Commerce In Gotham, Harlem Style

The Red Rooster at Lenox Avenue and 126th Street, a home to American comfort food. | RED ROOSTER

Buyers and Sellers: The face of retail uptown changed forever when Harlem USA came to 125th Street in 2000. Today, Marshall’s, Old Navy, Modell’s, Nine West, the New York Sports Club, Hue-Man Bookstore & Café — the largest African-American-owned bookstore in the nation — and the Magic Johnson movie theaters can all be found there. Designer Shoe Warehouse, Equinox’s lower-priced Blink Brand, Joe’s Crab Shack, and Party City are now part of a new retail development at 125th Street off Frederick Douglass Boulevard. And, believe it or not, it’s been more than 15 years since Fairway set up a mega-market at 131st Street right off the Henry Hudson Parkway.

On the East Side, shoppers can head over to the East River Plaza at 117th Street off the FDR Drive, a complex that includes New York’s first Target store, as well as Costco, Marshalls, PetSmart, Bob’s Discount Furniture, Old Navy, and Best Buy.

Whole Foods has recently confirmed a 2015 opening of an enormous outpost at 125th Street and Lenox Avenue, and a new Burlington Coat Factory will occupy the building’s top three floors.

Green Is Good: Wondering what the deal is with those neon-green taxis picking up and dropping off passengers in Harlem? The Taxi & Limousine Commission introduced a fleet of metered and credit card-equipped green taxis as a way to standardize easier street hails in Upper Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Dubbed Boro Taxis, they can pick up passengers north of West 110th Street and of East 96th Street. Currently, with the exception of the airports, the greens can take you anywhere a standard yellow cab would, but they cannot pick up fares in Lower Manhattan as they make their way back uptown or to the boroughs.

For Resolute Food Hounds:

Amy Ruth’s: Soul food

113 West 116th Street

amyruthsharlem.com; 212-280-8779

The Cecil: Afro/ Asian/ American Brasserie

210 West 118th Street

thececilharlem.com; 212-866-1262

Chez Lucienne: French

308 Lenox Avenue at 125th Street

chezlucienne.com; 212-289-5555

El Paso Taqueria: Mexican

237 East 116th Street