The Beat That My Heart Skipped – A blog dedicated to daily design inspirations. By Rohini Wahi.

One thing New York has is choice choice choice!!! Sometimes it’s a bit too much to handle, do i NEED to make a decision about how much froth i want on my coffee (ok bad example, i need exactly one third of foam on top of my cappucino).

Anyway – one subject there can never be too many options for is BOOKS!!!!  New York has many great bookstores, quirky independent stores, great second hand stores – but the King of all NY bookstores has got to be good old Barnes and Noble. Yes i know it’s a corporate giant with a Starbucks and floors taking over perfectly good historical buildings – but something about it just has charm!

The very first Barnes and Noble i ever frequented  was the one in Boston on Coolidge Corner, where my best friend and i (we went on a summer holiday when we were 13 to visit my uncle) used to collect the free paper bookmarks from the till, with the Barnes and Noble logo elegantly letterpressed (?) (or so my memory seems to have romanticised it to have been) into the paper so we could parade them back at home in England where no one really seemed to care…

These memories coupled with the more recent ones of visiting the wide windowed, wood planed aisles of Barnes and Noble on Astor place in Greenwich Village seems to have intensified its swoonfactor for me.

Barnes & Noble’s beginnings can be traced to 1873, when Charles M. Barnes started a book business from his home in Wheaton, Illinois.  In 1917, his son, William, went to New York to join G. Clifford Noble in establishing Barnes & Noble.  During the height of the Great Depression, what later became the Barnes & Noble flagship store was opened on Fifth Avenue at 18th Street in New York City, where it still resides today. This store developed a worldwide reputation for excellence by serving millions of customers with its comprehensive selection of general trade books, academic titles and textbooks, and medical books.

In researching this post i discovered that Barnes and Noble in Astor Place, closed just after my last visit in November 2007 : ( How sad, i hope i find another with just as much charm.

Barnes and Noble, Astor Place

We are off to New York for a festive family Christmas on the 18th of December!!!! I was meant to start my countdown yesterday but i got too involved in Jane Austen week (see last post)! I will post the second day of countdown in real time later today.

For every countdown day i am going to post an image/a shop/an area/a product that symbolises New York for me!

Naturally the first evocation must come from the gloriously ‘New Yoik’ foodie hangout Dean and Deluca on Broadway and Prince in Soho.

In the early days, Joel Dean and Giorgio DeLuca traipsed around the world to find artisan-produced foods that pleased their customers, and not to mention themselves! They wanted products that fired their imaginations, challenged their tastes and turned dinner into a creative exercise.

Giorgio and Joel’s dream of a place that would offer customers a sumptuous celebration of food, a place to experience all of the pleasures that cooking and eating can bring, the original DEAN & DELUCA, opened for business in September 1977 in Soho. Artist and founding partner Jack Ceglic designed the original store to evoke a turn of the century food department, with high ceiling fans spinning over a vast array of products that lined the high, white walls. Joel Dean and Giorgio DeLuca searched for handcrafted products and artisan foods and imported their discoveries into their enchanting emporium. On display was a staggering variety of produce and foodstuffs, including many never previously sold in this country

To this day i feel the store in Soho particularly embodies the excitement of that turn of the century venture; the grand industrial building, the glorious good food and treats, the atmosphere, the smell of coffee brewing in the morning…

Check out the store tour for my favourite Dean and Deluca in Soho.

J.Morgan Puett born in 1957, is known as one of the world’s first influential conceptual artists, but i would say she is one of the world’s first stylists.

Her childhood reminiscence of home life in rural Georgia flavors many aspects of her work, which straddle the lines of fashion, architecture, and fine art. The daughter of a third generation beekeeper and painter respectively, Morgan’s work focuses on clothing design/textile and costume history as well as the recreation of milieus that recollect her well-worn southern rural heritage; the subject of her store on East 5th Street, Broome Street, and Wooster Street in New York, NY. Puett launched her career with the creation of her own designer label (J. Morgan Puett) and accompanying Soho (NY) retail fashion house.

These are some of her installations…

Broome Street Store

Wooster Street Store

Chicken Coop Shack Installation

Mildred Lane Porch

Located in the heart of the West Village in New York, Greenwich Letterpress is a retro style stationary shop, specialising in gorgeous and whimsical cards and wrapping paper made using the artisanal old-fashioned method of the Letterpress.

Run by sister’s Amy and Beth who originate from a family of printers, the store specialises in custom made cards for all occasions featuring woodland creatures and vintage designs. GL also carries their own ready made designs, my favourite being the Nature Calls series and beautiful graphic Thankyou cards.

All cards allow you to; choose a card style, embellish with covetable fonts, select from papers and  pick from an array of gemlike colours. They also have an online shop for internet orders.

I would love to invest in their bespoke vintage business cards as above, but would never want to give any away!