This Saturday is what American Express is calling Small Business Saturday and it will be the first day of business for one Verona-owned shop. On November 29, Rob LaFalce is throwing open the doors to Vintage Vibe, which specializes in the records and toys of our youth.
When we first wrote about LaFalce in 2010, the 2002 graduate of Verona High School had a band called Philth Harmonic that was touring New Jersey and beyond. He also toured twice with a ska band called The Toasters. But in his travels, LaFalce was also keeping a sharp eye out for collectibles, which he sold on eBay until the day that he realized his collecting was approaching epic proportions. “I had to turn sideways to walk down my hall,” LaFalce admits. 
And so he began to think about becoming a brick-and-mortar shopkeeper. Verona’s rents were out of his budget, but he came up with what he hopes will be the perfect solution, a space in Midland Park that is also home to the music school he teaches at.
What will you find if you head up the Parkway to Bergen County? LPs like Michael Jackson’s “Off The Wall”, John Mayer’s “Continuum”, the sound track to the 1995 indie flick “Empire Records”, and a Chicago box set–complete with posters, LaFalce notes. 
Want vintage toys instead? You can pick from a Raggedy Ann doll, Tonka trucks, WWF Hasbro and LJN wrestlers from the 1980s and 1990s, an Easy Bake Oven, and even “Ghostbusters” figures.
But Vintage Vibe is not just toys and tunes. LaFalce has got old cameras and “lots of barware”, vintage and modern lighting and more than a few pieces of furniture, thanks to a friend who specializes in finding and fixing tables, chairs, dressers and more. In fact, there are so many furniture pieces that LaFalce has had to make a catalog of them rather than try to display them all at once.
LaFalce thinks that the large number of vintage stores in and around Midland Park (there’s a baseball card store next door) and the regular foot traffic to the music school will be a plus for his store, and vice versa. “People can come in,” he says, “and hopefully find something they weren’t looking for.”
Vintage Vibe
47 Prospect Street
(in the From the Top Music Studio)
Midland Park, NJ 07432
(201) 452-5774
Instagram: vintageviberobbie
Opens Saturday, November 29 at 10 a.m.
Regular hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday: 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
