New record, antiques store brings unique offerings to Elburn

ELBURN – Antiques can be a dirty word.

It won’t be at Vinyl & Vintage – unless it’s a copy of Prince’s “Dirty Mind” or the Rolling Stones’ “Sticky Fingers.” This cool new retro record/antiques shop just opened Aug. 1 in downtown Elburn at 123 N. Main St.

Vinyl & Vintage, which is owned by Carrie and Bob Auwaerter, is highlighted by its large collection of records, which should be a huge draw as vinyl has been enjoying a resurgence for years now, but you’ll find much more with turntables, 8-track tapes, miscellaneous vintage audio, books, board games, posters, art, jewelry, clocks and furniture.

“The vibe is hopefully fun, not stuffy, because antiques can be a dirty word in culture today,” Carrie Auwaerter said. “With records, we think we’ll be a fun place to hang out. We have a lot of art and music backgrounds, so we’ve put our heads together and hope to have an antique store that grandma would like, but that you would like, too.”

The antiques business isn’t anything new for Carrie. She’s been in the business for more than 10 years, so the opportunity to open up her own place is ideal.

“We’re combining forces and two other dealers are joining us as well,” she said. “We’ve done shows, sold online and rented space from other antique dealers. This is very exciting for us. It’s a dream come true that we’ve been working for quite a while.”

An entire wall of Vinyl & Vintage will be dedicated solely to records and related items.

“The front near the checkout is my space with a lot of antiques and books,” she said. “The one whole wall is going to be nothing but record bins, so we’re going to build on that and then the main room will be other dealers. It’s organic and it’s going to develop over time. We’ve thought about a tagline as nostalgia for your eyes and ears.”

Being located in downtown Elburn hopefully will bring in curious passers-by with the dining destinations and a coffee shop within walking distance. There also is a good amount of traffic from out of town that frequents Ream’s.

“We’re not in a strip mall, but in a place that has some history to it, so it’s a perfect fit,” Carrie said. “We’re not in the middle of nowhere either being right downtown and we’ve gotten so much good feedback and we haven’t even opened yet. Everyone seems so excited about it.”

An added offering of Vinyl & Vintage is lamp repair. Bob has an affinity for restoration projects and lamp repair is his specialty, so those with vintage and other lamps that they’d love to have up and running will be pleased to know that someone close to home can help them.

While Vinyl & Vintage isn’t doing items on consignment, visitors are welcome to bring in items that the staff might be able to assist them with, as well as inquire about particular items they are trying to locate.

“We’ll have a wish list of books so that they can write down what they’re looking for,” she said.

“We’ve seen the different trends ebb and flow. We remember when Mad Men and martini sets were the hot items, but things change.”

And some things come back, just like records have. Now you can find them close to home in Elburn.

Vinyl & Vintage is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. It is closed on Monday and Tuesday. For information, call 630-542-8876.