Geoffrey from New York

About me I travel to discover how people elsewhere live, how they manage living with low incomes in expensive cities, how they grapple with hard times and failing economies, how they deal with ageing or crumbling families and how they themselves age and adapt. Knowing and loving New York comes from having lived through many of its manifestations while witnessing its changes....

Oct 4, 2025

Candy Colored Girl New York

Brooklyn vintage

""Candy Colored Girl" in New York City is a vintage shop in Brooklyn that will remind you of Victorian black & white funerary art but in living color."

On Franklin Avenue, around Quincy, midst brick and mortar corner walk-ups separated by rows of asymmetrical two and three storey houses is one high, stately home made of wood, for which reason alone would make it stand out were it not for the six or seven chickens who live in its front yard. They have their own house in there and the yard is their domain, it being, well, a chicken-tended dirt surface, free of rocks, and mostly free of fallen feathers, except for a few which are hard to spot because of their earthen color.

It is one landmark you might pass as you walk from the Franklin Avenue Station to Bedford Avenue and Greene Street where is a shop called Candy Colored Girl where live more birds of differing species, and no chickens.

The walk takes enough time to feel deeply the bite of a 50° spring day when the wind is blowing hard enough to lay over the daffodils or make a close-hauled sail exciting.

Candy Colored Girl is the domain of Nora Young, the person with an eye for birds, but unlike the Franklin chickens, these Bedford birds have stopped preening themselves as they are dead, and the subject of photographs which when seen will remind you of Victorian black and white funerary art, but here they still wear their beautiful and brilliant plumage, in living color.

Equally beautiful frocks and Nora's attitude make this corner of Bed-Stuy vibrate—but oh, those tortoise shell shades!

Shopping

This week 25% off

with the code fall25

*on our yearly membership

About this spot

Bedford Avenue 1084

Frames:

US$

Website

9292652522

Social

Our New York City Guide

Find your way with 308 Insider Tips from our Local Spotters

Discover hidden gems and all our locals’ favourites! Get full access to our New York guide.

Join as a Spotter?

Loved this Spot? And love your city? Join your local team. Share your favs and become part of our international community!

Nice place right!? There’s so much more to discover:

Discover all other hidden gems in New York

The Pythian Temple

R&R Shrine

"The Pythian Temple" in NYC was designed in 1927 for the movie 'The Knights of Pythias'; today, it's remarkable for much more than its beauty...

Art & culture

Geoffrey

Dunbar

Oct 16, 2025

A Gathering, 2001 - Muñoz & Martin

Subway art 13

"A Gathering, 2001" by Muñoz & Martin in the Canal Street train station in NYC 'enlivens the space & provides respite from the busy commercialism above'...

Art & culture

Geoffrey

Dunbar

Oct 16, 2025

Saiguette

Vietnamese counter/takeout

I first returned to the Vietnamese restaurant "Saiguette" in NYC for its light, rich, rejuvenating soups, but I also recommend the pork shoulder sandwich.

Restaurants

Geoffrey

Dunbar

Oct 16, 2025

Rucker Park

NBA caliber street basketball

"Rucker Park" in New York City is where big men and children come to play basketball, strut, defy, dominate make a name for themselves. You have to see it.

Art & culture

"The Revelers by Jane Dickson" in New York's Times Square Subway Station is mostly located in the transfer corridors between the BMT and IRT Flushing line

Art & culture