Bucking Gloomy Retail Trends in Millburn

While Montclair continues to celebrate indie retail week, and Maplewood online dreams up big ideas for empty downtown stores, new businesses are popping up in Millburn faster than you can say “double dip recession.” Baristanet’s Gudrun Lake has been visiting some of  Millburn’s new arrivals and finds that there’s more to the downtown than Italian restaurants and nail bars (though there’s no shortage of those).

In recent months a sizeable band of intrepid retailers have set up shop in Millburn, undaunted and undeterred by these inauspicious economic times. There’s a new yoga studio, a men’s clothing retailer and stores selling gifts, gourmet foods, antiques and collectables and computer games with two new bakeries and a home wares store set to open soon. There’s even a new Italian restaurant, or two!

No one can say things will be easy for these plucky newcomers as they face the double whammy of economic recession and disruptive work to the bridge on Millburn Ave., which is snarling traffic and causing locals to treat much of the shopping district as a no-go zone.

Millburn has been fortune to have avoided the scourge of boarded storefronts too often disfiguring the streets of other local towns. It’s doubly fortunate to have a burgeoning range of independent stores run by passionate and knowledgeable individuals, often with long-standing connections to the town. They deserve appreciation for standing up to the mainstream commercial might of the Short Hills Mall right on the doorstep.

Here’s a peek at one of the shops:

Curate

For many people, the term “gift store” probably has unfortunate connotations with the type of cheap and cheesy knick-knacks that are destined for swift dispatch to the back of the nearest closet.

Curate isn’t that kind of gift store. It’s full of things that you probably don’t strictly need, but find yourself hankering after. It’s a place you’d like your other half to discover ahead of your birthday; somewhere you’d go to buy your best friend a present, and walk out with something irresistible for yourself.

Millburn locals and business partners Debra Camitta and Mary Litterman scour the country and travel abroad for objects that fit their criteria of “fabulous, fuctional, affordable.” Their covetable range can help take some of the agony out of finding presents for birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, your kid’s teacher, your co-worker, your girlfriend, even your teenage son!

Items include fun, floral and functional tools and stationary accessories for under $10, to highly desirable Italian-made, soft-as-butter leather and cashmere gloves costing up to $100, and practical but stylish textured wool felt and leather bags for under $200.

They have an eye for artistic and finely crafted objects such as their popular range of fabulously tactile but possibly too-beautiful-to-use sculptural graphite pencils shaped like a raven, a hand or the branch of a tree costing upwards of $28.

The jewelry range is funky and sparkly, ranging in price from $15 to $000s for special pieces in diamonds, agates and quartz by S & R Designs. Other items in the range by Brooklyn designer Rebecca Froberg, Mickey Lynn and In2 use silver, leather and semi-precious stones.

Their selection of art work includes a sweetly off-beat and humorous selection of collectable art ceramic pieces from the South African co-operative Ardmore which range in price from $550 to $1200, and a sculptural guitar made out of vintage number plates.

Whatever the item, Curate will gift wrap it beautifully for free. They are currently setting up a website and the range will be available to purchase online with free delivery in the local area.

There’s an opportunity to see their products showcased ahead of the holidays at a wine and cheese night in store on November 10 and December 9.

Curate
327 1/2 Millburn Ave.
Millburn  973-258-0400

What new businesses would you like to see in your neighborhood, Baristanet?