The number of Japanese restaurants in the borough have tripled in the last four years, by one observer’s estimate. And some of the new eateries, like the Fushimi Restaurant and Lounge, aren’t even Japanese owned.

“It’s really a big trend now,” Joey Tse, Fushimi’s Chinese owner, said of the sushi boom.

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Some Fairway shoppers said it was well worth budgeting the extra bucks to keep organic foods on the table.

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That’s the philosophy of Erik Ness, owner of The Bullpen, a new Upper East Side bar. He’s hoping his establishment will survive the tough times by offering customers reasonable prices, good food and a “neighborhood feeling.”

He’s got a big challenge ahead as the city’s $10 billion restaurant and bar industry braces for a decline. And with alcohol costs rising and a hops shortage pushing beer prices up, bars could be taking a double hit.

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The owner of Brooklyn Favors Party and Print Innovators in Brownsville specializes in making personalized party favors, including capias – flowers dressed up with ribbon frill and glitter.

Gables is looking forward to the busy spring graduation and bridal season, as she uses her talents to capitalize on what’s become a $20 billion a year party favor industry.

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“Peck Moss Group.” “Brack Capital.” “For Sale.”

These are some of the signs — and new neighbors — that have been popping up along the Bowery, dismaying local residents, as a new boutique hotel district is burgeoning in a neighborhood rich with history.

While college students and tourists flock to the Bowery’s new nightlife attractions, including recently opened bars, such changes are loathed by longtime residents.

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Pampered pooches seem to be recession-proof—at least in Chelsea.

There may be no neighborhood in the five boroughs in which residents take their love for their furry companions more seriously. This is evidenced by the proliferation of parks, bakeries, salons and high-end boutiques, all whose sole demographic is the canine sect.

As people throughout the city and the country brace for what seems like an imminent recession, these niche businesses—whose merchandise and services are surely considered by some to be superfluous or luxury—seem to be some of the most vulnerable to decreased consumer spending. However, storeowners are confident in their indispensability.

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DUMBO’S got a brand new bag.

The DUMBO Business Improvement District is handing out free reusable canvas bags to the neighborhood’s 1,300 households - and some storeowners are offering shoppers incentives to use the environmentally-friendly sacks.

“The plastic bag situation is terrible for the environment, and we know that paper bags are equally as taxing,” said Anna Castellani, owner of Foragers Market on Adams St., where shoppers who bring a reusable bag now get 10 cents off their bill.

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It may not be your ordinary economic indicator but spending at spas is down, according to customers and owners in Williamsburg.

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On a blustery evening at Chelsea Piers, union members from the Lower East Side Tenement Museum had the door slammed in their faces outside the museum’s 20th Anniversary Gala Dinner.

The Tenement Museum Union, affiliated with United Auto Workers Local 2110, has been trying to organize part-time and per diem workers at the cultural institution for more than a year. Museum management repeatedly has said it only will recognize a union that includes both full-time and part-time employees. Full-time workers, so far, haven’t organized.

(more…)

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Peddler whispered designer names to shoppers snaking along the sidewalk, heralding bargains still to be had – even if many storefronts were indefinitely shuttered.

A vendor named Tun stopped briefly to show a laminated card with pictures of designer bags for sale, and said he’d be right back before slipping around the corner. Reappearing minutes later, he pulled a small package from his jacket and unwrapped a knockoff Louis Vuitton handbag.

A genuine bag of the same size runs $300 to $600 in city boutiques. Tun’s price: $35.

Asked why he immigrated from Vietnam to work on the streets of New York, Tun gushed, “It’s the Big Apple: very, very sweet!”

‘Counterfeit Triangle’

It was anything but sweet the day before for those peddling designer knockoffs from Chinatown storefronts. On Feb. 26, the mayor’s Special Enforcement Unit and cops from the Fifth Precinct seized about $1 million in bogus goods and closed 32 shops in what Bloomberg dubbed the “counterfeit triangle” of Canal, Baxter and Centre streets.

Targeting property owners George and Carl Terranova, police got a restraining order to keep vendors out and began a lawsuit, citing building code violations. The Terranovas, who promptly issued a statement promising to cooperate with the city, must demonstrate that new tenants will sell legitimate goods before the stores can open again, officials said.

Legit Businesses Hurting

The closure of the storefront operations didn’t stop vendors like Tun, who said his boss brings in containers of knockoff goods worth thousands to resell on the street. On a good day, Tun will make $80, from which he pays $15 daily rent for a private room.

Nearby, the Lucky Stone shop was still open, displaying water fountains and carved stone dragons, giving some life to the street amid closed graffiti-laden metal gates on neighboring stores.

Robert, the shop owner, said he was grateful that police supervisors allowed him to reopen after determining his business was legitimate. He did, however, lose a day and a half of business.

“It’s slow today, too,” he said, explaining the lack of open stores had cut foot traffic.

Sitting inside a Centre Street kiosk, the “newspaper man” as he identified himself, said complained that innocent businesspeople suffered when cops shut the entire block for the raid.

“They lose their livelihood. The little guys always suffer,” he said.

In one of the closed shops, an NYPD detective stopped packing confiscated handbags, belts and wallets to talk with two women standing on the other side of a metal barricade set up by authorities. The detective explained in Chinese that the women could have access to their grocery and bamboo shop once they return with letters of permission from various city agencies.

“No illegal!” one of the women declared. She rubbed her eyes with her fists – apparently expressing her sadness to be out of work.

Clear Consciences

Experiencing a different kind of disappointment were Sammie Jones and Patrice Eldridge who came from Texas hoping to find the same Prada bags they had picked up in Chinatown last year. Neither had any qualms with buying bogus bags.

“[The designers are] not really reimbursing the people that are making them. They’re getting made in sweatshops and it’s costing them nothing, then they’re selling them to us at 500 or 600 times a markup, so it doesn’t bother me at all to come to Chinatown and buy the knockoffs,” said Jones.

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