[music]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Okay, if you have a Black-owned business or a business in the Bronx and you're selling holiday gifts, you're up on this week's edition of Shop Listener 212-433-WNYC-433-9692. Let's start with Sabrina in the Bronx, you're on WNYC. Hi, Sabrina.

Sabrina: Hi, good morning. I'm so happy that you took my call. I'd like to give a shoutout to EASCO Boiler Corporation, that's E-A-S-C-O. [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Wait, you mean we should give somebody a boiler for Christmas?

Sabrina: Absolutely. If you are a commercial building owner, if you have tenants, if you're a property manager or a developer, if you need temporary mobile boilers or commercial boilers or steel tank, EASCO has been doing this for 95 years. A family-owned business, Black-owned business in the South Bronx.

Brian Lehrer: Is there a right kind of wrapping paper for a boiler?

Sabrina: [laughs] As long as it's hot, that's all that matters.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much, Sabrina. Great way to start us off. Pascal in Harlem, you're on WNYC. Hi, Pascal.

Pascal: Hi, Brian. Thank you for taking my call. I would like to say that we are here in Central Harlem, the Harlem Wine Gallery. We have the largest selection of Black winemakers in the city. We're also pleased to have, as I know Tara Gomez, she's the first Native American winemaker that we're aware of, and she makes a beautiful Pinot Noir called Kita. We're here in Central Harlem, please check us out, and thank you for taking the call.

Brian Lehrer: Did I shop you last holiday season?

Pascal: You absolutely did and I have to thank you for that. That was wonderful and I hope those recipients of your gifts were pleased with the choices.

Brian Lehrer: Very much so. I'll give you an unsolicited, unpaid plug, which is to say, I asked you to deliver to a few fairly far flung places, and you did such a great job. Everybody was really happy with the wine. I will say that about Harlem Wine Gallery. Do you want to give us one more example of a Black-owned wine brand and maybe one of that you mentioned a particular Pinot Noir, maybe one of the other wines?

Pascal: Absolutely. We also have a wine called Where's Linus by Chris Christensen who is a young winemaker, who started out in Stanford. He's making some beautiful wines. We have a Sauvignon Blanc, we had his Rosé and we have a beautiful red wine that he's making and it's all unfined, unfiltered. He's really at the cutting edge of winemaking and just right out of the gate, he's been making some incredible wines. That would be my second person that I would love to do definitely a high-five.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Harlem Wine Gallery, thank you very much for calling in again and happy holidays to you. Kerry in the Bronx, you're on WNYC. Hi, Kerry.

Kerry: Hi, Brian. I and my business partner are both two women who own a yoga studio in the Bronx, and we are fully committed to people giving the gift of wellness this holiday season. We both live in the Bronx, we taught at the studio for many years and then took it over. Studio is called Bronx Yoga Lab, and it's in the Northwest Bronx.

Brian Lehrer: Cool. Now, do you do any kind of yoga in particular or-- You don't usually hear the word lab associated with yoga, it sounds like you're doing science experiments, which I bet you're not.

Kerry: Of course not. [chuckles]

Brian Lehrer: Do you have a particular style, anything like that?

Kerry: No, one of the reasons we call it Bronx Yoga Lab is because we do have a variety of different styles that we offer. We give people the opportunity to come in and try different things to see what works for their body. We do mostly do hot yoga, but we do have a couple of other non-yoga options. We have a Hatha 26 & 2 class which is a hot yoga class based on beginner movements.

We also have a Yin class which is much more meditative and relaxing for people who don't want that extra challenge of standing upside down on their head can try something that's a little bit more relaxing and meditative. We also have a Kundalini class and a Vinyasa class, we have a non-yoga option, which is a cardio core class, which is called HIIT. We let people come in and we offer an introductory month for $79 which is a great gift for the holiday, give people 30 days to come in and try as many of our classes-

Brian Lehrer: Cool.

Kerry: -as they want for the month.

Brian Lehrer: All right, the Bronx Yoga Lab or Bronx Yoga Lab. Kerry, thank you, good luck with it. As we're putting together our Shop Listener 2021 Gift Guide, Kerry's call reminds me that not all the great presents are physical things that you give somebody, some of them are experiences. When I'm looking at some of the submissions that we've gotten already, in the weeks leading up to today, since we've launched this for this year, it's a really interesting cross section of not just members of our listening community but kinds of things. One of the ones, that's also an experience is Big Apple Jazz. If you've got a jazz aficionado in your life, they offer tours of underground jazz venues in Harlem. For the geeks in your life, there's STARtorialist, which features science themed apparel and that stuff, but it's got a science-themed, STARtorialist.

There are tons of handmade crafts, knitwear, jewelry and accessories from our listeners' Etsy shops. There's the cheeky Virgins On Fire Candle Company with scents like "Heavily tattooed bartender," that's a candle scent. [chuckles] Condescending Barista, that's another one, and Buying a House With Your Parent's Money, you can get a candle that smells like that. Surprise, surprise those hipster candles are all handmade in Brooklyn. Today, we're taking calls if you're selling holiday gifts from the Bronx or a Black-owned business.

Again, let me give out the website to go to if you're a shopper, because I want to make sure that the shoppers know about this, not just the business owners who are listening. The rest of you, if you want to buy from our Brian Lehrer Show Shop Listener Gift Guide, go to wnyc.org/shoplistener2021. Next up is Regina in Brooklyn. Regina, you're on WNYC. Hi there.

Regina: Good morning. I don't own a business but I want to recommend one, called Barbara's Flower Shop at 1096, Bergen Avenue in Bedford Stuyvesant. That's the corner of Bergen and Nostrand, the number is 917-664-6895. They give you lovely arrangements, and you can get lovely arrangements almost anywhere. If you want something that's profound, artistic, and impactful, you need to go and shop at Barbara's. They deliver everywhere and their work is outstanding.

Brian Lehrer: Barbara's Flowers or Barbara--

Regina: Barbara's Flower Shop.

Brian Lehrer: Flower Shop, Barbara's Flower Shop in Bed-Stuy. Regina, thank you so much, I'm sure they appreciate the plug. Robert in the Bronx, you're on WNYC. Hi, Robert.

Robert: Hi, how are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good. What do you got?

Robert: I just wanted to give a shoutout to a little thrift shop that I've recently come out with. It's called St. Stephen's Thrift Shop, it's run by my neighborhood Episcopal Church and it got quite an eclectic variety of merchandise at their cheap prices. It's the antithesis of Amazon because it's local. A lot of the merchandise is brand new, it has original store labels on it. It has everything from jewelry to clothing for people of all ages, it has a lot of Christmas decorations, it has a huge collection of towel sets that you're not going to see everywhere else. Of course, it benefits a worthy cause, you're recycling very good merchandise and you're not adding to the landfill and shopping about as locally as you can.

Brian Lehrer: That is great. That's the St. Stephen's Church Thrift Shop. That's in the Woodlawn section of the Bronx, Woodlawn?

Robert: Right. 439 East, 238th Street, two blocks in from-

Brian Lehrer: Yes, go ahead.

Robert: McLean Avenue through the Main drive.

Brian Lehrer: From McLean Avenue. People sometimes pick up such gems in a thrift shop that they can't even believe that they ran into. Do you have any one item like that that you've come across?

Robert: I don't know if you can call it a gem, but I'm a new grandfather and I am buying things from my new grandson there. Virtually a brand-new baby car seat, for example, $1. I've been buying him new clothes that, of course, at the ripe old age of two months, he's going to outgrow very quickly, but then my daughter can pass those on to other friends of hers who are having new babies.

Brian Lehrer: I'm going to leave it there for time. Thank you so much for that call. St. Stephen's Church Thrift Shop in the Woodlawn section. I think we have time for one more, maybe two. Rory in Park Slope has another experience. Right, Rory? Hi.

Rory: Hi. I'm so happy to be speaking with you, Brian. I listen every day. It's my first time calling. My different experience is actually that I am the new director for Community Training & Employment Resources. It is a nonprofit, and we help New Yorkers and others who are in career transition, especially due to the pandemic, as well as underrepresented employees or former employees. We are looking for anyone who wants to make a gift, who can offer a donation to cterny.org, or if you'd like to volunteer and you have training at facilitation skills, to work with us in our training programs to provide job readiness skills to people who are looking for work. We operate at no cost. We operate on donations just like my favorite radio station. I'm grateful for this opportunity to have people hear more about community training.

Brian Lehrer: It sounds like you offer this service at no cost, if I've got that right.

Rory: We do, exactly.

Brian Lehrer: It's not like people can give a gift of resume services. This is something that you do for people who need it at no price. You're looking for donations to your nonprofit?

Rory: To nonprofit as well as volunteers, because I started over 10 years ago as a volunteer, even though I was working full-time for Fifth Avenue Committee, actually.

Brian Lehrer: Say the name of it again, Rory. Say the name of it one more time.

Rory: It's Community Training & Employment Resources. Our website is cterny.org

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Good luck with it. We're going to sneak in Will in the Bronx. Will, we have 20 seconds for you. Go for it.

Will: All right. I'm a big supporter of Coqui the Chef, Coqui the frog, C-O-Q-U-I. It's a small business in the Bronx that does virtual cooking classes with a Latin flair. If you go to coquithechef.com, you can join her, Tania Lopez, who is a huge activist and supporter of her community-

Brian Lehrer: In the Bronx?

Will: -and also provides these incredible cooking classes in the Bronx.

Brian Lehrer: Coqui the Chef, and we've got to leave it there. Listeners, one more time, if you want to list a business, go to wnyc.org/shoplistener. Sign up if you want to shop or a Shop Listener Gift Guide, go to wnyc.org/shoplistener2021.

Copyright © 2021 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.