New York Restaurants, Bars and Stores Prepare for Irene

 Things at this West Village cafe were bustling this afternoon.

 ...but a lot of places looked like this:

 

A 9/11 memorial, a collection of small clay plaques hanging on a chain link fence on Seventh Avenue South and Greenwich Avenue for the last 10 years, was being taken down by volunteers and moved to someplace safe.

 I love how every sign in every window was personalized. 

 Grocery stores, wine stores, hardware stores, bodegas all were doing a bustling business today.

This is the scene at the Key Foods in the East Village.  I read in the Times that Whole Foods stayed open all night, but was closed at noon.

 Beauty is always calm and collected.

 The restaurants that were open this afternoon all seemed to be doing a bang up business.

Upstate Craft Beer and Oysters was being manned by the owner who lived around the corner and was dedicated to staying open as late as he could.

My favorite Indian grocery store was open for business, but preparing for the worst.
Bars were by far the most definite group...

This was outside an Irish Pub whose cooks hadn't made it into work but whose bartenders had, so no brunch tomorrow but - come hell or high water (literally) - they were planning on being open!