Nikos' Magazine Shop Is Dead; Long Live Nicky's?
So I walk to Sixth Avenue and 11th Street in the Village to the corner where Nikos Magazine and Smoke Shop used to stand until last month, just to look at the space and mourn a little bit. And what do I find but a brightly lit magazine shop, full of publications and looking very much in business, with a sign outside saying "Nicky's Smoke and Magazine Shop." WTF?
The young man in charge said Nikos is still retired. But the space is still a magazine shop and they've decided to retain what amounts to something like the shop's old name. (Nikos, by the way, never hung out a sign. Don't know why the new owners reversed the "Magazine" and "Smoke" in the name.) So Nikos' lives on, after a fashion, as Nicky's. Still a good selection of mags and newspapers inside. A lot cleaner, too. Hey, it's better than another Subway or Dunkin' Donuts.
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Another point is that Nikos and the lady (his mother-in-law, I think) were real people. I had been going there for many years, and even when I went in after a 3 or 4 year absence, Nikos would say "where you been?, how you doing?"
Gonna be missed.
Sometime between August '13 and January '14 Nickys has vanished… Nikos…five and a half years since Nikos retired…left our neighborhood. My shelves are filled with his magazines…mostly from Great Britain and mostly unobtainable. He'd always say, "Respect?" and if the journal (an most always it was) worth keeping my answer would be, "Yes." Hence, a bag to carry, uncreased, unopened…my treasure home. I think, one day, that my little table shall be filled with his magazines. Unobtainable. To continue on with
"Respect."
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