Fair Folks and a Goat is an incredibly ambitious project that lands somewhere between a design boutique and a cultural center. Their spaces are meticulously curated, with everything for sale. We took a pilgrimage up to their New York space see to learn what it’s all about, and it’s safe to say we’re completely enthralled. fairfolksandagoat.com

When did you decide to start Fair Folks & a Goat?

Aurora: This is something that Anthony had been thinking about for a while. We met and started working on this just about exactly a year ago – September 1st. Anthony had this idea and he told me about it. It was exactly the kind of thing that I wanted to be involved in. It seemed like a project that had heart. Something that would keep me up at night, and I would want to be up working on it. We officially opened the New York space on November 1st.

Anthony: I lived down in the village, and I would walk around at night all the time. I would see these beautiful houses, and I was living in a 350 sq. ft. apartment on the top floor of a 6-floor walk-up. And I was thinking that there a lot of people, like my friends and I, that were living similar experiences. I was so hungry to take in New York, but I was seeing so much of it via New York Magazine and the internet.

There’s all these worlds that you aren’t in, that are behind closed doors.

Anthony: Yeah, and I wanted a place that could function the way these magazines were functioning for me. But rather than flipping through pages and reading about art and culture and fashion and cuisine, I could walk in and experience them with other people. Walking around the village, seeing all these beautiful townhouses, I said to myself, “This is why I came to New York. Not to live in this hovel!”

So Aurora and I started talking. If we could display those old, iconic images that we grew up reading about in the Fitzgerald stories and the Edith Wharton stories and the old movies we watched… I wasn’t seeing them in my life, but I was still looking for them, endlessly. We had big ideas to open a community space which gave that to people. They have their job, they have their home, and then they have this third place called Fair Folks for art, culture, and conversation. That’s what we’re hoping to grow.

How did you find this beautiful space that you’re in?

Anthony: I used to live here. I think I was either going to the Guggenheim or the Met, and I saw all these buildings, and a sign that said, “Carnegie Hill District.” When I got home, I looked it up online and started browsing through spaces just for fun. I wanted to see what the inside of one of these places looked like. That was really it – I didn’t expect it to change my life dramatically. Then I walked into this room. I tried to play it cool, but as soon as I left, all I could think was, “How am I going to get to that point?” I went back to my old job with a new sense of drive, and got out of my old lease, and moved in here. It was just something that once I saw it, had to happen.

When Aurora and I were kicking around the idea for Fair Folks, we were thinking that we had to find space in the West Village, or near Lafayette Street, somewhere downtown. We looked at all kinds of properties, but we wanted a different narrative. When someone walks into our space, we want them to feel transported. We want them to forget what they’re used to. And it works here, with our entrance and our staircase, and the fact that you have to take a physical journey uptown. So this space lent to a lot of the things we wanted to do, understanding tradition and things that will forever be beautiful and connecting them to things that are contemporary.

Can you talk about some of the events you’ve had here, and how you’ve been using the space to make that connection?

Aurora: When we first started, our plan was to do teas on the weekends. Having people come together around a cup of tea was the initial way to get people to come to the space and stay for a little while. I think it’s something that speaks to an older way of socializing that people aren’t used to anymore, but it doesn’t have to be so out of the ordinary. We still do those, and we’ve been upping the number of special events that we’ve been having. There have been brunches, and musical performances…

That seems like it would go really well.

Aurora: Yeah, it was great. One of them was Meshiya Lake, who’s a musician from New Orleans. It was great to have that bridge between this space and our newer space in New Orleans. Her band and her are ragtime, definitely from another era, and having them lined up here – it was really transformative. The windows were all open, and there were people out on the street who stopped and listened. When the band realized that there were so many people out there watching, they all leaned out the window and played to them. It was really cool.

Anthony: And the acoustics in here were amazing. It’s what the room was built for, I think. There was no microphone.

Aurora: We keep trying to get other musicians to come in and do a show for us, because it was great.

Anthony: The guy that lived in here before was a sound engineer for Lenny Kravitz, so he wrote a lot of music in here. And there were two sisters that were in here that were channelers before that. Some scary things have probably happened in this space!

Ooooh! Before I completely digress and talk about channelers – let’s talk about your New Orleans space. Why did you open that?

Anthony: Well, after getting a little frustrated trying to find the right space here in New York, we started looking all over the place.

Aurora: We love this space, and it’s been really great for us as far as getting our vision out there, but we really wanted an entire house to work with.

Anthony: In New Orleans, it is the full idea. It’s a great challenge, and challenges are fun! We want to create a fully curated space, all the way down to the lightswitches, and provide spaces for people to connect and interact. And in New Orleans, there is a little more heart to it – it feels good to be doing business there. It feels good to be in a place that really needs community building.

How have people been finding out about your spaces? Their allure is that they’re kind of secret and hidden, which is both a bonus and a challenge.

Aurora: Getting press has been really helpful for us, and word of mouth. A lot of people have found their way to us, just by seeing or hearing a little something about us and becoming curious.

Anthony: We do everything by appointment here, because we have to, because we’re in a residential space. But if there’s any advice to give, it’s that we treat every appointment as if it’s the next big opportunity. You don’t know who’s walking in the door or where it will lead, and that’s exciting. We always try to put our best foot forward, no matter who it is. We want them to stay for an hour or two hours, and we want to see if there’s a way in which they can become a part of this.

I think that’s a good note to end the interview on – and we’re really looking forward to collaborating with you! Readers, stay tuned for an announcement very soon about our next event, in collaboration with Fair Folks.