1313 Madison Ave., New York, NY

This shop has been on my list for a long time, and I saved it for a special occasion. You see, I frequently travel to the upper east side area of NYC from upstate NY for cancer tests and treatments at Sloan Kettering, and sometimes after I leave an MRI or CT/PET scan, I’m exhausted, shaken, and feeling really low. So after a particularly hard morning of scans, I decide it was time to treat myself. I wandered over toward the Carnegie Hill neighborhood as the aftereffects of my valium wore off, and I sat myself down inside this shop for a bit, taking in its simple beauty. It’s only one room, but with its excellent selection and a subtle classiness that matches the neighborhood, it’s the perfect shop to have “right around the corner.”