The Bridge

Everything Old Is Cool Again: How Retro Companies Thrive

stories of 2018

Thomas Bernich, who started Brooklyn Phono in 2000, making vinyl records (Photo by Andrea Mohin/The New York Times/Redux. All other photos courtesy of the companies, except where noted.)

Puppets. Pianos. Pasta. Pinball?

As Brooklyn quickly transforms into a tech hub, it’s more important than ever to chronicle the hundreds of other diverse and thriving businesses in the borough. Sometimes going against the grain can be profitable. As so much of our lives become infiltrated by all things digital, those well-made real things, analog products you can hold in your hand, start to have their own allure.

Here we highlight some of the most unusual, old-school shops in Brooklyn and how they’ve prospered. We asked owners how they manage to keep their shops going, who’s visiting, and much more.

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