BROOKLYN, NY — What are the quintessential storefronts that define Brooklyn?
This is the question artist and illustrator Joel Holland seeks to answer through more than 200 drawings of Brooklyn’s unique shops and streetscapes in his new book, “Brooklyn Storefronts: Illustrations of the Iconic NYC Borough’s Best-Loved Spots.”
The new book, which came out this fall, is a love letter to Brooklyn, featuring illustrations of world-famous Brooklyn joints like Junior’s and House of Yes, as well as places that are a little more niche but equally beloved, like Cafe Con Libros, the “Black, Feminist & Bookish” bookstore in Crown Heights, and Not Ray’s Pizza, the longstanding slice shop in Fort Greene.
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The book is the third in Holland’s storefront series, and so far, it has the widest range of businesses, he said, including not just bodegas and restaurants but also dive bars, bookstores, furniture stores, barbershops, museums, concert halls, bakeries, newsstands, toy stores, cafés — the list goes on.
“We tried to be a lot more thorough, a lot more inclusive. We cover so many more bases geographically, culturally — the whole gamut — in this book,” Holland said.
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His first book, “NYC Storefronts: Illustrations of the Big Apple’s Best-Loved Spots,” came out in 2022 and focused on his favorite places in Manhattan.
“The first New York storefronts book started during Covid when I couldn’t go to places I would normally go to with my kids. It was just a way to keep the spark going in our family about what we love about the city,” Holland said. “Interestingly, the illustrations kind of helped to support [the businesses] during Covid — I would post them on Instagram, and it was like rogue marketing that no one asked for.”
His second book about storefronts cataloged London’s streetscapes, and the Brooklyn book, in many ways, represents a homecoming for Holland, who lived in Park Slope for a decade before moving to Manhattan with his family.
“The cool thing about this project, compared to the Manhattan book, is that the Manhattan book was, in a way, an autobiography or something. This one was partially that — like places that I remember from when I used to live in Park Slope — but we crowdsourced a lot of it as well,” Holland said.
To compile a list of storefronts to draw, Holland crowd-sourced on Instagram — where he has more than 10,700 followers — for places that serve as cultural touchstones in Brooklyn. Then, he went on walks with lifelong Brooklynites through neighborhoods like Canarsie and Prospect Lefferts Garden to find the gems in the borough.
“I thought I knew Brooklyn well — and maybe I do — but do I know it this well? As well as this book does? No,” Holland said. “I have learned so much about places that I didn’t frequent that often, which is really super cool.”
In his book, every illustration is paired with the historical, cultural and architectural details that have earned these stores a place in people’s hearts, written by journalist David Dodge.
Dodge and Holland also highlight the stores under threat from rising rents, gentrification and the pandemic, like Lords Bakery and Photocakes, which sadly went out of business last April, when a judge ordered the 60-year-old business to close due to unpaid bills after business slowed during the pandemic.
“I love living here, I want to stay here, and I want all of these places to remain,” Holland said.
What storefront represents Brooklyn to you? Email [email protected].
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