Indeed, Enzo Gerardi, who has owned and operated Gerardi's Farmers Market in New Brighton since 1985, is selling fresh pomegranates to a very different crowd these days.

He says that although his loyal customers continue to visit from all corners of the borough, many newer and younger faces have been popping up at his open-air market in the past five years or so.

"This neighborhood is changing," said Mr. Gerardi, standing over a crate of persimmons that were grown on the 43-acre farm he operates in New Jersey. "And it's absolutely changing for the better, if you ask me."

"We're still lacking the cool fair-trade coffee shops and wine bars that really attract the hipsters," said Allison Hourcade, the owner of Rock Love Jewelry and a resident of St. George, the neighborhood adjacent to New Brighton. "But things are definitely happening here."

Ms. Hourcade, a 29-year-old St. Louis native who moved to Staten Island about six years ago and now operates her custom jewelry business out of her three-story home on the North Shore, is an example of the type of new customer that Mr. Gerardi is seeing at his market.

"It's a hipper crowd, without a doubt," said Mr. Gerardi. "They're buying up houses and fixing them up all over the place. They're doing a heck of a job, too."

Gale Strassberg, a real estate agent who has sold many homes in New Brighton and St. George in the past few years, backs up Mr. Gerardi's assessment. "A lot of young people and young families are coming into the area," she said. "They're seeing affordable detached houses on pieces of property near the ferry. There's not a lot of that in the city anymore."

Ms. Strassberg's theory that New Brighton offers a discount for city homebuyers might be something of an understatement. She recently listed a three-bedroom, three-bath single-family home in the heart of the neighborhood for $319,000. A home of almost identical dimensions was listed in Williamsburg for just over $2 million.

Mr. Barker and his boss, Jack Dabdoub, refuse to fully acknowledge the hipster-fication of New Brighton but admit they have seen hints. "We have one guy who comes in and sits at the bar with his MacBook during the day," said Mr. Dabdoub. "So I guess we have, like, a hipster."

Adobe Blues itself is part of that vibe, although it has been in the neighborhood for more than two decades. It now features regular patrons like Ms. Hourcade.

Mr. Barker used to work in the music industry and has taken the curation of Adobe Blues' beer list to new levels with the creation of a Brewery Appreciation Day.