Atlantis Attic - 771 Metropolitan Ave.

This is the first of a two part series focusing on 2 businesses that stood on one parcel of land that was ultimately reclaimed for the higher calling of luxury condos.

Part 1 - Atlantis Attic
There's nothing more fitting about a pre-gentrified neighborhood than a thrift store. A thrift store, just like a neighborhood, has evolved with time. I imagine that it was once a place where poor families came to clothe themselves, taking advantage of dress pants for $5, and hoping that a matching jacket was on another rack.

In time, we all know that the thrift store became a temple of irony and Hipsterism that was finally smashed through into the public consciousness via a viral music video for a song appropriately named "Thrift Shop" performed by a white rapper named Macklemore. If you haven't seen the video, or haven't seen it in more than a year, I urge you to play it once fully through. The lyrics rhyme, the hook is catchy and the extras do a good job of bringing a bit of Williamsburg to Seattle.



In real life, a thrift shop didn't have anything for 99 cents unless it was a worn kids basketball jersey from the Westchester County JV league circa 1999. You certainly weren't finding any of these fur coats, cool plaid shirts or fresh white sneakers. I imagine that's partly because the reality of anything always fails to meet the bar set by fiction, but partly because there's a couple of super dedicated thrifters that dutifully scour the racks on a weekly (semi daily?) basis for the best in vintage clothing.

The Atlantic Attic sucked. I'll be honest, I'm not partial to old clothes to begin with but I just didn't see anything that worked. The stuff on the racks either looked bad, dirty, 3 sizes too big or some combination of those factors.

To make things even worse, the Atlantic had a strict policy against photography. In this age of instagram hashtag fuckery, you would think that a business that is the perfect conduit for sharing cool (or weird) finds, that they would be all for it. But no, they were not. Rest in peace Atlantic Attic. I didn't like you much anyway, but you were a landmark of Hipsterism and your demise signals a definitive shift towards Gentrification.

And thus with all relics of Hipsterism that were priced out by agents of Gentrification, the Atlantis Attic moved east to Bushwick.

Bonus : if you want to see some pictures that people sneaked of various items, check out the old Yelp page here : http://www.yelp.com/biz/atlantis-attic-brooklyn