Chef Flynn McGarry Opens Gem Home, A New Home Goods Store and Café in New York City
Featuring unique design objects and vintage finds handpicked by McGarry from his travels around the world, and a café offering locally sourced, seasonal food
October 25, 2024
(New York, NY, October 25, 2024)—Chef Flynn McGarry will celebrate the grand opening of Gem Home this Sunday, October 27, a home goods store with a café and groceries located on New York City’s Lower East Side at 181 Mott Street. An extension of McGarry's interests in food, design, and travel, Gem Home offers a diverse array of contemporary design objects and vintage finds, all sourced by McGarry on his travels around the world. At the entrance of Gem Home, visitors can find a selection of these objects adjacent to a section for fresh groceries. A café in Gem Home’s rear provides a daily rotating menu of freshly prepared foods crafted with seasonal ingredients from local farms.
McGarry initially conceived the idea for Gem Home after successfully hosting a series of object sales in New York, the first of which he held in 2019 at his restaurant, Gem, when he found himself with a surplus of design pieces. At the same time, he was influenced by the grocer-cafés of his childhood in California, and so set out to bring a similar concept to New York.
“This is my most personal project to date. After years of sourcing décor and ingredients for my restaurants, I finally have a place where I can share my most exciting discoveries on a daily basis,” says McGarry. “As much as my restaurants have been an outlet for my passion for design, there is a limit to how much I can fit in a space. Gem Home means I can continue curating and sharing incredible, one-of-a-kind pieces with the world.”
Products
Gem Home showcases an ever-evolving selection of pieces, including antiques, contemporary collaborations, and home objects difficult to find in New York City. Visitors can experience select products, such as flatware and soap, firsthand at the café and in the restrooms before purchasing, as if they were using them in their homes. McGarry’s personal commitment to Gem Home's offering means items will be rotated with seasonal changes and reincorporated into Gem Wine or in his own home.
Pieces offered for sale at the time of opening include:
- An eclectic selection of vintage objects, such as a 1900s metal vase from Kyoto, horn and sterling silver spoon sourced in Denmark, a broth pourer from Louire, and more discovered by McGarry on his visits to the Northeast U.S., France, Sweden, Japan, Denmark, and other countries
- An exclusive limited edition hand-soap collaboration with British natural fragrance maker Ffern, sold in unique ceramic vessels handmade by Shane Gabier
- An assortment of home goods, including cutlery and glassware from British designer David Mellor
- Hand towels and linens from Dutch design atelier Autumn Sonata
- Ceramics from Noble Ceramics and Jane Herold that are used in Gem Wine
Café
McGarry approaches his menus and ingredients at Gem Home with as much care and curation as his designs. Every item on the café’s menu is chosen by McGarry, inspired by seasonal ingredients and the chef’s daily preferences, allowing him to explore simple, homestyle cooking. The menu offers patrons fresh items packaged daily to take home, in addition to dry goods from local farms and purveyors that have provided for Gem and Gem Wine. Guests are invited to dine at the rear of Gem Home, seated at one of McGarry’s handcrafted dining tables.
The café menu will change daily, but sample items include:
- Black cardamom brown butter rolls (breakfast)
- Seabuckthorn beignets (breakfast)
- Daikon and kimchi soup with crispy shallots (lunch)
- Lunch plate of the day: roasted squash and lions mane with salsa macha served with cauliflower salad, bread and butter
Dry goods, fresh groceries, and products used at Gem Home and Gem Wine that will be offered and rotating seasonally include:
- Aji dulce togarashi
- Marmite butter
- Quince compote
- Infused herb oils and salts
Interiors
Like Gem and Gem Wine, McGarry designed all the interiors himself, hearkening to the laid-back aesthetic of 1970s West Coast interior design. Gem Home's custom woodwork, handcrafted by McGarry, channels a minimalist, utilitarian aesthetic, featuring red oak tables and shelving throughout the space. He selected paint from British paint and wallpaper manufacturer Farrow & Ball and pendant lights from Danish lighting company Louis Poulsen.
Open Wednesday to Sunday
9:00am—6:00pm
181 Mott Street, New York, NY 10012
gemhomenyc.com
@gem.nyc
About Flynn McGarry
Flynn McGarry first stepped into the kitchen at the age of 10, cooking for his mother’s friends and creating a full-fledged supper club, Eureka, in their family home. In the years that followed, he staged in some of the top restaurants in Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle, including Alma, Eleven Madison Park, and Alinea—all before he was 16.
At age 19, McGarry opened his first permanent fine dining restaurant, Gem, in New York City's Lower East Side neighborhood. In November that same year, he was the subject of the documentary Chef Flynn that debuted in theaters nationwide. In 2022, he opened Gem Wine, a wine bar in New York City showcasing the varied breadth of low-intervention and biodynamic winemakers he personally works with.