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Butter and Eggs owner Judy Olson Dunne
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Throughout the late fall and winter of 2002 turning into 2003, Tribeca residents who passed 83 West Broadway watched as the space slowly underwent a transformation. Gradually, following a full-blown renovation, it morphed into something modern-looking, something hip. Something named Butter and Eggs, as indicated by a small, hand-lettered sign in the window. Locals eagerly awaited the restaurant's opening -- what with its cute appellation, it held the gustatory promise of steaming blue-plate specials, but a cut or two above coffee shop fare, and a bit to the left of Starbuck's. Surely, on weekend mornings the neighborhood would be redolent with the beckoning perfume of browning waffles, sizzling country ham, and farm-fresh dairy…
As the months went by, though, curious passersby, peering through the peepholes in the window-covering, began to wonder just what kind of restaurant this would be, as it looked a little…well, odd. Amy Krakow, a public relations executive who lives around the corner on Warren Street, was inquisitive enough to tiptoe through the hard-hat area and inquire when the restaurant would open. She was politely enlightened: "Oh, Butter and Eggs isn't a restaurant…"
Indeed, when the dust was wiped from the new, plate-glass windows in the redesigned façade, the true Butter and Eggs emerged -- most assuredly not an eatery, unless you mistook the jumbles of vibrant, multihued throw pillows for colossal bonbons. The home-fashion shop is a beloved dream come true for Judy Olson Dunne, a former toy designer armed with a master's degree in industrial design from Pratt Institute.
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| Butter and Eggs is located at 83 West Broadway |
She chose the name Butter and Eggs with great affection as a nod to the former dairy district where the store is located. The household staples sold here are the bread and butter, so to speak, of the "homesteaders" in a formerly mercantile district. Dunne calls her medley of merchandise "ingredients for the home" and declares proudly, "I'm pretty much sickeningly in love with the stuff we sell!"
Dunne had known for years that she would someday open a housewares/design shop and had even eyed this particular location, knowing that the lease on the site (formerly home to a deli) would come due very soon. The events of 9/11 accelerated the process, and Dunne was even able to secure a $6,000 grant from the Alliance for Downtown New York, which helped cover the cost of reconfiguring the façade.
The shop is chockablock with smartly designed objets and stylish takes on mundane lares and panates. Dunne will sell only merchandise that appeals to her discerning eye and meets her strict criteria. "I won't stock anything that isn't top quality. Things must have good design and offer good value," she observes firmly. "And, you can definitely find those qualities in a $5 or a $50,000 item. It's just much more challenging to find it in a $5 object, and I am pretty particular about the lower end."
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| The store features an ecletic collection of bookends |
So, a simple bar of soap isn't sold here. Not that there isn't soap: There's the bar of see-through soap with a replica of a New York Subway map ($9) embedded in it. There are also exquisitely crafted, hand-milled soaps from designer Gianna Rose, available as butterflies, a hen-and-eggs combo, or an emerald green froggie (approximately $20). Functional bookends aren't mere metal blocks, but rather heavy (filled with steel shot), leather-clad zoo animals, crafted whimsically, with quasi-articulated bodies ($110 to $140). Serving trays aren't just functional slabs with handles, but rather decorative works of art, embellished with arrangements of leaves under layers of glossy lacquer ($325). The leaves are actually hand-gathered, pressed, and dried by the designer, one of Dunne's secret New York City sources.
"I am especially eager to represent as many New York State artists as I can, whose work fits with our concept." Of the 100-plus suppliers to the shop, at least 25 percent are from New York State, and many are from the immediate area, like master ceramist Marek Cecula from Soho and designer Ramona Helmholz, whose studio is in Tribeca. Cecula produces several lines, including both decorative and functional pieces, like a luminescent saki set ($340), in ethereal pink. Helmholz crafts large (25" x 35") mirrors, with bamboo frames, all hand-stained and -polished with unique French finishes ($1,200). Work from the Brooklyn furniture design team Space has a significant presence in the shop, as well.
In some instances, Butter and Eggs is the only retail outlet for some local artisans, like Dunne's suppliers of photographic prints of old, downtown New York. The images, handsomely framed and matted ($460), are masterfully hand-printed from vintage, glass-plate negatives.
Overall, the merchandise mix is about 50 percent large-scale furniture, and the balance, a pleasant mix of highly curated and edited giftware, tabletop items, and decorating accessories, from as little as $5 to as much as $20,000. Dunne realized after she opened that she had to tweak her inventory a bit to include more baby gifts to suit the neighborhood's needs. Hence, luscious, double-faced, cotton receiving and stroller blankets ($45), hand-fashioned by a Long Island knitter, are now a part of the mix.
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| Even the bowls are a work of art |
Even when it comes to more mainstream manufacturers, the shop stands apart: It is the only store south of 56th Street to sell Bernardaud Limoges. The dinnerware pattern sold here, though, is not the traditional or flowery Limoges. It is a white, sleek, graceful, architectural pattern called "Fusion."
Dunne, who is in her mid-thirties, lives in Soho and walks to work. She effervesces when talking about her shop and says that an unexpected bonus of opening Butter and Eggs is the extended family she has built around the shop. "It was important to me from the start to build a family from without and from within. And from within, I can honestly say I have the best help. We are a family here. And we treat all our customers as family, too."
An even better surprise, though, was how quickly the neighborhood embraced the shop. "The night we opened, people come in, saying, 'We just want to buy something to wish you good luck.' I cannot even explain what a gratifying experience it has been for me, being an on-premises owner," Dunne says.
Butter and Eggs, 83 West Broadway (between Chambers and Warren Streets), 212-676-0235; www.butterandeggs.com (Website is in development)
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