Ann Hutton

Ascend the porch stairs at Moose Crossing, and enter a lifestyle. The first thing that hits you is the aroma of balsam fir. It’s not the latest designer fragrance from some upscale air freshener company with an actor-turned-spokesperson touting its allure. It’s the smell of the woods. Next, the display of bright colors engages your eye in all manner of forms, from a plethora of animals—plush stuffed, carved, painted—to table linens and shirts done in good old black and red checks. You think you’ve surely come home to a different era—a comfy and cozy place where time is marked by seasons of berry picking and wood chopping. Life may be cold and hard on the outside, but inside a home filled with natural materials, crafted lovingly for tactile and visual comfort, you are at ease.

In the world of retail merchandising, the focus is usually on cultivating troupes of loyal customers who will come back into your store again and again to spend their hard-earned cash. A storekeeper arranges merchandise to attract attention and, of course, he advertises, cuts costs, slashes prices, finagles special discounts to inflate value, and generally sells his soul to the Gods of Mercantilism, all in the name of making it. The survival rate for most small businesses is low, and we’ve all witnessed the decline of giants in the retail industry. If there is a formula for success, Dennis and Donna Sharp seem to have discovered it. Their one-of-a-kind establishment, located on Route 28 in Shokan, is moving into its tenth year.

A Keen Eye for a Quality Product
Sharp’s focus is on cultivating troupes of loyal suppliers, all of whom must first impress him with their wares. He has a keen eye for a quality product that fits into this special market. “I don’t deal with manufacturers. My furniture is all custom made and hand crafted.” He deftly pulls a couch away from neighboring furniture and flips it over onto its back, to show me the interior construction from the underside view: solid hardwood frame enmeshed with stiff tied wire springs—the old fashioned way of building furniture. No sagging seats here.

When I ask about the difference between real leather upholstery and its faux alternative—definitively not Naugahyde—Sharp explains that the faux has the look and feel of real leather, and comes highly recommended. It also has its own cleaning code, as do all upholstery fabrics, which should be adhered to in order to maintain the lifelong serviceability of the piece. That’s what Sharp’s collection of furniture is about: looking good and lasting. Durability—as if it’s been sitting in a cabin in the woods for generations, and will undoubtedly make it through the next few.

Let’s talk wood. He points to a rocker and says, “This is hickory. This is a piece of wood, Mother Nature at its finest. There was once a whole industry in Indiana that did nothing but make boxcars full of hickory furniture and ship it to the Adirondacks.” He indicates chairs and stools with woven seats and says they are available in upholstery for added softness. He shows me the difference between white birch, yellow birch, red cedar, finished pine, ash, aspen. He is proud of the craftsmanship he’s able to offer from the connections he has with over eighty crafts people, from as far away as Virginia, Colorado, Indiana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and upstate New York.

Let’s talk hand-made knives with scrimshawed jawbone handles and tooled leather sheaths, hand-made silver jewelry, Woolrich clothing to wrap around a chilly body, dinnerware fit to appease a mountain king and queen’s dining pleasure, unique wooden toys, wall hangings that evoke a certain rustic, Northeastern charm, antler chandeliers, even a few pieces of taxidermy, like a timber wolf frozen into a howling position that commands attention in one small room. Definitely not your typical purchase, and Sharp acknowledges that taxidermy is not everyone’s cup of tea. But he has connections with locals who can get the job done, if that’s what a client wants.

A Loyal Clientele
Let’s talk about a retailer who cultivates a loyal clientele—home keepers who want to imbue their surroundings with even the smallest iconography of backwoods lifestyle. A lamp base depicting a wilderness scene or tree trunk, a glass top table with a carved bear holding it off the floor, brass coat hooks and door jingle bells on leather cutouts, all sorts of unique something-or-others—a small figurine of an animal, a leaf-engraved chest, a set of dishes or flatware evoking pine trees or deer or whatever. “I am not a salesman. There is no sales pressure here; we’re not sales driven. I’m not going to sell you anything. You’re going to make the decision because you’re going to live with it for a long time. This is earthy stuff—nothing slick and glamorous.”

Sharp comments how some folks will come into the store as tourists, then come back the next year to see what’s new, then come back the following year to buy a lamp, then the next to have a special “rustic room” in their Manhattan apartment furnished. That same customer might return, having fallen in love with the Catskills and Adirondacks, to purchase a home in the area. Sharp is at his best when appointing a whole house with his collection. He has a photo album depicting all the various pieces of furniture he’s sold, but if a client needs an extra long table or an unusual configuration—like having the back of a corner cabinet finished because it’s visible from an open staircase—most elements can be accommodated. “We don’t work out of a catalog.”

That Personal Touch
His Web site is brief, and he does most of his business transactions on the phone or in person. He points out the second story window at a truck that he’s put 120,000 miles on, driving to states far and wide to visit his suppliers in person. “This is the second vehicle I’ve worn out, and I’m shopping for my third.” The various craftspeople who build this furniture—he refers to them by first name only, to protect his sources—are not mass-marketers. They can actually measure out an extension of wood to fit a client’s special requirements. And Sharp’s direct contact with them is integral to maintaining a consistent flow of quality products into his store.

As we wander through the two floors, jam-packed with chests and chairs and blankets and mirrors, beds, couches, tables, china hutches—the list could go on and on, and I have to turn myself sideways to fit into every room—Sharp carries on and on about his valued crafters, like the guy who drove up in a 24-foot rented van and let his young son come into the store to announce, “My dad makes hickory furniture, the best you’ll ever see. Do you want to come out and see them?”

A Long History
How does a one-time shoe salesman become owner and operator of a thriving retail establishment, one that offers high quality, perhaps seldom-purchased, customized, decorative items to a select clientele that often only knows about Moose Crossing because they drive Route 28? Sharp’s history in business is a long one. He worked in shoes when shoe stores actually hired employees to help people find shoes that fit. He went on to the garment industry, owning two stores in Kingston, before deciding to take the plunge into this current venture. What started as a potential antique outlet morphed into an expression of his love of the outdoorsy, woodsy lifestyle

The Sharps always appreciated the outdoors, and originally thought they’d do an L.L. Bean type of store. This one grew from Sharp’s involvement in men’s clothing, to the Woolrich line he still maintains and into everything else he and his wife, Donna, now offer. “We’ve been boaters and campers all our lives, mostly in the Adirondacks where you can find stores like this all over. We felt that the Catskills—equally beautiful—needed this type of store.” It’s a place where customers can be comfortable just walking around, taking in the sights and smells with no sales pressure. In fact, that’s how the Sharps operate. “Our interest is to offer this specific style and a particular quality. And we encourage the casual browser.”

As a browser with a purpose, my last question was about the name they chose, because you don’t often see a moose in this neck of the woods. He explains, “Imagine, if a moose were to wander down from Canada or Vermont towards his namesake mountain—Peekamoose—he’d probably come right through here.” Well, maybe….

For More Information…
Located on Route 28 where Reservoir Road ends, Moose Crossing is open every day from 10 am to 5 pm, except Wednesdays. For more information, call 845 657 9792 and see a few of the many items the Sharps offer at www.rustic-cabin.com.