Williamsburg's Whisk Plans to Open in a Historical Flatiron Space

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• Just your typical totally non-terrifying novelty store clown. Via 14 to 42
• Another look at the store in its prime via VNY
• Peeling paint in 2010 via VNY
• A close up from 2010, also via VNY
• What the storefronts looked like last August via VNY

Well-stocked Williamsburg kitchen store Whisk will soon join shops like Fishs Eddy, ABC Carpet, and Restoration Hardware on the Flatiron District's housewares row. The new space will be bigger than the Bedford Avenue location, which means more room for exclusive merchandise, including limited-edition crafts from local creative types.

Whisk's owners have also brought on alumni from the 'Burg's Uva Wines to help them open Flatiron Wine & Spirits just two doors down, making the strip of Broadway between 20th and 21st into a one-stop housewarming party gift shop. This isn't the first foray into Manhattan for the brand: It used to operate a spot inside Limelight Marketplace.

933 Broadway, Whisk's new Manhattan address, was once known for some of the best and weirdest signage in the Flatiron District. The building was built in 1902, and from 1934 until 2002 it was occupied by M. Gordon Novelty Incorporated, which sold "balloons, 5 cent & 10 cent items, tricks, puzzles," and "novelty hats," among other things.

Then Thor Equities bought the space and covered it while looking for new tenants. In 2010, the tarp came down, allowing Jeremiah of Vanishing New York to snap some amazing photos of the peeling facade. But barely a year later, the building looked like any other half-new, half-renovated construction in Manhattan, with modern windows, clean glass storefronts, and absolutely no trace of the old gilt lettering hawking carnival items and bingo supplies.
· 21st Street [14 to 42]
· Novelties Unsheathed [VNY]
· Whisk [Official Site]