1. Hole in black
Eli Natan’s record store in King Solomon is far from its heyday in the early 2000s, when it was possible to pull out esoteric pearls from all over the world with a sticker of four shekels affixed to the cardboard of the cover so tightly that a brain surgeon had to separate them. Go to the hole at the beginning of the week with the new crates still on the floor, before sorting to the shelves, and a little happy and a little worried when a friend arrives who might bring the day’s pull out in front of you. But above all, the hole is Eli, an antipathetic man with a heart of gold (let’s compromise on copper) who is fun to run laughs with on any subject in the world. And the stickers, after trying to take them off with a lighter, pen, turpentine and any other material known to man, find that a rare record with a sticker of four shekels from the hole only adds character and story to it. King Solomon 5
Hole in black (photo from the store’s website)
2. Vintage
It is enough to walk through the door of the furniture store in Olei Zion to feel Scandinavian. Tomer brings vintage furniture from Denmark, combines them with pieces from the apartments and offices of collectors in the country and manages to set up an international-class store in the flea market where most of the stores that have been have long since become bar-restaurants. Even if you do not buy anything (and it is difficult) to sit down for coffee with Tomer and Moshe, surrounded by perfect objects from the last half century, it is always an experience that washes your body with energy and throws you to face the Middle East a little more immune. Immigrants of Zion 13
Barbonia Bar
A small, dark wooden room on the dark side of Ben Yehuda is still my favorite spot to spend Shabbat at noon. Barbonia Bar is a place where if you feel a kind of hierarchy, it is the result of only a few years you have burned in it on a bar stool. There will be those who will say that since Ezra left it is no longer the same, and justice will be with them of course, but the Locus cubes forever sat perfectly next to a beer and the vibe stuck there to the walls. Besides, it’s always fun to remember that in a city of trends and hype, the place that feels most natural and right looks and acts like a kibbutz pub. Ben Yehuda 192
Barbonia Bar (Photo: Sefi Krupski)
4. Triangle
A bit of a leak to stand outside surrounded by 16-year-old girls waiting for the new “Drop,” but the best vintage clothing store in town is worth the embarrassment. The emphasis here is on the eighties-nineties on the more sporty side (thank God the days of seventies shirts with pointed collars are over), and here too it’s all a matter of timing. The good items disappear from the hanger a few hours after they get on it, so the trick is to jump often and hope to sting. Moving to the chin a few months ago ruined the magic a bit in my eyes, but I’m a tough man. King George 69
5. Halper Books
A small passage in Allenby leads to a maze covered in books from floor to ceiling, this is already a good start. Despite a sense of utter chaos and a hallucinatory and formative pricing method (why price with letters, when each symbolizes a price, rather than simply writing a price on the book?), Many of the art and design books starring in my private library were pulled away after dusty sessions. So it’s true that you can find everything online for a long time and often even at a better price, but as in record stores there is no substitute for the endless burrowing and shelter that Halper provides with the sputtering air conditioner when the city is shining and hot outside. Allenby 87
And smell for free. Halper Books (screenshot: Facebook)
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