After skating into Park Slope with a pop-up version of her Coney Island roller rink, one of Coney’s most beloved vendors is popping up in the heart of Williamburg.
Lola Star’s Wonderland Holiday Gift Boutique is expected to soft-open Saturday, in the long vacant former home of Tasti D-Lite.
Though these are temporary digs, the space actually seems larger than her sliver of a souvenir shop on the Coney Island boardwalk, where — under the influence of a few beers from Ruby’s next-door — we’ve bought kitschy items like a 3-D animated postcard of the Cyclone. Lola also stocks Coney Island snowglobes, unicorn dolls, Roller Girl candy cigarettes, and now a whole line of Rockaway t-shirts and accessories.
(Photo: Daniel Maurer)
If you’re not familiar with Star, whose real name is Dianna Carlin, she’s pretty much a local legend in Coney, where she opened her boutique in 2000 after emerging from the Detroit rave scene. The bubbly artist and activist went on to found the Save Coney Island organization in order to defend her tiny perch on the boardwalk in the face of rampant real estate development.
Some might argue that Bedford Avenue has become a touristy mob scene that resembles the Coney Island boardwalk a little too closely, but whatevs — we’re glad to see her flying north for the winter to spread some of that glitter around.
Lola Star Wonderland Holiday Gift Boutique, 193 Bedford Ave., nr. N. 7th St.
