Those relying on the Boerum Hill section of Atlantic Avenue for antique gems soon will have to take their hunting to eBay. The stretch of the avenue between Hoyt and Bond streets known as Antique Row for more than 30 years is history. Over the last 15 years, interest has waned, and the avenue has morphed into a shopping boulevard of home furnishings, boutiques, coffee joints, pastry shops, restaurants, bars, and nightclubs.

“Twenty-five years ago it was a heavily antique district with 30 or 40 stores here,” Boerum Hill Restoration owner Norman Benjamin said. Mr. Benjamin’s been in business 30 years. In July he closed his retail shop. He’s keeping his restoration and refinishing company open, though. “There are only four or five of us old antique guys left. People are less and less interested in antiques.”

Replacing Mr. Benjamin’s shop, which specialized in turn-of-the-century (1890 through 1905) vintage office furniture, is a modern home furnishings and accessories shop, with an eco-friendly theme. (This isn’t the first time Mr. Norman has watched an Antique Row disappear. He had a shop in Coney Island’s once-thriving Antique District.)

“People are coming in now looking for mid-century furniture, 1950s, 1960s,” Mr. Benjamin said. Young people getting new apartments are going for what they see in magazines and Ikea.” Essentially, when people were buying turn-of-the-century brownstones, they bought turn-of-the-century furniture. With modern luxury towers going up throughout Brooklyn, customers are looking for modern designs to furnish their pads.

“It’s the change of the times, the economy,” Mr. Benjamin said. “Antiques are old news on Atlantic Avenue, a dying thing.” His restoration business perseveres, though. “Everybody has a broken chair, or a table or bedroom set that needs refinishing.” While the out-with-the-old and in-with-the-new transition continues, a remaining tradition is Brooklyn’s annual Atlantic Antic. For 34 years, the festival, slated for October 5 this year, brings the public a chance to see in-store treasures, street-side. The Antic is outliving the antiques.

Well, not exactly anymore.

“The Antic was the vehicle to display and show people antiques,” Mr. Benjamin said. “It’s evolved into a community street fair. It’s for food vendors, people who want a nice day walking along the avenue eating a nice sausage sandwich or ice cream.” Few people coming to the Antic are actually interested in antiques, Mr. Benjamin said. Instead, revelers purchase candles, records, African and Latin American art, and various trinkets.

“The Antic is a great day for us,” Stan’s Place owner Stan Williams said. This is the fourth year his New Orleans-style restaurant is participating. “We receive a large boost in business even six months after the Antic.”

This year Mr. Williams’s table is selling pulled pork sandwiches and Abita beers. They’ll feature either a brass band or a percussion group. Last year Stan’s Place had roughly 100 people dancing along the avenue to drumbeats. “That was big for business. You want the customer to walk away with something, take a bite, and turn around to say, ‘I have to come back.'” Mr. Williams was raised on his mother’s New Orleans cooking. But the real impact on the menu happened post-Katrina. “After Hurricane Katrina, we hired a chef who had been displaced and homeless. He brought the real everyday sense of New Orleans into our menu.”

You’d think with all that foot traffic during the Antic that real estate brokers might relish the opportunity. But Boerum Hill Realty’s Allen Barcelon disagrees.

“I close the office,” Mr. Barcelon said. “The Antic is so crowded with people you can’t cross the street to show properties.” Only once does Mr. Barcelon recall getting business via the Antic. “I was walking around the Antic and a couple randomly asked me if I knew of any rentals. I said, ‘Funny you should ask me, I’m in the business.'”With the price point in the neighborhood rather expensive, Mr. Barcelon said the chances of scoring a sale are low. “You don’t walk down the street eating corn on the cob, looking for knickknacks, and decide you are going to buy a co-op.”

Mr. Barcelon occasionally sees competitors with tables. “It’s usually community-related stuff, like ‘check your blood pressure.’ One year Corcoran got a tent and had lots of [gift] bags. I saw those bags sitting there lonely.”

“Some people here don’t even know it’s about antiques,” Mr. Williams said. He’s lived on the avenue for 12 years. When furnishing Stan’s Place, Mr. Williams bought local antiques from shops no longer open, like Time Trader (now a nightclub) and the soon-to-close Repeat Performance. “People still associate Atlantic Avenue with furniture, just not antiques.”

Mr. Benjamin is sad to see the furniture business change but, nevertheless, he said he still enjoys the Antic festivities.

“I have a customer from 25 years ago who comes to every Antic. He comes by to say hello. It’s nice to see him.”