A little birdie beckons: Lark reopens under new ownership

Published 11:13 am Monday, September 7, 2015

Without knowing anything about Shannon Dukes’ exercise regimen, it’d be safe to wager that the new owner of Lark has got a killer sprint.

After all, she’s one speedy worker.

Five weeks is all it took for her to purchase the Madison Avenue shop, renovate its interior, redo inventory, redesign the logo and open doors on Saturday — to high winds and no power.

But customers still showed up, Dukes said, incredulous.

“They were all using [the light] on their phones so they could see!”

A busy mom of two boys, Dukes had no intention of opening her own retail shop. But when a friend found out that Carla McGarvie was selling the store back in July, she convinced Dukes to take it over.

Six days in, Lark’s new owner admits she’s a little nervous about the amount of time it takes to run the operation.

“It’s just constant,” she said. “In bed in the morning, [I’m] looking for stuff to buy. At night, [too]. My kids are like, ‘Oh my God, what’s happened to our mom?’ It’s search, search, search, search, search, all the time.”

You could call Dukes a one-woman merchant machine, but she’s quick to give credit to Christine Crowley and Carol Nicholas, two of McGarvie’s former employees who have stayed on after helping with the transition. “They’re awesome and I think kind of invaluable, so that’s going to be the biggest help,” she said.

As a photographer, Dukes has an eye for design, obvious with one glance around Lark’s farmhouse-luxe new digs. Rustic open shelves line freshly whitened walls, with a calculated jumble of repurposed silver and wooden vessels holding serving utensils, candles, and other home goods. Strung from the ceiling, patterned garlands provide a splash of pastel color and a suggestion of the playful paper goods section tucked in the back.

Dukes is a Texas girl at heart, and she’s stamped those roots all over her store’s inventory, from a line of room sprays to Newton wax totes and wool camping blankets.

“I have, like, probably 15 at my house,” she said. “All my visitors from Texas that come up here in the summer are literally freezing the entire time they’re here. So we have those wool blankets on all of our Adirondack chairs, and guests take them back to their bedrooms to sleep with them at night.”

Although Dukes is bringing in new lines, the focus of the shop remains the same, with the exception of clothing.

“We’re doing more accessories,” she said, pointing to a swath of scarves and travel wraps. “Then, we wanted to add maybe a tourist element, so we’re doing unique tees, like island tees.”

They’re rolled into tiny bundles, three designs: oars, the store’s longitude and latitude, and a “Bike Bainbridge” variety.

Another local element Dukes is excited to debut is rotating “exhibits” from area artists.

First up: Kelly Johnston, an abstract landscape painter whose work has been featured in West Elm, Domino Magazine and Anthropologie.

“[She’s] amazing!” Dukes gushes.

The store is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.