So long, So sad

Bye, Bleecker

Everything Happens at Once

Doesn’t it just? We are closing the Bleecker Street Store this week. Saturday is the last day I think. I’m not there for it, and thank heavens for that. I would need a double intravenous valium infusion, for sure. Or an entire bottle of scotch and a couple of packs of cigarettes maybe. Or maybe just a good slap. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy about it. We are moving to a smaller space, on a more reasonable street, kind of like how Bleecker was when we originally moved there. In fact, I’ve been whining for years about wanting out of that situation. But still.
It’s like losing an organ.

Some people ask if this is business or pleasure and I can’t even understand the question. I have my logo tattooed on my arm for Gods sake. What does that tell you? Not the name, just the lotus, But still. Is that business or pleasure? No wonder I take things personally. I suspect many if not most of us in this business (or pleasure) feel the same way. Who are you without your company? Wanna make a judgement on that? Is it pathetic? Or is it enviable? Maybe it depends on how you are who you are. My friend Cary was a “day trader” in the stock market. He could make ridiculous money. But he tied his health to the market and so he died when the stocks fell. That’s not how I mean. I still have that soft pink lotus winking at me from the inside of my arm.



We were on Bleecker street since 1997. That’s 14 years. That’s a long damn time, especially for a California girl. New York seems like it has more permanency and Salalah even more so. With people I mean, not the city skyline. Will there be phantom pain, like a missing leg? Or will it be like missing a part of my heart? Maybe that’s what kills us---people dying, great disappointments, illnesses, betrayals, endings, and each one gives a little phantom pain in the heart, until the scales tip. But we all have different thresholds of course.

Excuse my maudlin musings. I am actually not sad about closing. We have another, new store, opening just a few days away, and it’s even in the Village still. I’m not complaining; we could have stayed. It will be a relief, like pulling a tick out maybe. The new store promises to be even sweeter, and we will focus on what we originally intended to focus on all those years ago but couldn’t, because we had to have all that other stuff for the people who just wandered in off the street not necessarily looking for pure jasmine oil, but for a hostess gift, say.

Without getting psuedo-spiritual about the dual nature of existence, blah blah blah, there certainly are a few different emotions going on. It’s been an intense, crazy, and unknowable couple of weeks, I feel like a buoy.

So I’m glad not to be in New York this week, It will be hard for those sweet creatures who are there doing the work, but I don’t think any of them will mistake closing the store for organ shut down. It will just be sad. It’s the “end of an era.”



Enfleurage was originally built by Patrick Dias, and even using some of the structure from Trygve Aromatics, the store he built before that, on Jones Street. He did a great job, and even though he (as a theatrical designer and carpenter,) said it was built to last a couple of years, it has lasted until today. I can’t even imagine how they are going to tear down the back room, with those insanely sturdy shelves that could hold a herd of rhinoceros. I’m sure the next tenant will tear down, though. Patrick built a barrel vault ceiling, single-handedly as well. He worked completely illegally, without a permit, and half of it on the sidewalk, in the winter, in incredibly cramped conditions, while Robear and I just got in his way. He did a genius job, really perfect work.

We did a renovation in 2007, after 10 years, and a couple of repaintings. Hassan Ech-Chaouy did the renovation, switching the energy and feng-shui of the store completely around, and updating the look, infusing it with a fresh loving vibe while leaving the perfect infrastructure intact.

All of the other large and small changes, and all of the painting, decorating, methodology, maintenance of the vital organs, and life support was done by Thomas Carson and Stacy Amber. They had the help of many other people, but these two are the two. If not for Tom and Stacy Enfleurage would have closed years ago, no question. Tom has been with Enfleurage since 1998 I think, and Stacy since 2001, I think again. That’s a long damn time as well. If it wasn’t for these two, there is no way I’d be out carousing about the planet, looking for agarwood and distilling frankincense. There is no way we’d have a new company in Oman either. Hell, I’d probably be addicted to anti-depressants or dead.
Or the store would be gone.


Now I am so fortunate we have a fantastic, knowledgeable and loyal staff. Tom, Stacy, Christina and Ken all have specialty areas they excel in, as you know if you’ve been in the store. Inshaa Allah all will go well with the move. I understand the new store is looking fantastic and for this I have to thank Jonathan Smith, who has gone way over and above the minimum necessary to ensure this. Without him, we would be foundering deeply and mortally, in construction hell. But since Jon knows everything, and speaks the language of drywall and waiscotting, and is not terrified by barrels of little electrical things with coils and prongs, he is the only conceivable person who can speak the contractors language, as this world is a mystery to me, and in fact to all of us.



Meanwhile, I am in Muscat, about to give another interview, about the new project here. At last everything is finished, the paperwork is done and filed, a space obtained, my personal status enhanced and secure. After this I tie up a few loose ends, bugger off to a couple of trade shows in nearby countries, and then rocket back to New York, leaving all my life here for what is hopefully the last time for a long time, and hurry back as soon as possible to start the actual work on our new Omani company. I knew the second half of this year would be busy, but....wallah.

It feels weird and strange though, to be here as Enfleurage Bleecker Street breathes its last breath, even as 13th Street gets slapped into life and Salalah gets conceived........

After three months out of Salalah, I have to admit it feels like I left it for too long. I was on fire when I left here, flying high on the ice cream, only to go back to New York and have it suck the life out me like a spider sucks a fly. Wallah.

We got the building permit 2 days after I arrived back in Muscat. It took 4 months. Why? No reason, other than New York does its best to thwart any activity by any small business. Ironic that the slogan is “NY Loves small business!” What a bunch of crap.

We rented a space for the new store, and all we are doing is renovating the inside. There are no structural changes, nothing on the outside, but with the psuedo-legal garbage they make you dance through, paying constantly, you are lucky to even get to the stage where you can build. It’s a total scam from start to finish.
Really it made me angry.

Now I understand why you can see a sign that a store has been rented and six months later nothing has happened. And just think if you are waiting for an alcohol permit!

Enfleurage was built with no permits, totally “illegally.” But we didn’t have the ability this time. Anyone who can build without permits will do it to avoid the city and all the outstretched palms-bureaucracy. You can bet those big companies, like all the LVMH owned boutiques now on Bleecker aren’t bothered, though. They just pay, having almost unlimited funding, and no need for their stores to make a profit, or even pay their own bills, anyway.

The rents they pay are ridiculous. On Bleecker street, west of West 10th, you find rents for $26,000, $42,000 and even $74,000. That’s monthly, people. Think Marc Jacobs, Ralph Lauren, Burberry Brit, Tommy Hilfiger, etc.There is no way Bleecker can support those rents. The stores are the size of Enfleurage, 500 square or thereabouts. It’s not 5th Avenue. Just amounts to advertising for those big companies pretending to have small trendy boutiques and it’s chic to one on Bleecker.
Annoyed? Disgusted? Yup. Totally.

Anyone out there wanting to open a business in NYC? Good luck to you.

Only thing that saves me from becoming a normal embittered New York business owner is that I have Oman.

And, of course, that we are opening that new shop, albeit a couple of months late.

Anyway, things are slow here as usual, and can be frustrating but so far nothing on the scale of NYC. More fun developments from America: Verizon no longer considers businesses under 100 employees “small business.” Instead, we are “mass market,” meaning there is not even a dedicated phone line, and they can’t be bothered with any customer service. Go on and try to call them if you don’t believe it. My friend was just told by Citibank, where he has banked for 16 years, that he would now pay $22 monthly for the privilege of having a checking account there. When he objected, he was told that he was “a class C customer” due to his balance being below class “A” and “B” customers, presumably. HSBC (British/Chinese) here in Oman declined to open a business account for me as my worth was less than the minimum million+ Rials needed (and to be kept undisturbed in the account for several months.)

2011 is the year that we finally are actually told, straight out, and flat out, by these disgusting large corporations, that we are so insignificant that it’s not even worth it for them to sell us their services. Think about it. Pass me my fiddle, and let me play while they burn.



Here in Oman we have the chaos of Cyclone Keila, which is a lovely storm, because you can be correct with any prediction. You can find a website, complete with radar, affirming whatever you like, telling you that it’s over, that it’s just now coming, that it doesn’t really exist, that it’s sitting on top of us, whatever you like. And it’s not just Omani weather reports. With the chaos in Muscat it seems Oman is not very organized with its weather communication. 14 dead so far......Doesn’t help that there was another Cyclone Keila back in June. Must be a mistake. Chaos!! Remember our “hurricane Irene” in New York a couple of months ago? Just hype really. I had thought it was the city overreacting so as to avoid disaster but now realize it was just a cynical news story.

Anyway, my garden is almost completely denuded of leaves. So sad. There is terrific damage to innocent banana and coconut trees all over Salalah and this morning people were out surveying the carnage.

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Michelle Krell Kydd writes a great blog dedicated to all things olfactive and gustatory. It’s called Glass, Petal, Smoke. This latest entry is just terrific; she writes about a periodic table of Smell. Featuring a table of “smellaments,” the Cognac Aroma Wheel and a completely insane page of podcasts called Chemistry in its Element, Distilling the Compounds that Count. Interested in the essence of LSD? How about Chloroform, Cholesterol or Cisplatin? How about Mustard Gas? Luciferin? Formaldehyde? Tetrahydrocannabinol? I’m putting a separate link to it at the bottom. It’s wicked weird and cool.

Glass, Petal Smoke

Chemistry in its Element