Yes, "Orchard Street" is sort of shorthand for the whole area, but it was the street for "ladies' fashions." Stanton Street -- immortalized in Dave Tarras's "Chasidic in America" -- was where there were at one time 50 men's discount stores "fun Attorney Street biz Forsythe Street." And there was another street, whose name I forget, that sold interior and upholstery fabrics at incredibly low prices as late as the late 1980s.

But still, it's food -- not slashed prices on paisley mumus and 1960s-model SupHose -- that draws everyone to that neighborhood now. And lest you think it's all "indigestible," besides WD-50, there's also Schiller Bar and my current favorite cheap eaterie, Zucco: Le French Diner.  

Alphabet City is a little rich for my diet these days. And I've wondered for years whatever happened to the Hell's Angels down there. They added such caché to that neighborhood.