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Even in the shadow of the unprecedented $700 billion bailout by Congress, a five-year record in job losses for September and a slumping stock market, retailers on Kensington's Howard Avenue say things are still sunny on both sides of their street.

Several new businesses are opening or have opened in recent months, and Kate Taylor-Fine, whose Hope Chest antique linens shop will open today on Howard, said she expects the antiques district will skirt the worst of the crisis.

"I don't know that it's immune to it, but because it's got such a reputation and a following it may not be as hard hit as the rest of the country," Taylor-Fine said.

Taylor-Fine has quit her full-time job working for a contractor in favor of the antiques business, expanding a booth she had in a multi-dealer setting to the shop of her own she's dreamed of having since 1995.

"I'd be lying if I didn't tell you I did have a few sleepless nights," Taylor-Fine said. "I do think we have to be aware of the economy, lower our prices and do sales, but I gave up my job. I wouldn't have done that (if I wasn't confident)."

Just up Howard, Tina Asmar said the only thing slowing her opening of the K Town Grill was not the economy, but her contractor. The building has some structural changes that need to be made to get it up to code for food service and there have been a number of delays. Asmar said she hopes to open by Christmas.

Asmar said she is financing the remodeling through other family food distribution businesses, and did not need to get a loan for the K Town Grill. She said she's aware of the sluggish economy, but not afraid of it.

"A lot of people have told me it's not a good time to be doing this, at the worst of times, but I tell them I've already started, I'm doing this for the long term," Asmar said. "People need to eat and if you have good food and good service I think it will be OK."

On the west side of Howard, there's been an influx of new renters if not new businesses. A few rug businesses have moved into new spaces from other parts of town, and Grant's Antiques, formerly of Bethesda, and Hollis & Knight formerly of Georgetown, have moved in to take advantage of cheaper rent in Kensington.

Margaret Goldsborough of Goldsborough Glynn Antiques opened up shop on Howard Avenue seven months ago with her sister, and said things are going fine. She had previously had three booths set up in multi-dealer settings, and has experience with openings in economic slumps. Her first booth opened Sept. 2, 2001.

"We all know what happened nine days later on Sept. 11," Goldsborough said. "That was not a particularly auspicious time to begin."

Goldsborough said building up slowly from multi-dealer to full-retail settings made it so she "didn't bet the farm," on Goldsborough Glynn, and as a result, Goldsborough said she and her sister Susan have "a certain amount of confidence."

Goldsborough and Taylor-Fine both cited easy, free parking, visibility from I-495 and the national reputation of the antiques market in Kensington as reasons Howard Avenue isn't hurting. Goldsborough also said there are few ways in which the economy is actually helping business.

"We have lots of international clients, and with the exchange rate on the dollar, everything here is a bargain," Goldsborough said, adding that the so-called "staycation" phenomenon may also be a factor. "A benefit of this, a little silver lining of (the economy) is that people are looking for little adventures closer to home. You know, maybe going on a weekend getaway at a hotel nearby, or maybe they're saying, ‘Let's spend the weekend antiquing.'"