“I’m Irish. It’s hard to be succinct,” says Stuart Marley, but he did an admirable job describing his Real Irish store opening at the end of November in the Arbor Hills space next to Zola Bistro. Concentrating hard not to go off on a tangent, he says: “The store is going to be primarily Irish woolens, both hand knits and woven. We have our own label on quite a few of the products we sell. We have them made by knitters in Ireland. The traditional Aran sweaters, and more fashion-forward clothing too. We’re not trying to appeal to an Irish market per se but to people who value quality. Upscale,” he says, savoring the word, with his delicate Irish accent. Marley formerly had a warehouse store off Ellsworth Rd.

Two more changes took place in late fall at Arbor Hills. Here, as across the country, Hot Mama stores became Evereve, swapping the language of Latino street gangs describing their girlfriends for the language of Madison Ave. execs inventing feminine hygiene products. Inside it’s the same store, though–clothing for women age twenty-five through fifty.

Also, Glassbox Coffee suddenly closed (as did its tiny original store on South U); see Closings.

Real Irish, 3030 Washtenaw (Arbor Hills), 846-2025. Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Sun. noon-6 p.m. realirish.com