In Business of Home’s series Shop Talk, we chat with owners of home furnishings stores across the country to hear about their hard-won lessons and challenges, big and small. This week, we spoke with Kelli Suozzo and Jenny Glassberg about Nest, their store in the riverfront town of Red Bank, New Jersey.
“Retail will suck the life out of you” was a warning Suozzo had heard before. The founder of the full-service design firm Bowerbird was toying with the idea of opening a brick-and-mortar store when destiny put former magazine advertising executive Glassberg in her path. They opened the doors of their Jersey Shore showroom months before the pandemic, and it’s been an adventure ever since. Ahead, the co-owners talk about “dating” each other before taking the plunge into partnership, how the two companies work together as an ecosystem, and the enlightenment that can come from owning your business.
How did you meet?
Jenny Glassberg: I moved down to the shore from Brooklyn, and I was thinking about a career shift. I wanted to open up a shop in the current retail space that we have, but I was a little bit stumped on how to design it. A friend said, “Oh, you have to call Bowerbird. She’s the only game in town. She does beautiful work.” I called Kelli out of the blue and said, “I'm thinking about opening a shop.”
Kelli Suozzo: I was at ABC Carpet sitting on a mound of carpet, and said: “Whatcha thinking about doing?”
Glassberg: My original plan for Nest was not what it is today. It was more paper goods, which is kind of hysterical. We don’t have that at all. But I was explaining the space, and she said, “Well, that’s funny because I am looking to open up the retail arm of my interior design studio. We should meet!” So we started “dating” for a couple of months, sharing inspiration and ideas.
Kelli, it sounds like you weren’t necessarily looking for a partner. How did you know this was somebody you were willing to stake a business on?
Suozzo: It’s funny because before Nest, I had my interior design studio, and I found myself constantly collecting pottery, textiles, vintage pieces and lighting that often sat quietly in my studio. My husband was like, “You should open a store. Why aren’t you selling these things?” At the same time I met Jenny, who was actively looking for a retail space. It was serendipitous that as I was putting that out into the universe, she called.
We showed up at The French Market, which is a local coffee shop, and Jenny had a book of tear sheets. I felt like, “Yeah, I could design this [store], but I want to do it too.”
Can you tell me about each of your backgrounds in design?
Glassberg: Mine’s pretty simple. I actually did not begin my career in design. I worked at Condé Nast magazines from graduation until 2017, at various brands—GQ, Vanity Fair, Condé Nast Traveler, and the now-defunct House & Garden—on the business side. When I worked at Condé, I was raising my children and living in Brooklyn, which was an awesome lifestyle. But as my kids got older and my husband retired from his job, I wanted a little bit of a slower pace. When I moved to New Jersey, I knew I wanted to do something else in a creative field. And thinking about how I would design my home, I found myself consistently going back to Brooklyn for design inspiration and ideas. That’s how Nest was born—there wasn’t a lot around here that I felt connected to when I was looking for products for my house.
Suozzo: I had been doing interior design work for probably about 15 years and always wanted a store. Everybody told me not to do it, that it'll suck the life out of you—and it probably would if I didn’t have a partner. It is such a weight lifted to have someone else to share the ups and downs with, to strategize with. And we just laugh! It’s just so much more fun than doing this by myself. The retail is a natural evolution of the design studio, because most of the work happened through drawings and samples, with nothing tangible really for clients. To have a space where they can sit on the sofa, see how much light a fixture gives off, and understand scale and materiality is huge.
You opened in November 2019. Did you get to have a nice launch, at least, before the world fell apart?
Suozzo: We had five months of amazing business. We were new, it was fresh, the store was full. There was still a buzz in the community, and it was great. Then we had to close down, but we did pretty well pivoting during Covid, because people were stuck at home and bored. We still came into work, social distancing: Jenny would be on one floor, I would be on the other. We’d post videos on Instagram and people were like, “I need new throw pillows.” “I want my mantel styled.” “I need new books for my coffee table.” We did porch drops, where we would curate these little packages and drop them off to people. It worked until we ran out of product. For a while, we trudged our way through it. There were a good two years for the design business in general, for Bowerbird and Nest. We had really strong growth.
Tell me about the location of the store and its general vibe.
Glassberg: We’re in Red Bank, New Jersey, in a two-story firehouse from the late 1800s. We gutted it about a year and half prior to opening Nest, and added maybe a thousand square feet to the back to house our inventory and Kelli’s design studio. We have sofas, rugs, light fixtures, books, candles, jewelry, even scarves and bags. We also do custom upholstery and custom case goods. What we have leaned into recently is the vintage element, which is central to everything. We source at Brimfield, Round Top, High Point, and we’re headed to Italy next week to shop the markets there. Those one-of-a-kind pieces bring so much depth and soul to the store.
Who is your typical customer? How much of your business is to the trade?
Suozzo: There are a bunch of overlapping groups. We have retail customers shopping for hostess gifts or finishing items—things that are quick. My design clients come and pull finishing elements from the store. Then we have a strong trade customer base. They can order custom pieces through us and pull items directly from the shop for styling or finishing their own projects.
To go back to sourcing, is it entirely in person?
Glassberg: We buy what we love and hope others will love it too. Kelli and I always say, “Could this piece end up in your home or my home?” And then often, it does! “Where is that stool? Come to my house.” I think that’s what sets the shop apart: all that vintage, the soulful pieces we bring in with a little nick and history. That’s what really makes Nest, Nest. We obviously fill with Faire. We love Faire as an online marketplace, but we are selecting special pieces that can stand out. We carry Cisco for our upholstery line, so there is an intention to shop at High Point. That fulfills some of the trade clients, and the Bowerbird clients. There’s a balance.
Tell me about a favorite vendor of yours.
Glassberg: We have this guy whose name is Ron Sauer. He’s a [Hudson Valley] woodworker who makes bowls. Originally we started selling some of his smaller pieces, and he was super into it and very open to feedback. He developed new shapes for us and new finishes, and then he said, “Let’s do a branded capsule collection!” He created a stamp for the bottom of the bowls. He is just so sweet. He comes with his bag and his wares, and the bowls are beautiful.
What’s an object or category that flies out the door?
Glassberg: It’s funny, Kelli mentioned stools, and side tables. People love to tuck a little stool, and it changes the vibe of a room quickly. They’re very versatile problem solvers. Textiles and linens are another fast category. Everyone loves to refresh their home with pillows. As I mentioned, my history is in magazines, and I still get maybe 20 magazines mailed to my house. I scour through and begin to communicate with textile designers. One of our recent vendors is in Bath [in England], and didn’t really sell in the U.S., and now she ships her wares to us.
Suozzo: And I have to say, we carry the Tatine Pine Orange Bitters hand soap, and literally as soon as we get it in it flies off the shelves.
Tell me about your e-comm.
Glassberg: When there are two partners in a business, we often have to divide and conquer. Part of my job is the backend and inventory management, which is daunting for an e-commerce site. To Kelli’s point, I love sales, I love being on the floor. I love when customers come in and discover a piece I found in England or something. While e-commerce is another point of entry, it’s not half our business, and we don’t really want it to be. We dabbled in [expanding] it for a second and realized it was just a massive undertaking. We would need an entire separate team to manage it effectively.
Suozzo: We started as a brick-and-mortar, and during Covid, we pivoted and built e-comm quickly to stay connected. We had everyone working from home, entering all the SKUs. It was a massive task. While I think it’s another important point of discovery for our clients, our business thrives on the curation, the conversation, the sense of community that happens in the physical space. We really love to meet our customers and talk in person.
What is it like operating in this area of the Jersey Shore?
Glassberg: The main reason we landed in Red Bank is the firehouse and the beauty of this old building. Our location is off the beaten path, on a one-way street. We’ve had to position Nest as a destination; Kelli and I had to figure out how to create an atmosphere and product that people want to experience and return to.
As a Jersey Shore native, I’m surprised by how much you’ve been able to avoid the super beachy aesthetic, with glass lamps filled with seashells. Have you ever felt that pull from clients?
Suozzo: That was something huge from the beginning. I’ve always been very intentional in my designs with Bowerbird. I can walk to the beach from my house, but it’s not just a summer destination. People live here all year round. So while the beach is a strong force within people’s homes, I translate it more into relaxed living—laid-back, organic materials. It doesn’t have to be seashells and rope and light blue.
What are some of your hopes and dreams for the future of the business?
Glassberg: One of the most rewarding parts of having your own business is being able to look into yourself and say, What makes me tick? A lot of times we get wrapped up in “What does the client want? What does the customer want?” As we get older and our kids are heading out the door, my hope is to travel with Kelli and continue to do the curation, the discovery, because that’s what’s been so fulfilling.
Suozzo: Same. I want to continue doing what we love—expanding our vintage sourcing, growing our collaborations with makers, and bringing back special pieces.
The freedom to do the good stuff.
Suozzo: Yeah, it’s almost like creating this life that integrates your work into it, and the two become seamless.
What’s your favorite day as a retail owner?
Suozzo: I love when a design installation comes together, where we’ve sourced the furniture—some from Nest, some from elsewhere—and it is all placed. We get the team from Nest layering in all of our styling elements, and everything feels cohesive and intentional. The last art book is placed. It’s both businesses coming together so seamlessly and efficiently to complete a project from start to finish. It feels like such an ecosystem.
Glassberg: I love that, too, but a lot of my job is cataloging the inventory. When someone comes in and gets the same joy and excitement out of [a product,] whether it’s a piece of pottery or an artist that I found in my travels, and says, “I love this so much, it just has to go in my home,” it makes me so happy. I feel like I’m doing a good job. I love when I can share with them how Kelli and I got it, how I carried the lamp on my lap for five hours driving back from Brimfield—or the giant credenza that the guy wouldn’t load into our car so we were standing in the bed of a pickup truck putting tarps on it because it started raining on I-84. That’s what I love.
