Jan Faust Dane has been a writer, editor, public relations consultant and an enthusiast of dinner parties, but she knew nothing about running a retail shop when she opened Stock Culinary Goods on Hope Street in Providence in 2012.
This heading into the unknown, like preparing a new dish for the first time, all began with basic ingredients. For Dane, those ingredients were her appreciation for small, local culinary businesses.
An Oregon native armed with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast communications from Gonzaga University, Dane’s professional roles have included time as a public relations and marketing consultant at Clarendon Group Inc., with offices in Providence; and a stint providing content for eat.shop guides from 2006 to 2010, highlighting independent dining establishments in cities around the world.
That writing about small, independent shops and chef-owned restaurants started it all for her. More and more, she began to appreciate the intrinsic value of these establishments to communities.
“It hit a sweet spot for me,” Dane said. “That was the beginning of this arc.”
It would be several years before she took the plunge and started Stock Culinary Goods.
Dane worked as a contributing editor for Rhode Island Monthly from 2008 to 2010, and then for the upscale Ocean House in Westerly – a role that she says brought her future plans into focus.
“My title was ‘food forager and director of culinary education,’ ” she said. “Which meant I was the go-between for local farms and restaurants. I’d present what I could find, or the owner would ask me to find certain things for the menu. This took my interest in the local economy, which had been stirred up through my shop guides work, and drilled it down to our local farms and restaurants.”
Dane launched Stock Culinary Goods with the support of her husband and three children, then ages 7, 9 and 11, in 2012.
The store was formerly the European Deli, and its mustard-interior walls and brick-patterned wallpaper needed changing. Old deli cases had to be hauled away. But the biggest budget-buster was the floor, Dane said. When terracotta tiles were removed, an unwelcome surprise was underneath: a pockmarked, ancient terrazzo tile floor, original to the 1920s-era building.
“The most expensive single thing we did was to have a flooring company apply an overlay material to fill in all the holes and then remove it, leaving the terrazzo behind with all the holes filled,” she said. It was an expense not included in the original renovation budget.
Renovation work was a family affair. “There are photos of the kids helping me rip up the floor, trying to beat that place into submission,” she said. Now 21, 19 and 17, they still help in the shop as needed.
Once up and running, the business was a trial by fire, said Dane, who had never owned or managed a retail shop before. She took out a small-business loan and intended to carry locally made and small-batch products.
“But at the store’s opening, I only had a few hundred products,” she said. “I was undercapitalized. The community needed mashers; they needed peelers. You can’t get those bespoken. You need to work with a recognized company. So we grew our array of products.”
Today, Stock Culinary Goods’ merchandise includes cookware, bakeware, grocery items, linens and serveware. Learning from scratch has its benefits, though, said Dane. She came to retail without expectations and built upon that clean slate.
Dane said that bringing her sister Jill Eilertson to the team in the shop’s fifth year was a high point. Eilertson’s skill set has been invaluable at the business, said Dane, combining graphic design, cooking knowledge, friendly service and more.
The shop now has 11 employees during the busy holiday season.
“One thing we stressed is that this was to be a people-first store. It’s more than transactional,” Dane said. “I am a fan of people coming together. Longtime regulars come in and just say, “Hi,” talk about concerns in the community, come in with their babies and discuss local events. From the moment we started, when they walk in the door, it’s ‘Hi, what’s your name? What are you cooking?’ ”
The idea of a neighborhood store seems like a singular venture. And Dane has only recently begun to realize that she is not a one-woman show, teaching herself to work in a team environment.
One to previously deflect the idea of a second location, it’s not out of the question now.
“I’m finding myself with more time, thinking maybe I should take on another here in Rhode Island,” she said. “There are places where I know the concept would work.”
