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New York traditions keep reinventing themselves, and Chelsea’s indoor flea market—a classic Manhattan pastime—has now taken shelter. The market space known appropriately as “The Garage” is filled with cars during the week, but on weekends, its two concrete floors buzz with flea-market action. Over a hundred vendors display their wares in three-sided booths draped with scarves, keeping the focus on well-designed but not quite auction-quality clothing, accessories, housewares and decorative objets. Garage merchandise must be old (here, vintage means sixties or earlier), and tabs are low to reasonable for the quality of these schmattes and tchotchkes. Vendors possess a discerning collector’s eye equal to the sophisticated taste of their clientele, which is made up of eagle-eyed designers, stylists and models, sleek tourists looking for original souvenirs, and bright young things in brand marketing or finance enjoying the scene with coffee in hand. The time-honored New York flea rules apply: Early birds score, cash only, no returns, and eventually you’ll spot a famous New Yorker sifting through the boxes next to you. — Karen Tina Harrison

The management of the Garage, which also runs the sole remaining Chelsea outdoor flea market a bit east on 25th Street, provides a $1 shuttle between 25th Street and the Hell’s Kitchen flea market.