The Chair Man of the Board

"I don't sell chairs any more," said Jack Russo, the friendly, soft-spoken proprietor of Chair Man, the gift store on Fifth Avenue between Lincoln and Degraw. "I used to, though."

Russo got his start working in a chair store on the Bowery. In 1982 he opened up a store of his own, on Seventh Avenue between First and Garfield, in a space that has remained vacant since he moved into the current location last March. 

"Customers come in and tell me that they still have the rocking chair I sold them almost 30 years ago!" he said. "Over time, the neighborhood shifted, though. The guy who did our repair work passed away, and gas prices skyrocketed, which made shipping difficult." 

As the neighborhood shifted, so did the Chair Man. Russo has created one of the most enjoyable places to shop in the neighborhood, and if there's a store that smells better in the entire city I have yet to find one. "I sell a lot of stuff that smells great," said Russo. The smell of incense, candles, and scented oils merge with relaxing instrumental music to immediately put the customer at ease.

There's a sign in the door that says "Browsers Welcome," and the variety of merchandise certainly makes for an entertaining browse.  Small gifts, Brooklyn-themed merchandise, and clothing join imported items like Japanese Kokeshi dolls in the store, and all the merchandise is curated by Russo himself. While it may be easy to write off the merchandise as trinkets and knick-knacks, they're anything but. "'Trinkets' make it sound like it's cheap and worthless," he said. "These aren't cheap or worthless."

While passers-by may bunch the store in with the vintage shops that dominate this stretch of northern Fifth Avenue, nothing in the store is vintage.  "My store sure smells a lot better than those used clothes stores!" he said. "The scents, the music, it's all part of the ambiance. This has always been a relaxing place for myself."

"About half of my customers are tourists from all over the world, and the other half are those who just stroll in," said Jack. "I have no clue how the tourists find me, but I'm happy that they do!"

Russo has made a small effort to re-name the store Gift Man, but he's perfectly content keeping the name he's always used. "It's like the Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra, I guess," he said. "Work Bench doesn't sell workbenches, Door Store doesn't sell doors, so what's in a name?"