NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH: WILLIAMSBURG

Never satisfied to just rest on our laurels, Kitchen Toro brings you the latest ambulatorily-discovered information about our beloved 'Burgh.

Those of you who love cheese, sit down. That's right, there's a new cheese store coming to the old Downer's Pharmacy building, most recently Clovis Bookstore.

Wait, wait, I hear you complaining about new development. Relax and look a little more closely in the window. That's right, "Coming This Fall," the Bedford Cheese Shop. Sure, so Bedford's lost a little bookstore. I know, it's a travesty. I love books. I love independent bookstores (I've worked in one during college) but if an independent bookstore is leaving the space I can't imagine a better thing to replace it than an independent cheese store. Think of the display space. Think of the open space in the Bedford mall that will be vacant for some other hipster genius, think of the cheese, the foot-traffic, the fresh ravioli, and think of the...cheese.

More after the jump...

Another block away from the Bedford L stop and towards the Williamsburg Bridge is our second stop on the Bedford Avenue Express, next door to the pet store and across the street from some major development.

The writ in the window (uh, right) proclaims that the next resident in this storefront with paper-lined windows is the Yehuda Bakery. I take this to mean we'll all be seeing some fresh Challah bread pretty soon.

The third stop on our travels today is less of an announcement than a musing, not a deathknell but general query. I've never visited East 88-- I've been unsuccessful at wrangling a dining partner and I'm not sold that I'm going to want to visit more than once so I've been waiting for another mouth to justify ordering more plates of food.

I'm hoping to take more people with me to give the place a chance to overrule my first impressions. In the past they've closed to refurbish, they've put up a garish awning and now they've been closed for at least a week and I'm not sure why. Could it be the end? There's that window-eating-acid-graffiti on the windows and a not-so-promising aura hovering above the place and I'm not sure the 8's (a lucky number for the Chinese) in the name can save it.

With all the continuing change going on you've got to wonder how much longer it will be before the Salvation Army moves on from it's spot across the street from the Bedford L stop. The windows in the building above he red awning have been boarded up for quite some time and it would seem to be the perfect location for a restaurant, a bar, a store, an independent movie theater (oh my god we need one) or, gasp, wait for it, wait for it, you know it's coming, sooner or later...

Starbucks.

Oh wait, come on now, don't hate the playa, hate the game. You know it's that perfect Starbucks-type corner location and that sooner or later you'd sneak in for a mochy-poky-frappa-dappa-doo. Let's all just hope it's not CVS.