Elizabeth Ricci Fine Gifts––

Gift Shop Owner Has An Eye For Design

By Kaaren Valenta

Elizabeth Riccio has opened a gift shop, Elizabeth Ricci Fine Gifts, at 99 South Main Marketplace, right next to Ricci’s Salon & Spa and Academy, the businesses owned by her husband, Dan.

After years of decorating homes, her own and those of others, Ms Riccio says she was persuaded by her husband to open a shop that would reflect her interest in interior design.

“When he comes home and says ‘Wouldn’t it be great if…’ –– watch out,” she said, laughing. “I’ve known him since I was 12 years old, and he’s always had a business, even in high school.”

The tiny –– less than 500 square feet –– shop, with its aura of Tuscany, is filled with a wonderland of accessories from Italy, France, and other European countries in prices that range from $5 for handmade Meri Meri cards to $1,848 for a travertine marble-topped kitchen island.

“We are a full Vietri dealer,” Ms Riccio said, describing the Italian company that makes dinnerware, flatware, table linens, and glassware. “We also stock items by Masini and Pillivuyt, the oldest French ceramic company, and Colonial Candle.”

There are pewter pieces from Arte Italica and Woodbury Pewter, hand-blown glass from Egypt, silver accessories, lighting fixtures, fireplace accessories, barware, wall sconces, lamps, Campo de’ Fiori garden pottery (aged with real moss), iron and stone trays, cookbooks, DiCamillo chocolates, baby gifts, and “Oprah’s best” Gianna Rose Altier spa creams and lotions.

A set of six attractive cocktail plates, $30, is a popular hostess gift. There are a great many items priced at $10, $20, to $50, and an equal number of higher priced items, but all have the look of quality and good taste, no matter what the price.

Ms Riccio is quick to point out that she has no training in interior design, but her eye for style and craftsmanship led her into the business. She had started out, in her early 20s, operating an exercise salon in Ricky’s shopping center. “Those were the days when the women wore tights and legwarmers to exercise,” she recalled, smiling at the memory.

She began decorating houses after her marriage, drawing inspiration from her mother, a seamstress, and her father, whose antiques tag sales were so popular they needed a policeman to direct traffic. “He had such a great love for old things,” Ms Riccio said, “and he gave that love to me.

“After Dan and I got married, we lived across the street in a cute little house that was next to John’s Quality Meats [now Carminuccio’s] on South Main Street,” she said. “I decorated it –– I just like what I like, and putting it together.”

A succession of homes followed. “We couldn’t afford to build a house, so every house that we moved into would be an old house that needed to be fixed up,” Dan Riccio said. “Friends would see it before and after and then ask her to help them with their homes. She does it for herself but every house we’ve done, people have loved.”

The problem was that while Elizabeth had a great talent for the interior decorating business, she frequently lost money doing it. “I wasn’t much for billing,” she admitted. “While our children were growing up, I often spent more on babysitters than I earned.”

Daniel, 17, now is a senior at Fairfield Prep; Matthew, 14, is a freshman at Trumbull High School, so the timing finally was right to open the shop.

“I had in mind something like Gordon Fraser,” she said, referring to the gift shop formerly located on the site of what is now the Fraser Woods School on South Main Street. “If you went there for a gift, you knew you would get something of really nice quality whether you were spending $10 or $300. It was a destination store. I don’t want to compete with TJ Maxx at one end of Route 25 and Marshall’s at the other end.”

The space next to the salon and spa that formerly housed a deli was just the right size for her shop. Walking the entire length of the gift show at the Jacob Javits Center in New York –– about 13 miles of walking –– she found exactly what she wanted to fill the space, a process that eventually involved dealing with 32 distributors.

“This is a labor of love,” Dan Riccio said. “It took us a ton of time to get the shop ready. But it continues the whole experience of relaxation that we are creating here with the salon, the spa, and even the [planned] bakery, Sugarbakers.”

Elizabeth Ricci Fine Gifts provides gift wrapping; gift certificates are available. The shop is the local location for St Vincent Hospital’s Swim Across the Sound ornaments ($15) that benefit services for area cancer victims and their families. The ornament was designed by the niece of George Dzjuna, a Newtown resident whose wife, Chris, is a breast cancer survivor.

 Elizabeth Ricci Fine Gifts is open Mondays from 10 am to 5 pm; Tuesday through Friday from 10 to 7; Saturday, 10 to 4. Closed Sundays. Gift wrapping is provided; gift certificates are available. Major credit cards are accepted. For more information call 426-0507.