Five Reasons to Visit Scout (plus more of my typical b.s.)

I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Andersonville urban antique shop Scout and especially for owner Larry Vodak and the team he’s assembled to stage the show.  He’s got his prop guy (furniture designer Bladon Conner), his Set Designer (Interior Designer Nicholas Moriarty), his Costume Director (Fab! fabric queen, upholsterer and antique dealer Julie Fernstrom*) and all the other behind the scenes folks and who I won’t attempt to name lest I miss somebody (but if you’re one of them and you’re reading this thinking something like “Oh nice, that frickin’ guy doesn’t even think he’ll remember me,” don’t worry man; I could never forget you).

The people we surround ourselves with, the people that help us and who we help in return, are the keys to our success or our failure.  While it may appear that successful entrepreneurs and trailblazers “go it alone,” most have the best team around, they build strong relationships and they treat people well.**  So that’s Larry.

Bladon Conner (left) and Larry Vodak study the detail of that blue letter A

Scout opened about the same time I moved to the neighborhood, and Larry’s excitement and devotion to vintage made me remember how much I’d always loved running around town exploring new neighborhoods, hard-worn coffee shops and amazing antique stores, a recollection that made big box shopping seem kind of sterile and predictable.

Here are my five favorite items (which should be irrelevant to you and which the very act of writing betrays in me a certain narcissistic egotism to think for a moment that my opinion might mean anything to you [but it does right?  Right?]):

Cobalt blue glass bottles. Aren’t they incredible?  Just as they pop in the photos, they’d provide a nice pop of color on a dining room hutch or clustered on bookshelves.  Or ask lighting designer Ted Harris, who sells through Scout, to create something unusual with them.

Vintage tool cabinet. This would make a very very very very cool kitchen island.  Just leave it as is, red-chipped paint and all.

Steel cabinet.  Extremely schwing.  ‘Nuff said.

Furniture designer Bladon Conner‘s black lacquer dresser.  I’m enchanted with Bladon’s signature detail of lining the dresser drawers with fabric.  Do you have a junk drawer?  Yea, me too.  All of them.  But if I owned one of these pieces, each drawer would be a vignette.  The top drawer would hold my eyeglasses and my bible and the most recent Left Behind book of course.  And a flask of moonshine.  Click here for a transcript of my recent conversation with Bladon.

Furniture / lighting designer Ted Harris’ lamps. Somehow both ultra masculine and boyishly playful, you’re sure to have a one-of-a-kind piece that makes your friends, family and neighbors really envious.  Plus Ted’s lovely, so nice and really funny (which really came through in our conversation last summer).  Good guy.

For another look at Scout, visit re:porter, Porter Airline’s in-flight magazine (issue 4).

re:porter is kind of a hybrid between the Believer and the best possible in-flight magazine.  The mag sports thick paper stock, gorgeous photography and interesting coverage of destination spots in cities where they fly.  Their Andersonville story (with accompanying full-page Scout photo) is terrific.

Scout.  5221 N. Clark Street.  773-275-5700

* Julie is busy working on Brimfield, the new shop she’s opening next door to Scout.  It’s going to be great I wager.

** And if you don’t “win”, at least you’ll have met many amazing and interesting friends.