Where this Designer Finds Japanese Delicacies in the East Village

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New York City has more stores than anyone could physically tackle, but somehow we always keep returning to the usual suspects. To break out of the rut, we've asked some local shopping and fashion gurus to provide their hidden retail gems—those unique stores around our fantastic city that we might not all know about. Cue the Beatles: We're about to get a little help from our friends.

Image via Yelp

Eighteenth is a New York City-based clothing line that's designed by Alexa Galler, a native of Atlantic City. Now in its seventh season, her collection is guided by the ideas that basic is boring and asymmetry is more interesting. To date, it's been featured inside the pages of New York magazine, Lucky, People StyleWatch, and Time Out New York, and WWD recently highlighted it in their "Breaking Out" column, which features emerging brands.

Sunrise Mart is a Japanese supermarket that's crowded with rows of foods: Neon jellied candies in Super Mario packaging, drinks with suspended seeds that look like miniature eyeballs, dehydrated full-body octopus and tofu in every shape and form imaginable. For birthday gifts, I pick out an array of interesting, random snacks. It's always a fun unexpected, sometimes delicious present. Plus, they have great imported Japanese magazines and cooking supplies as well.

· Eighteenth [Official Site]
· All Shopping Confidential Posts [Racked NY]

Sunrise Mart

4 Stuyvesant Street New York, NY 10003