The curtain’s come down on Shade of the Olive, the eclectic home decor shop that combined Tina Walther’s olive oil business with partner Kate Harrison’s handmade lampshades, hand-painted furniture, and other home accents. Walther and Harrison abruptly closed their five-year-old store in the Victorian house on Central at the beginning of January. Landlord Mike Poulin, whose wife, Nancy, ran the Central Street Station gift shop in the same location from 1992 until 2003, says Walther and Harrison closed for personal reasons.
Amber Sears, who opened her Victorian-themed gift shop Frivolities in the Dexter Crossing shopping center five years ago, plans to open a second location in the former Shade of the Olive space by late March. She’s calling the second location Frivolities Downtown; the stores will be similar but not identical. “I’m adamant about no duplicates,” Sears says. “It’ll be worth visiting both.”
The store’s homey location is reflected in the displays Sears is setting up. Each room will have a theme, like the Christmas room, devoted to holiday gifts and decor; a room she describes as looking “like Country Living magazine,” complete with country-primitive antiques and accent pieces; and a garden room devoted to outdoor statuary. The new store will have a more rustic feel than the original.
The east-side Frivolities is open all week, but Sears is opening the downtown location on Fridays and weekends only. “I want to make it an event to go there,” she says.
Frivolities Downtown, 3207 Central Street, Dexter; no phone at press time. Fri. 11 a.m.–9 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Sun. noon–5 p.m. Closed Mon.–Thurs.
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An artist doesn’t have to live in Dexter to show work at Artistica, but it doesn’t hurt. “We would prefer people to be local,” says Artistica co-owner Jill Love. She says that with the exception of one artist in Lapeer, “all of our artists [live] within ten miles of our shop.”
Love, a photographer, co-owns the new art and fine crafts gallery at Broad and Main in downtown Dexter with three other local artists: Cherilyn Fontana, a basket weaver; Marlies Wandres, who does glass mosaics and knitted crafts; and Pam O’Hara, a potter.
Love makes a distinction between fine art and fine crafts: “Fine art is something you put on a wall. Fine crafts are functional pieces you can use.” At Artistica the emphasis is on the crafts, including stained-glass doors, homemade soaps, and handmade purses.
All four partners will have their work on permanent display while other artists rotate in and out. All work is juried, and the partners convene once a month to consider new submissions.
The gallery opened its doors in February. The official grand opening is April 18.
Artistica, 3203 Broad Street, Dexter, 426–1500. Mon.–Fri. 10 a.m.–7 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Closed Sun.
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Cottage Inn Pizza owner Hamid Jamshidi is planning to move his franchise from its longtime home at 7890 Ann Arbor Street to the former Busch’s ValuLand space—now called the Wallace Building—on April 1.
He won’t need the whole 14,900 square feet—just 2,500 of it, which is 900 more than he has now. Jamshidi says if he doubles his seating and updates the decor, he has a shot at getting more dinner traffic: “We’re hopeful more families will find it a nice place to go.”
So is the Wallace family, which owns the building. When Busch’s departed for bigger quarters in 2006, it left a big hole downtown. Rather than try to find one business to rent the entire space, the Wallaces broke the building up into a six-unit shopping center. Cottage Inn is the first tenant in the newly renovated building.
Cottage Inn Pizza, 3219 Broad Street, suite 101, Dexter, 426–5110. Mon.–Thurs. 11 a.m.–10 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m.–midnight, Sun. noon–10 p.m.
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Originally published in the Spring 2008 Community Observer
