BY GLORIA STRAVELLI
Staff Writer
MIGUEL JUAREZ staff The Northshore menswear store is reopening in Sea Bright after it was located in Rumson for the last 20 years.
The new Northshore men’s clothing store that opened this week in Sea Bright will seem like "déjà vu all over again" to customers who shopped at the store when it was located on East River Road in Rumson.
Proprietor Brian George has transposed the same elements that defined the Rumson store — antique furnishings, classic clothing, emphasis on customer service — to Ocean Avenue where, he observed this week, a renaissance is underway.
"Homes in Sea Bright are selling in the $1 million-$2 million range. People are investing money in buildings and others are following. I see a rebirth — and it’s starting with this block," said George, whose shop is on the same stretch of Ocean Avenue as the Valkyrie Squash Club, Angelica’s restaurant and the new Elements lounge.
No sooner had George closed on a 120-year-old, one-story brick building in downtown Sea Bright last week than workmen were gutting the interior and redoing the façade for Northshore’s opening Monday.
With the 750-square-foot space teeming with craftsmen, the Rumson resident was happily overseeing installation of Northshore’s antique cash register, fireplace mantle and bar billiard tables by a crew of movers who had reclaimed the fixtures after a two-year hiatus in storage.
"It’s a replica of the other store and every piece has a story attached to it," explained George, who closed Northshore’s Rumson location following a 19-year run after selling the building in which the store was situated.
For the next year or so, the Rumson resident worked in the men’s department of a high-end department store, but found that he missed running his own haberdashery — a dream he had nurtured since boyhood.
"I’m a merchant. It’s in my blood," explained George, whose great-grandfather was a Lebanese immigrant who came to America at the turn of the century and built a successful career as a merchant, going from door to door selling dry goods. His grandfather was a hatter and a successful merchant as well.
"It was my boyhood dream to be a haberdasher," he said. "So a lot of people in my family say I’m like my grandfather and great-grandfather."
Not only did George follow in their footsteps, the Sea Bright location is one he is familiar with from childhood.
"When I was a kid, we would pile into Dad’s Ford Fairlane and drive along Rumson Road to get to the public beach in Sea Bright," he recalled. "We used to come to this very place."
The Sayreville native left a successful career in the textile industry to pursue his boyhood dream, opening Northshore on East River Road in 1981, and planting the seeds for the small commercial center that eventually sprouted there.
"When I opened my business, I wanted it to be in Rumson. I bought a Victorian house with a garage in the back and converted it into a store," he said. "I was the pioneer on East River Road, and all of a sudden others followed suit."
"I’m doing the same thing now that I did 20 years ago," he observed last week, surveying the exterior and interior renovations that have turned the former ice cream shop/taxi office in Sea Bright’s commercial district into a refined haberdashery.
George expects his clientele to be similar to the following he built at his original store.
"Most were professionals, small business owners. My clientele was the peninsula, Monmouth Beach to Locust," he said.
"Part of my success was being in town; it was like a men’s club. We’d talk about the things men talk about — sports, food and clothes. It was a neighborhood meeting place. I was a small-town merchant. That’s all I wanted to be."
When he accepted an offer to sell the River Road properties three years ago, George went to work in the men’s department of a high-end department store and immediately began looking for a new location.
During his hiatus, George would often run into former customers, who would tell him they missed shopping at Northshore, he said.
While looking for locations in other towns, George had an epiphany while dining out in Sea Bright.
"It was staring me in the face," he admitted. "I was looking for a building and I was knocking on doors, then I saw this building. It was affordable and this made a lot of sense."
In addition to the furnishings, George has replicated Northshore’s classic inventory — with a few additions, he said.
"It will be a little more European in flavor," he said. "I’d describe it as updated traditional. Classic with a twist."
"My guys are clothes horses. They don’t want to look like everybody else. So I buy from small manufacturers," he explained. "A lot of the merchandise is private label made for Northshore."
Northshore in Sea Bright will have a more focused inventory of ready-to-wear and made-to-measure menswear, George said, that will feature high quality tailored suits, sport coats, slacks, sports and formal wear, and outerwear, plus accessories like dress shirts, neckwear and hosiery. In addition to private label, the store will carry clothes by menswear makers including McKenzie Tribe, Coppley, Kenneth Gordon, Vineyard Vines plus Zelli imported Italian shoes.
Prices, according to George, will be moderate and up, with suits ranging from $650 to $1,100.
Alterations are free, and George does the fitting while a master tailor does the stitching for Northshore, which will be open Monday through Saturday until 9 p.m. nightly through the holiday season.
"Our forte has always been quality goods sold by a courteous professional at a fair price," explained George, who will continue the store’s tradition of customer service, right down to having his most popular salesperson, his mother, Lorraine, work with him at the new Northshore.
"Customer service is very, very important," he explained. "When a guy walks in the store, he’s the most important person to me. Without customers, this is a big closet."