Despite being only eight blocks long, Orchard Street, which connects Chinatown and the Lower East Side, is a microcosm of New York—meaning that the motley crowd gathering on the sidewalks this past Saturday night came as no surprise. Except it wasn’t your usual Dimes Square hipster spillout, nor was it the endless queue you’d typically spot outside Scarr’s Pizza waiting for their second slice. Instead, it was an eclectic mix of the fashion crowd, from stylist Jess Willis to the founders of the cult brand Commission, and foodies, ranging from creative director Anna Polonsky to chef Andy Baraghani. Design dealer Alex Tieghi-Walker, who recently opened his first permanent gallery a few blocks west, was present, as was creative director Patrick Li and the photographer Jesse Gouveia. Clutching cans of Canetta wine, they were all there to get a peek inside the new—and now permanent—outpost of Beverly’s, the homewares store launched by former stylist Beverly Nguyen in 2021.
To be fair, Nguyen never really left the area since she first opened her eponymous pop-up shop on Ludlow Street two years ago (and moved into an apartment nearby). Her mission then was to create a store that also served as a kind of community center, celebrating her heritage and love for design while also establishing a meeting point for her creative network. It’s a spirit she’s upheld even as the boutique has expanded, first to Rockefeller Center, then across town to Nordstrom, where she filled the illustrious windows of the designer department store with onyx woks and bamboo basket steamers—and now, back within walking distance of her Two Bridges duplex.
The daughter of Vietnamese refugees, Nguyen, 33, was born and raised in Orange County, California—but her mother’s mother, Chat, who never left their home country, left a huge imprint on her outlook on life. “She owned a hardware store where she sold air conditioners, kitchen supplies, and stuff to actually fill your home,” Nguyen says, recalling a visit to Biên Hòa, Vietnam around the age of ten. “She still worked in the store and had a little living area in the back. Every night we had dinner there with our family, they came to her. Her store was the center of her world.”
When Nguyen decided to create her own, more permanent world, she looked to many of the collaborators who have been on this two-year journey with her. Like the architect Louis Rambert, who, in addition to envisioning all three of Beverly’s pop-ups, designed Tower Records’ Williamsburg rebirth and Yudai Kanayama’s Serious Construction Company, the latter of which she describes as having “played a key role in developing many community-building projects in Chinatown.” Since February, Nguyen has worked hand and hand with both Rambert and Kanayama to transform the space into one that felt worthy of hosting her people.
“I knew I wanted a kitchen,” she says, referring to the subway-tiled right side of the boutique, which is curated to feature classic Chinatown items—ladles, cast irons, chopsticks, and general goods for the home—as well as handmade ceramics by Aciar, glassware by Hudson Wilder, and an eye-catching silver endpiece by Christofle that sit atop a sleek silver buffet table. Despite the limited space, there’s a lot to sift through, much of which has yet to even be revealed. (Nguyen plans to set up a convection oven, for example, so that she might continue her grandmother’s legacy of sharing her love with visitors through food.)
Yet many of Beverly’s previous best-sellers have reappeared front and center, shining under the warm glow of the statement Flos pendant that hangs from the store’s window. There’s the extra virgin olive oil she makes in small batches with a family-owned orchard in Santa Ynez, California, and the charming bath linens designed by her own parents. There are plenty of new items, too. Sonos makes its Beverly’s debut with its Era 300 and Roam speakers, while Commission has unveiled an all-occasion buttondown, part of a larger project Nguyen hopes to bridge between the store and her designer friends. (Spoiler: Charlotte Chesnais will be making her way stateside soon.)
Still, it’s two of the newest additions to the Beverly’s universe that arguably represent the store owner best. One is a monumental, 90-inch photograph of a stallion by Andrew Zuckerman; the other, to its right, is a light sculpture-slash counter by the sculptor Umberto Bellardi Ricci. Reflective of Nguyen’s Chinese zodiac sign, the horse signifies, in her words, “strength, trust, loyalty, and power,” while the industrial piece is innovative and modern. “It’s beautiful,” says Nguyen, swiping through photos of the original stone foundry that the marble came from, and describing its long journey all the way to her storefront. She’s not wrong.
