New Shop From Something Else Owner Opening In Former Campo De’ Fiori Space This Week

While talk of national chains increases along 7th Avenue, a local business owner is expanding his Brooklyn operations by opening a new shop on 5th Avenue.

The new space from Doug Grater, who owns the clothing store Something Else at 208 5th Avenue (with another location in Cobble Hill), will open this week at 187 5th Avenue, which was home to Italian restaurant Campo de’ Fiori for four years before it closed this past October. The other 5th Avenue shop, which is just a block away on the corner of Union Street, will stay open.

“We kind of ran out of space,” Grater explains about the decision to expand. “I wanted to develop a new concept for the neighborhood, in a bigger place. And two is better than one.”

The new store will carry a similar, but different selection of items from the Union St shop, which Grater says he’s spent the past three months selecting. Expect a range of bags from Herschel, Woolrich blankets, Levi’s jeans, and more.

“Every item will stand out on its own,” he says, noting that they should have some nice sweaters and other easy-to-please items for people on your holiday lists. “It won’t be packed, but there will be easy gifts. It’s going to be simple — we’ll let the store breathe and then see what happens.”

In his nearly 10 years of running a business in Park Slope, Grater says he’s seen shopping trends change, but believes brick-and-mortar shops are still a valuable part of the community, and he’s glad to keep that growing.

“We lose sales [to internet shoppers], but in all honesty, we’re right here in a good location, and we try to make it a fun place — I believe in experience,” he says. “Hopefully the localism helps too. You know, we live here in the neighborhood, we hire here in your neighborhood. I’m not saying you’ve got to support me, but why not? I’m out there eating at everyone’s restaurants and shopping local. You go to Amazon, you’re supporting a bunch of suits. Support me!”

Grater says he’s been working daily on the renovation of the space, which he designed with his contractor, who’s also a friend. With Brooklyn business roots that go back a couple generations, he says he’s committed to the area, and in fact, in October he purchased the building where the new shop will open.

“We’re one of the last real retailers from a different era,” he says of his family’s work. He notes that it goes back to a shop called Dave’s on 5th Ave and 9th St that his grandparents owned in the ’50s, and that his father opened the original Something Else, of which there were six at one point — including the one in Bensonhurst, now closed, that Grater himself got his start at.

“We both did the same thing,” he says of his father. “We didn’t want to work for our parents, but we did, and then once we knew what we were doing, we did our own thing.”

And now that he’s really digging in his heels with this most recent venture, has this multi-generational business been what he expected back then, starting out?

“The investment in this took everything,” he says. “Buying it, renovation, merchandise. But it’s worth it.”