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John Chubet
What happens to a neighborhood's biggest shopping weekend when its only subway line was scheduled to be shut that weekend?
In May, Greenpoint was looking at that problem. Council Member Lincoln Restler's office had shared the schedule the MTA floated to local elected officials. It closed the G between Bedford-Nostrand Avs and Court Sq on several weekends, including Dec. 5, 12 and 19, amNewYork reported. Fifty-five business owners in Greenpoint and Williamsburg wrote to the MTA board. They asked the agency to move the closures to weeknights, "particularly in June and December."
All three December shutdowns are now off the calendar. In the open space, the neighborhood's holiday events have piled up on the first weekend of December, starting with the Dec. 5 date that used to be on the shutdown list.
The G is the only subway line serving Greenpoint, and the business owners made that point in their letter. Shop Small Greenpoint surveyed 36 local businesses across four shutdown periods between July 2025 and June 2026. On average, weekend sales fell 22 percent, and 39 percent of the businesses cut employee shifts or hours, according to Time Out New York. In the same report, Perri Salka, owner of WonderMart and a co-founder of Shop Small Greenpoint, said December holiday shopping brings in a quarter of her store's annual revenue.
That figure explains why the December dates mattered more than the others on the list. A shutdown weekend in a slow month costs a shop one weekend. A shutdown weekend in early December lands on the part of the year that some owners count on to carry the rest.
The cost showed up on Nassau Avenue this month. Kaleidoscope Coffee at 151B Nassau Ave. served its last day on Sunday, Nov. 15. Co-owner Adam Stamper gave two reasons for closing, and one was the shutdowns, Greenpointers reported.
"It's the only train out here, and weekends are most of our business. The shutdowns in 2024 and 2025 hurt, and this year it's been down a lot. On a shutdown weekend you can feel it right away."
He also thanked the shop's regulars for keeping it going since it opened in July 2022.
On Sept. 28, the Brooklyn Paper reported that the December shutdowns were scrapped. Repairs originally planned to run through the end of the year finished early, and the paper said the G would run normally through the holiday season. The work was in the tunnel between Greenpoint and Long Island City, which was damaged during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The MTA said crews finished more than 6,400 feet of grouting and leak mitigation in the Greenpoint tube beneath Newtown Creek, and that let the agency drop the December outages. "Reversing these shutdown dates means our shop owners can count on a full, uninterrupted holiday season this year," Salka said in a statement reported by Time Out.
The G is still under construction. The MTA's service page for the line, last updated Sept. 30, lists more November weekend work, but all of it falls south of Greenpoint. On the weekend of Nov. 20–23, G trains skip 4 Av-9 St, 15 St-Prospect Park and Fort Hamilton Pkwy. Over Thanksgiving weekend, Nov. 27–30, there's no G service between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts and Church Av, and the MTA points riders at the stops in that stretch, from Bergen St to Church Av, to the F. North of that, trains run in two sections, and one of them runs between Court Sq and Bedford-Nostrand Avs. That means Nassau Av and Greenpoint Av keep service on Nov. 28, the opening day of the neighborhood's biggest shopping event of the year. Check the MTA page before you travel in case the schedule changes again.
Shop Small Greenpoint runs its retail crawl twice a year. The holiday crawl runs Nov. 28 to Dec. 6, 2026. A volunteer lead organizer, who is also a Greenpoint small business owner, runs the event, and local sponsors fund it. Here's how it works:
The weekday discounts are worth noting given the year shop owners have had. Weekend crowds are what the shutdowns took away, and this season the crawl also gives shoppers a reason to come in on weekdays. The group's site also has a directory of brick-and-mortar businesses across Greenpoint, so you can plan a route before you pick up a passport.
The crawl ends on Sunday, Dec. 6. Most of the neighborhood's other holiday events fall in the three days before that.
These are the three days at the center of the original Dec. 5 shutdown weekend.
The Polish-Slavic Center at 177 Kent St. starts its Christmas season with a visit from Santa Claus at 5:30 p.m. Every child gets a gift, and guests light a red-and-white Christmas tree together. A Christmas Fair runs from 4 to 8 p.m. with handmade gifts, ornaments, baked goods, traditional Polish and Slavic products, jewelry, ceramics, and wood and fabric goods. Admission is free and seating is limited. The Center's announcement asks guests to reserve by Dec. 2.
The Original Story Holiday Market opens at 64 Dobbin St. from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. It's a ticketed event with fashion, vintage, jewelry, gifts, drinks, pastries and music. This is the weekend the floated schedule would have closed the G between Bedford-Nostrand Avs and Court Sq, and this year the line runs.
Original Story's second day runs on the same hours. From 1 to 7 p.m., the Greenpointers Holiday Market takes over Greenpoint Loft at 67 West St., fifth floor, with free entry. Sunday is also the last day to collect crawl stamps.
On foot, the three venues make a loop. Kent Street, Dobbin Street and West Street are all in the western part of the neighborhood, close to the waterfront. Manhattan Avenue, where the crawl's shops and most of this fall's new restaurants are, sits a few blocks east.
Many of this fall's openings are on or near Manhattan Avenue, so you can stop for a meal between the markets and the crawl.
| Spot | Address | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Limousine | 632 Manhattan Ave. | Cocktails and small plates in the former Ponyboy space, with a karaoke room; opened Aug. 28 |
| Ayune | 664 Manhattan Ave. | Hand-roll restaurant from Wasabi owners Robby and Cristin Wijaya, with a pared-down version of the Wasabi menu |
| Halal Munchies | 694 Manhattan Ave. | Late-night counter with burgers from $6.99 and large platters at $10.99 |
| Santa Chiara Caffè | 227 West St. | All-day café, bakery and gelateria, a block from Greenpoint Loft |
| Gabriel Borges' restaurant | 148 Noble St. | European-leaning menu with New Orleans influences; opened Sept. 24 |
Santa Chiara owner Cristiano Rossi has described the West Street shop as a step beyond the brand's gelato-and-café format, serving from breakfast through dinner, Greenpointers reported. That makes it a handy stop before or after the Sunday market upstairs at 67 West St. Halal Munchies co-owner Ismat Popal told the same outlet the counter had gotten busy soon after its soft opening in late September.
Farther up Manhattan Avenue, the Flower Cat team has been building Bistro Cat at 837 Manhattan Ave., a Filipino bistro with French-bistro influences, and was aiming to open by the end of the year. If you're ending the night past the Williamsburg line, Dolly's Swing & Dive at 146 Wythe Ave. reopened Oct. 9 after a four-month closure.
Without the December closures, the Retail Crawl, the Polish-Slavic Center fair, two holiday markets and a run of new Manhattan Avenue restaurants all fall within nine days that the G serves without a break. Salka put a number on what that's worth to her store. Stamper described what the shutdown weekends cost his. Both are still in the record, and the first weekend of December is when the holiday season either pays off for Greenpoint's shops or doesn't.
The crawl starts Saturday, Nov. 28, and Greenpoint's stations stay open that weekend.
At John Chubet, we follow Greenpoint block by block, from which storefronts are filling to how a transit decision shows up on Manhattan Avenue. If you own here and want to know what your home is worth this season, let's connect. Request a home valuation and we'll walk you through it.
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