Where can you find 1950s pastry cutters, a mouthwash invented for Louis XV, or eardrops for dogs made by Italian nuns?
Dry Goods, a tiny general store and apothecary that opened this month on Atlantic Avenue, is filling your need for heirloom-quality gifts made from their original molds and formulas.
“These are classic, beautiful things you could pass down to your kids,” said shop owner and fashion designer Carla Brookoff. “They’re still being made in same factories that have been making them for generations.”
The shop near Hoyt Street has walls lined with old wooden cabinets filled with egg white soap from Belgium, durable Thermoses by Stanley, and Pendleton wool blankets.
Named Dry Goods after the 18th-century term for textiles and non-perishables, the shop is curated based on treasures that Brookoff finds in her travels and at flea markets.
For instance, there’s the gingham napkins on a roll that she picked up in Paris, Swedish soaps she brought back from Amsterdam, and Tala-brand baking wares from England — her English mother-in-law gave her a Tala measuring cup from when she first got married.
Then there are items Brookoff has collected for years, including century-old cast-iron animals in the form of doorstops, banks and nutcrackers.
“They are for sale but they are hard to part with — I’m not going to lie to you,” Brookoff said.
New companies with retro-style packaging are also part of the nostalgic mix, with needles and notions from the U.K.-based Merchant & Mills and Mayron’s Goods all-natural diaper cream from California.
“I’m always on the lookout for things you don’t have to hide away,” Brookoff said. “Living in New York, so much stuff has to be out on display because we don’t have room. We want you to find things that are beautiful and enrich your life and the tasks you have to do.”
Dry Goods [362 Atlantic Ave. between Hoyt and Bond streets in Boerum Hill, (718) 403-0090]. For info, visit www.drygoodsny.com or contact drygoodsny@gmail.com.
Reach Kate Briquelet at kbriquelet@cnglocal.com or by calling her at (718) 260-2511.
