By Julia Ornedo and Scott Etkin
Trek, a bike shop at 156 West 72nd Street (between Broadway and Columbus Avenue), is closing on November 7th. It plans to merge with the existing Trek location in Chelsea. This is the second Trek shop on the Upper West Side to close in the past three years, after the West 96th Street location merged with the West 72nd Street shop in 2023. The store on West 72nd Street opened in 2019. Trek’s remaining inventory is on sale, with 20% off all bikes and 50% off apparel, accessories, and parts. (Thanks to Ian and Seth for the tips.)
Barberino’s, a barber shop, is “grooming soon” on the ground floor of The Shops at Columbus Circle (at 10 Columbus Circle and West 59th Street). This will be Barberino’s fourth New York City location, joining outposts in Rockefeller Center, Madison Avenue, and Grand Central Station. In addition to haircuts and beard shaping, the barber shop also offers anti-hair loss treatments, facials, and hair coloring, among other services. Barberino’s was founded in Milan, Italy in 2015.
Beautyspace, a premium beauty product retailer, has signage up next to Barberino’s at The Shops at Columbus Circle. This location is billed as “a new destination for niche fragrances,” featuring more than 30 brands including Alexandre.J, Amouage, and D.S. & DURGA. Beautyspace has a presence in several department stores like Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, and Nordstrom. It opened its first standalone brick-and-mortar store in Union Square last month, focusing on mini and travel-size skincare, makeup products, and accessories.
Rowan, a piercing parlor, is coming this winter to the ground floor of The Shops at Columbus Circle. The salon offers piercing services by licensed nurses plus hypoallergenic earrings and aftercare products. This will be Rowan’s fourth location in New York City, along with stores on the Upper East Side and in Williamsburg and Boerum Hill in Brooklyn. Rowan was founded in 2017.
Blu Café, a coffee shop, reopened on October 24th at 120 Riverside Boulevard (at West 66th Street). The cafe closed down for two weeks for infrastructure renovations, a staff member told West Side Rag. Blu Café offers coffee, juice, smoothies, pastries, croissants, breakfast sandwiches, omelets, and salads. (Thanks to John for the tip.)
ICYMI:
Empire Szechuan Kyoto, the longtime Upper West Side Chinese restaurant at 193 Columbus Avenue (between West 68th and 69th streets), was temporarily closed by the New York City Health Department early last week for food safety violations. To read the Rag’s full coverage, click here.
Cold Stone Creamery, the popular ice cream shop, is “coming soon” at 2303 Broadway (between West 83rd and 84th streets), according to its website. The space was formerly occupied by Kolorbar salon. Read the Rag’s coverage of this news here.
The Openings & Closings column wouldn’t be possible without our many tipsters: thank you! Anyone can send tips about openings and closings in the neighborhood to info@westsiderag.com.
Trek’s closure is part of a larger trend of NYC’s independent bike stores being swallowed up by the larger brands. Specialized also ate what used to be Bike Renaissance on Columbus, and the 96th street store was independent prior. Sad indication of where we are headed
Trek is #1 or 2 in road and hybrid bikes, which are what people here ride.
So as far as this market is concerned there aren’t really any “larger brands.”
Toyota and Honda dealers exist in the same market routinely.
Perhaps it’s Amazon bringing bikes to people’s doors, or perhaps demand here isn’t as high as some people thought?
Trek bikes SUCK. Plenty of NYers have better taste than to ride flimsy made in China bikes (Specialized qualifies therein too)
So your initial comment was a cheer for Trek closing?
BTW there’s an independent bike shop 2 blocks away from Trek that’s not being swallowed up, you do know that, right?
We still have Master Bike so we should be alright. TOGA is also still open.
But isn’t Trek considered to be one of those large brands? Their bikes and products and service were super expensive, in my experience, relative to smaller shops that do still exist on the UWS.
The point is Trek ate the smaller brands. Just like Specialized
yes – Scott, you’re correct – they bought out Danny’s and then the factory/manufacturer has a controlling interest
Specialized is really Hill Top (who bought out Bike Renaissance)
Essentially these are all joint venture stores like car dealerships. There are stores that are 100% manufacturer owned but those tend to be outside high real estate cost markets
Correct, it’s one of the large brands. It was very convenient for parts and service as I ride a Trek, but I’m not schlepping down to Chelsea for that.
That Trek store was always super busy, it doesnt make sense at all.
They closed the wrong Trek shop in 2023 in my opinion. The 72nd Street one was narrow, cavernous, kind of gloomy, and hidden away under scaffolding. The 96th one was wide, inviting, and visible from Broadway.
The 96th street store is in a building that is eventually slated to be demolished; all of the retail in that building is vacant.
Master Bike on 72nd and West End is a great bike shop. I was always surprised Trek thought 72nd Street could support TWO bike shops.
A lot of ice cream and frozen yogurt shops are opening now. Strange to see these opening when the weather is just getting cold.
Trek was on 72nd St. for probably 10+ years so their lease probably ran out. At one point that store was a Fedex and then a Blades store.
Scaffolding has been an eyesore now for quite a while by Trek and the buildings to the East.
Barberino’s? Do they offer the “Up your nose with a rubber hose” treatment?
(One for the older TV viewers out there..)
What???? Where???