Here’s our list of the Best of the City 2009: Hardware Stores and Appliances. Not all of have websites – so they’re linked when available, but that’s not a sign of anything. These establishments were selected on the basis of repeated dealings with them, the criteria being honesty, reliability expertise and pricing – not necessarily on the selection of goods, which varies by neighborhood and market. We’ve excluded large chains because the quality of service varies radically, and apparently randomly, depending on which employee you encounter.
Weinstein and Holtzman
Weinstein & Holtzman is the apparently tiny storefront hidden, at 29 Park Row, in the middle of all of the various storefronts of J&R Music World.
Tel: (212) 233-4651 • Fax: (212) 571-5301 • Website: www.212hardware.com • E-mail: info@212hardware.com
We’ve been customers of Brooke’s Appliances for years. Open Tuesday through Sunday (closed Mondays, for anyone having trouble working that through), they 
don’t sell anything they wouldn’t recommend, and we’ve been happy with everything we’ve bought from them. Big companies and big distributors tend to discriminate against small neighborhood retailers – so their stock doesn’t include every brand. But everything they do sell is reliable. They’re located at 387 7th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215, tel. (718) 832-0055. Charlie Lucchese, one of the twins who run the store, tells me that they currently have Sodastream seltzer-water-makers on sale – just in time for New Year’s Eve.
