For such a relatively minor stretch of Main Street, Southold’s central hub is packed with the kind of small-town independence that springs from successful small businesses. Stroll both sides of the road on a beautiful sunny day and you’ll find yourself stopping into stores to pick up anything from a new piece of home décor to the perfect notebook you’ve been meaning to invest in for that 2026 journaling resolution you’re trying so very hard to maintain to some kind of kitchenware to make the perfect pre-spring dinner.
But what makes so many of the storefronts unique on this single strip of a shopping wonderland is how, more often than not, you’ll have a friendly, front-facing female owner greeting you as you enter their expertly curated spaces.
“We’re all very close with each other and we’re each other’s cheerleaders,” says Lori Guyer, owner of White Flower Farmhouse.
These designing women have stitched together a vibrant retail fabric that’s part and parcel to Southold’s personality and small-town strength that no big-box store can squash — one that locals and visitors alike adore.
The Ongoing Southold Renaissance
The Southold that shoppers now know and love took time to rise. Guyer, the first of the longstanding female forces to kick off the 21st century trend, arrived in 2011 — fittingly taking up residence in a spot that, decades before, was home to The Fat Cat, another female-owned home décor shop owned by Beatrice Small.
White Flower Farmhouse, a vintage home goods store, was in its second incarnation; its first was on Peconic Lane, a space Guyer refurbished and where she began building the brand for her first 11 years of business. It wasn’t her first rodeo, though. In 2001, she opened Duck and the Daisy in Wading River but sold the shop when she moved to Southold to raise her family.
It took another five years, but more women business owners followed suit. In 2016 Norine Pennacchia opened TouchGoods, a lighting, home and cookware shop that took up residence in another previously female-owned retail store, Complement the Chef. Then, in 2018, Nicolette’s for the Home, a retail, kitchen, bath and design business, entered the Southold stratosphere, headed by principal designer Amanda Giuliano. (Last year, Nicolette’s moved from its original Southold home — yes, a literal home where showrooms and show spaces were scattered throughout — to a storefront on the main drag that once held Frohnhoefer Electric and is now divided between Nicolette’s and Century 21 Albertson Realty.)
At Pearl on Main, Susan Hansen Fasano aims to help customers decorate as if they’re in a coastal beach cottage. (Photo credit: Madison Fender)
The momentum continued. In 2019, Laura O’Brien’s Fez & Ivy, which sells antiques, rugs and unique intricate textiles, opened next door to TouchGoods. Snuggled next to her shop is Susan Hansen Fasano’s Pearl on Main, which also launched in 2019 and stocks décor for “your little cottage by the sea and all things you might need for a weekend,” says Hansen Fasano, who was previously in business with her sister in Florida and in Sayville.
In 2020, just before COVID-19 shut many storefronts’ doors, Melinda Morris opened Arni Paperie, initially intended to be a design studio for custom branding, invitations and stationery. It has since evolved to include a gift-store element with a custom branding focus — a subsequent endeavor for Morris, who owned a shop of a similar nature in Brooklyn.
Most recently, in 2025 Stephanie Pinerio, owner of The Bellwether, began sharing O’Brien’s location, filling the east side of the building with a large loom, her own textile products and other crafts made by artisans.
“Southold has kind of been this staple space,” says Giuliano. “You have a lot of longevity here for businesses.”
Craft, Curation — and Obsession
Each of these women’s crafts is different, whether they’re making products, creating custom designs, sourcing antiques or searching for artists whose work best aligns with their aesthetic. The one thing they all share is a genuine drive to give Southold shoppers a unique and fulfilling shopping experience that you can’t replicate anywhere else.
A shared experience, nearly across the board for each of these business owners, is memories of trial and error, working with mentors and in other locations as they learned what worked and what didn’t in their respective fields.
Hansen Fasano, whose mother was also creative, let her leadership and Scandinavian descent drive her style, sourcing light, bright and airy designs. Guyer and many other female microcosm moguls in the area describe the curation or design process as something they were raised on.
“Vintage has always been in my blood, since I was a little kid,” says Guyer. “Since I was a little kid, I was always super frugal and I would love to take my bike and go yard-saling with my mom and I collected little things.”
Pennacchia’s father and grandfather owned a design showroom in Hewlett, where she grew up playing with rings of finish samples.
“It’s taste, plus instinct, plus joy,” Pennacchia says of finding midcentury modern vintage products and other accessories for TouchGoods. “Deciding what we sell really comes down to picking what we like. We shop. We obsess a lot.”
Morris had a similar experience following in her family’s footsteps. Her Southold store is reminiscent of her family’s former gift shop, Huntington’s Lion in the Sun.
Pinerio and O’Brien both studied in their fields — as did Giuliano, who initially pursued a career in aviation but changed gears post-Sept. 11, 2001. Giuliano’s father’s construction business, her time designing for customers at big-box stores and her love for decorating and rearranging drove her new passion.
“There are a lot of people who are designers [who] naturally have the knack for colors and textiles and coordinating things,” she says. “But I think when you get into the build and we’re talking about legitimate design, knowing your framing, your rough plumbing and rough electric, knowing how to execute all of those fine details while also thinking about the final product and how it’s going to look, it’s a really big deal.”
Collaboration Over Competition
While a few of the Southold female-owned and operated businesses fall into a similar ilk, it’s a perfect symbiosis between the brands. Whether one store is drawing customers to the area and getting them into the door at others, or the designers and curators are sourcing from and sending shoppers to their neighbor storefront’s spaces, all of the women business owners in Southold support each other.
When Morris brought her business to Southold, meeting a demand for custom stationary needs on the North and South Fork, she scoped out the area, stopping into businesses to chat with a few of the women.
Everyone was encouraging, Morris says — especially Guyer, who told her, “Rising tides float all boats,” speaking to the collaborative and uplifting nature of the surrounding store owners.
“It kind of fell into place in this really wonderful, organic way,” recounts Morris. “Ever since living here, I’m a big believer in that ‘meant to be’ thing. I feel like the North Fork is this magical place where those things happen because it’s a small, supportive community.”
Melinda Morris followed in her family’s footsteps with the concept for her store Arni Paperie. (Photo credit: Madison Fender)
For O’Brien, all the feminine energy has combatted the isolation that can surface from running a store by yourself.
“It can feel lonely being a business owner, but when you have other small businesses around you and other female businesses around you, you definitely don’t feel alone,” she says.
O’Brien’s storefront buddy Pinerio had no doubt Southold was the space for her because of their shared creativity.
“For me it was always Southold,” Pinerio says. “I definitely wanted to be in Southold because I think the shops complement what I do.”
In chatting about the culture, many of the women pull back the curtain, referencing a shared text thread between Southold business owners — just one of the ways they stay in constant communication.
“It’s really an emotional rollercoaster and we do actually rely on each other,” says Pennacchia. “We check in, we compare notes, we commiserate, we reassure one another.”
It’s not all serious business in Southold, though. In December, male and female merchants came together for the hamlet’s third annual Holiday Stroll, a fun evening of holiday shopping, festive activities and supercharged camaraderie. Pennacchia, who kickstarted the event, has a shared hope with the other female business owners to see Southold continuously grow through thoughtful evolution.
“Southold is not going anywhere. It just continues to build, which is so encouraging and amazing,” says Hansen Fasano. “I’m very thrilled to be part of it.”
