New York has a reputation as a shopping mecca but not usually for the right reasons. No, forget about the giant department stores and fast-fashion outposts: the best browsing in the city can only be had at the need-to-know local shops.
Tal Silberstein's Colbo is one such place. Tucked in a cozy space down Orchard Street in the hip Nolita district, Colbo's equally worthy of being a destination store and local hangout alike.
Silberstein has an avant eye and deep-rooted appreciation for communal spaces, with roots in Tel Aviv and a resume that includes stints at LVMH Prize-winning designer Hed Mayner and modish Brooklyn venue Public Records.
Colbo allows Silberstein to personally unite those motifs together.
Part cafe, part event space, part retailer, Colbo stocks quick sips, vinyl records, ceramics, incense, apparel, and accessories alike.
Colbo doesn't have a web-store (yet — the space only just opened in November 2021), so you'll have to stop by IRL to shop wearables from up-and-coming names like his pal Hed Mayner, MEALS, Archie, and Csillag, some of which aren't stocked anywhere else in the city, if not the country.
So often, especially in New York, stores conceived as approachable hangouts often end up with a whiff of exclusivity, a "you can't sit with us" elitism fostered by scenesters who flood the joint looking only for the next cool thing.
This isn't gonna be the case for Colbo, partially because Silberstein doesn't see consumption as Colbo's sole raison d'être.
Instead, Silberstein envisions Colbo as "a store that doesn't make you feel like you 'have' to buy, but can also engage, sit back and enjoy the energy, people and space," he said in a statement.
That means no 'tude, no gatekeeping, no one unwelcome to come in and chat over a cup of drip coffee.
Whether or not you walk out with a purchase is irrelevant — Silberstein only seeks to provide a cozy nook free of New York's ephemeral stress.
That being said, with Colbo's killer selection of stuff, it's hard to think of a better place to spend both your time and money.
