle (West 59th Street) through June 30. Scoops of gelato – including Sicilian Pistachio, Chocolate, and Mango – are being sold out of a Fiat 500 that has been remodeled as an ice cream truck. Hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday to Saturday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sundays. The pop-up coincides with the rollout of L’Artigiano at 400 retailers in the New York City metro area. On the UWS, the gelato is available for purchase at D’Agostino and Gristedes supermarkets.
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I’ve been peering into the window at Utsuwa with interest since they began building out and stocking the shop. Now that the greenery is arriving, it looks lovely! Can’t wait till it opens…I have a terrarium that needs upgrading.
That’s right…OMG, I never knew I could be so excited about going to a plant store!
Is Utsuwa where the frame shop used to be on 86th?
No, it’s where the florist was (Flowers on t he Park, I think) that’s now got a shop and cafe on the southwest corner of 85th & Amsterdam. Next to the Chase bank.
The frame shop was west of Columbus, and it’s now gone, as are the hand laundry and the rug store that adjoined it. Odd that all three adjoining stores are empty — maybe not so odd if they all were hit with big rent increases.
Amazing news about the cannabis store! With the rise of random, violent assaults by mentally unstable people and the inability of the mayor to get a grip on the problem, we can now count on more stoned people walking around the city! So sad.
Why do you think stoned people are the problem? There are plenty of drunk people out and about the city at all times, and they definitely can cause more harm to communities than a stoned person. Stoners like to mind their own business, and probably put more money back into the community by eating food sold there once they’re high! That’s nothing compared to the people waiting outside and staggering into liquor stores at 10am looking to get their drink and then pass out (maybe even vomiting before passing out)
Maybe you should try some pot. Might chill you out. At least you can buy it legally close by
There was more pot smoking on the streets in the 60’s, 70’s and even the eighties where people were selling loose joints, nickel and dime bags of weed practically on every other block!
Christina, I don’t know what neighborhood you lived in in the 1960s-80s, but there was definitely not more pot smoking on the streets then on the UWS, and the pot being smoked was of a MUCH weaker concentration than it is now. I lived here then and I remember this.
Also, comparing pot to alcohol is apples and oranges. When someone has a drink, they don’t force everyone in the vicinity to drink along with them. When pot smokers light up, everyone around them, including people with respiratory problems, people who don’t do drugs, and children, are forced to breathe in their drug smoke.
Absolutely wrong. I was here in the 60s and 70s.
You’re right, let’s shut all liquor stores and bars while we’re at it.
The difference is people drink at a bar or in their homes, not in the street, in the open, in a car, etc. In fact it is illegal to. However, people smoke weed everywhere, outside, in front of schools, children. They smoke out in the open everywhere. The smell is everywhere. I can avoid a bar, I can’t avoid the smell of weed.
Thank you!
Exactly! Alcohol is a problem , so why not close liquor stores, bars and hey why not go back to prohibition as well, we know how well that worked! Ha!
I’m not much of a green thumb, but Utsuwa looks interesting!
Very sad to see Goodwill leave…….. and, jeez, with a weed shop replacing it? There’s also a new one coming to W. 69th Street.
The weed stores are going to be like Duane Reade, pushing out other stores everywhere.
Goodwill closed in 2022, and there were stores across the street that closed long before they did. I’m only pointing out the year because there was plenty of time for any other business to move in. Does anyone know if the weed shop is taking both floors at the Goodwill location? Just curious as to why more businesses don’t scoop up those spaces when they’re available.
Edit: There’s still a large Goodwill store on Third Avenue btwn 88th and 89th.
True, but I am much more annoyed and concerned with random unauthorized weed shops popping up everywhere than with legal dispensaries.
I didn’t realize there was that much demand for cannabis stores in the UWS. Who are their customers? With so much supply, the shops might have to lower their prices to compete and may ultimately go out of business. But in the meantime…
I wanna know how much that cool tree is in the window?
The bleached twisted one on the right? It’s not a planted tree — just a Very Cool and beautiful piece of wood.
How does a weed shop open overnight and the bagel store has been in the process for years?
Similarly, the illegal weed shops pop up like mushrooms but the Chinese restaurant that’s supposed to replace the late lamented Mirabelle has had its windows papered over and no sign of construction for many, many months. I can’t help wondering who or what is behind the financing and ownership of the illegal weed shops, most of which seem similar in style and decor.
Boisson in it’s current (or former) form likely is not long for this world. They’ve blown through their funding and it doesn’t seem as if there is another funding knight or prince out there willing to pony up sums needed to keep this retail expansion going.
While there may be a sizable market for non-alcoholic drinks it doesn’t seem clear such retail can survive as stand
alone stores.
Whole Foods and other stores do a sizable business with non-alcoholic beverages, but they also have other offerings as well.
https://vinepair.com/booze-news/boisson-closing-retail-stores/
https://www.insidehook.com/spirits/boisson-non-alcoholic-drinks-spirits
I live only steps away from Boisson, and the fake gin I bought there was just okay. But my second (and last) buy was fake Riesling, which tasted of nothing but water.