What do you do if you come from one of the North Fork’s most prolific farming families and want to expand on your own?
You take the essence of that success and bring it to the next level.
That’s what Jennifer DiVello and her husband, Tom Hug, are doing with their new shop, Revel North Fork, on Main Road in Cutchogue.
The shop is an opportunity for Ms. DiVello to gather her various product lines, including ice cream, soaps, candles and clothing, under one roof.
Ms. DiVello is a third-generation Harbes — as in Harbes Family Farm. Ed Harbes Sr. is her grandfather, Ed. Jr. is her uncle and Patricia Harbes DiVello, owner of Patty’s Berries & Bunches in Mattituck, is her mother.
“Everything I learned I learned from my mom,” Ms. DiVello said. “Patty’s Berries & Bunches is separate from Harbes, but my mom learned from her father.”
Four years ago Ms. DiVello began selling homemade ice cream at her mother’s stand based on what was in season. She called it The Ice Cream Patch.
“I wanted something refreshing and different for the ‘pick your own’ customers at the farm,” she said.
Two years later she opened a small vintage shop at the farm called Vestige Vintage, which specialized in mid-century household items.
“It started as antiques,” Jennifer said. “Then I made two candles, a rosemary mint and a basil mint. People went crazy for the candles and they sold much faster than the antiques.”
Jennifer transferred the concept behind her ice cream to making soap and candles by using local ingredients, most of them from her mother’s farm and uncle’s greenhouse.
The candles, which cost between $8 and $20, are sold as North Fork Soy Candles, while the soaps, which cost between $6 and $8, sell under the name Suds & Muds.
“Customers love the fact that they’re made with things on the farm,” Ms. DiVello said. “Every time something came into season I made a candle and pretty soon we had 17 candle scents. When we introduced bath salts, we teamed up with Amagansett Sea Salt Company, making them with local salt from Long Island waters.”
“I love taking baths now, I love being the tester,” Mr. Hug said. “We want the quality to come through and give people something with some distinctness to it.”
Along with the ice cream, vintage items, soaps and candles, Ms. DiVello still had one more idea up her sleeve: clothing.
“I always wanted to work in fashion, but instead ended up in furniture and industrial design,” she said. “I blended the design with the fashion and came up with T-shirts.”
She developed a line of nautically themed T-shirts sold under the name North Fork Threads.
“People may ask why so many different brands? Why not wrap them all together,” she said. “That’s why we came up with Revel North Fork. We thought it could house all these different brands, or maybe one brand will do better than the other.”
Revel will sell the couple’s soaps, candles, clothing and vintage items. Ice cream will arrive in June when produce on the farm comes into season. Ms. DiVello’s ice cream will continue to be sold at Patty’s Berries & Bunches as well.
“Revel means a celebration,” Ms. DiVello said. “It’s like a joyous celebration and we’re pulling in all these different little treats from the North Fork and together I feel they make a nice harmony.”
Revel North Fork will open this Saturday, May 28. For more information, visit revelnorthfork.com.
