Product Description

The most comprehensive, stylish, and practical guides to New York City’s hippest shopping districts.

As chic as the city itself, these one-of-a-kind maps and guides to the hottest shopping districts in New York City feature select boutiques, caf?s, and salons on every block in the neighborhood. That’s hundreds of haunts for haute couture, exclusive design, and offbeat accessorizing. Fashion. Interior decor. Restaurants. Galleries. Whether you’re looking for sumptuous silk pajamas or the perfect velvet blazer, Egyptian linens or a lacquered credenza, Biedermeier candlesticks or original gifts custom wrapped according to the Japanese art of tsutsumi, the Pratique reveals where to find them, along with the caf?s with hidden back gardens and the bars with the best pomegranate martinis.

Packaged in a handy snap-shut wallet with a color-coded fold-out map, the Pratique cleverly references stores with similar styles to help shoppers find more of what they like. Restaurants are also listed by type and include a price bracket, helping diners quickly pinpoint a favorite cuisine or new culinary experience. Store addresses, phone numbers, hours, and website info are all included. Sleek and affordable, these indispensable neighborhood guides are like nothing else–why look like a tourist, even if you are one?

“The must-have map to the area’s shops and restaurants”–American Way Magazine

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #781000 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-03
• Released on: 2006-10-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 64 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781892145420
• Condition: NEW
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"Shopping in New York is as exhilarating as it is daunting: so many stores, so many neighborhoods. You need a strategy so as not to miss a single exotic opportunity. This guide...may make things easier. A booklet lists all the shops directory style, with brief descriptions. A separate map locates all the stores on a large, easy-to-read, color-coded grid. Hotels and restaurants join shoe shops, fashion retailers, antique dealers and stores that sell everything from diaper bags to decorative fossils. The directory and the map fit into a snap-closure plastic-bound wallet." --The Chicago Tribune

"Stylish leather-bound portfolios proportioned like a business envelope. Side-by-side pockets hold a folded map and a shopping guide with excruciating, block-by-block detail" --The Boston Globe

"Author Sarah Caplan is “one heck of a shopper, judging from these comprehensive guides to New York's most fashion-forward neighborhoods. Ingeniously packaged in a dual-pocket vinyl snap-close wallet, they contain a booklet listing shops and descriptions in one pocket and in the other, a fold-out map that plots locations...Caplan gives special attention to truly one-of-a-kind emporiums, stores that stock unusual or exclusive products and places that carry out-of-the-ordinary gifts. And when you're ready to drop, the index will direct you to the nearest bar or restaurant.” —USA Today

"Sarah Caplan solves holiday shopping dilemmas with the Little Bookroom's Pratique Guides. The snap-shut wallet includes a color-coded map and booklet of hip shops and restaurants." --New York Home Magazine

"Think Fifth Avenue is the best place to shop in New York City? You need to branch out. Two new Pratique Guide books steer shopaholics to some of the hippest neighborhoods of Manhattan and scope out the goods block by block. "Soho and Nolita" and "The Meatpacking District and West Village" (Little Bookroom, $18.95) are handy, snap-close volumes that slip easily into a handbag. There's a map tucked in one side and business listings on the other. The fold-out, color-coded maps give you a quick overview of the shops and restaurants on each block with a number that corresponds to a section of the business listings. Recommended and must-see stores are starred. Now I know where to pick up a Stella McCartney frock." --The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"For those who feel like a rube thumbing through a tour guide in too-cool-to-breathe New York City, the Little Bookroom has designed "The Pratique Guides," a series of shopping guides designed for the urban hipster and those who want to look like one. These "Shopping Block by Block" guides are disguised as a smart, snap-shut wallet that happens to have a color-coded, fold-out map. A shopper who consults the guide titled "The Meatpacking District and West Village" can lay siege to Bleeker Street's boutiques, cafes, and antique shops. Author and designer Sarah Caplan, who obviously knows her Soho from her boho, is a New York-based graphic designer and artist whose clients have included musician-artist David Byrne. She points the reader to the best spots for Egyptian linens, pomegranate martinis and flirty fashions from Catherine Malandrino, whose clients include Angelina Jolie, Sandra Bullock and Demi Moore." --Pittsburgh Tribune Review

“Serious shoppers visiting New York City may want to consider two new guidebooks. The Pratique Guides to Soho and Nolita, and to The Meatpacking District and West Village, come with a neighbourhood map and a booklet of business listings. The map plots individual stores and is colour-coded, to help shoppers identify store types quickly. The booklet describes what you'll find at each store, and sometimes lists off which celebrities wear the brand. Each map and booklet come in a pocket-sized valise so you won't look like a tourist toting it from Ralph Lauren to Kate Spade Baby...” —Calgary Herald

"Here's a must-have for any New York trip: Pratique shopping guides. Have you ever spent hours looking for a store that you knew was just around the corner? With the Pratique Guides, you'll know exactly where you're going in the giant shopping mecca of NYC. Each bright, bendable, easy-to-stow set comes with a color coordinated map and a business listing booklet that provide a block by block, shop by shop visual guide to the most popular New York City shopping areas.
With the Pratique Shopping Guides, you'll know exactly where you're going in the giant shopping mecca of NYC." --Boomergirl.com

Praise for The Pratique Guide: SoHo and NoLIta

“The must-have map to the area’s shops and restaurants”–American Way Magazine

“Die-hard shoppers will enjoy this comprehensive guide to shopping in SoHo and NoLIta. The comprehensive map, phone directory and credit-card sized map will ensure shoppers are hitting all the top spots while in the neighborhood.”–About.com

“The nicest looking [guide] out there.”–Gridskipper.com

“A snazzy orange portfolio with a pull-out, color-coded map of shops and eateries in the two hip ‘hoods.”
–The Washington Post

About the Author
SARAH CAPLAN has worked as a freelance graphic designer and artist for ten years with clients that have included the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Sotheby’s, and musician/artist David Byrne. In 1999, she produced a series of critically acclaimed paper dresses made of Tyvek and printed with graphic imagery, which sold all over the world and were accepted into museum and private textile collections. She has designed and published the Pratique since 2002 and looks forward to expanding it to include other areas of New York City, as well as other major cities. After living many years in New York, she now resides in California’s Bay Area.

Customer Reviews

great guide to shopping in the West Village
This little shopping guide is fabulous. It includes a wallet-sized folder with a skinny booklet outlining details of all the best shops, bistros, bars, coffee shops, designer boutiques and anything else you might need. Also included is a detailed map of the area with every business shown on the map in rainbow colors. Some friends and I are going to New York soon for a ladies only shopping trip. This little guide looks to be very user friendly. Also check out the Pratique guide to Greenwich Village shopping.

A great guide to an up and coming neighborhood
In 1884 New York City created a two acre food market named after a Revolutionary War hero, General Peter Gansevoort, who was Herman Melville's grandfather. In 1949 the Gansevoort Meat Market was established. Today the Meat Packing District is a 20 block, 24 hour restaurant and shopping neighborhood. It is located on the West Side between 15th and Horatio Streets, and west of and including Hudson Street.

The West Village is less clearly defined. For the purposes of this fine guidebook, it is bounded by the Hudson River and Sixth Avenue, extending from 14th Street down to Houston Street.

Both neighborhoods are filled with an extraordinary number of fine shops and art galleries. This comprehensive directory includes descriptions and contact information for the many stores, hotels, restaurants and other services. The guide contains a large fold out map that makes it easy to plot a course through the riches here.

The Little Bookroom has produced a beautiful guide, and Sarah Caplan has filled it with excellent content. Example:

"Geppetto's Toy Box
Children's Toys
10 Christopher St. (at Gay St.)
212 620 7511 * Mon-Fri 11:30-7, Sat 10:30-6:30, Sun 12:30-5:30
nyctoys.com
Geppetto's is an apt name for one of downtown's best toy stores. Children and adults will delight in the enormous selection of high-quality toys. (A recent customer came in with the unusual request for a stuffed squirrel and left minutes later with one in his hands.) Top picks include Steiff animals, collectible Madame Alexander dolls, handmade rag dolls (in different skin tones), handmade paper mobiles, Ketler tricycles from Germany, and wall art by Eeboo. The owners stock many New York-themed toys and books, such as a 3D Empire State Building puzzle, as well as great kits, books, and puzzles. Lego, Brio, and Playmobil make an appearance (though the collections are not extensive), as do Siku die cast trucks from Germany."

Stores are marked "Recommended" and "Must See" in the directory and on the map. There is simply no better guide to these interesting areas of New York City for the hard core shopper.

Robert C. Ross 2008