Last week, East Fork, the Asheville-based pottery brand known for its seamless blend of artistry and function, marked a significant milestone with the opening of its first permanent store in New York City. Situated on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, this new outpost is the brand’s third brick-and-mortar location, following its flagship in Asheville, NC, and a store in Atlanta, GA. For East Fork co-founder and CEO Alex Matisse, the decision to open in Brooklyn was a natural next step.
East Fork’s journey began in 2010, when Matisse, fresh from a traditional pottery apprenticeship, started crafting pots by hand on a rural farm in Madison County, North Carolina. “We were making pots by hand, firing them in a large wood-burning kiln and selling them to collectors in North Carolina,” Matisse explained.
The brand experienced a pivotal shift 2015, moving away from traditional techniques to embrace a more contemporary style. “We designed a line which was much more contemporary than what we were making, we bought a little gas kiln, and we launched East Fork as it is today,” Matisse shared. But this change wasn’t without challenges. “We lost all of our original customers and collectors overnight because they didn’t understand what we were doing,” he noted.
A commitment to sustainability, community, and craftsmanship has fueled this growth. As a Certified B Corporation, East Fork continues to create pottery with clays sourced from the American Southeast, blending traditional techniques with modern production methods.
The opening of the Brooklyn store comes at a time when resilience has become a defining trait of the brand. In the wake of Hurricane Helene, which devastated East Fork’s hometown of Asheville, the company has redoubled its efforts to support the community. Through the end of the year, 5% of all sales will go toward grassroots organizations like BeLoved Asheville, which provides aid to those most affected by the storm.
East Fork’s Home For Community
For East Fork, Brooklyn was a strategic and emotional choice. ” We saw we put more boxes of pottery on the doorsteps of Brooklyn than anywhere else in the country,” Matisse shared. “It can be tricky finding the right spot, but once we narrowed it down to this block, we knew it was where we wanted to be.”
The 750-square-foot store features East Fork’s signature aesthetic of minimalism and warmth, with terracotta tones, exposed brick, and wooden shelves showcasing a vibrant collection of mugs, plates, and bowls. Mother Studio, a Nashville-based team that has worked with East Fork on its previous spaces, executed the design.
This location also includes a curated selection of home goods beyond pottery. Customers can browse block-printed napkins, hand-woven runners, fluted glassware, minimalist flatware, and pantry items available exclusively in-store. For the holiday season, the Brooklyn store will debut limited-edition colorways like Wine Dark Sea, Big Sky, and a forest green hue called In the Pines.
Events will also play a vital role in the store’s community engagement. Matisse plans to bring East Fork’s signature workshops to Brooklyn, such as cooking demonstrations and flower-arranging classes. “There needs to be a generosity of spirit that people feel when they walk in. In the same way there’s an experience of going to a Danny Meyer restaurant. It’s hard to describe and hard to explain, but it’s about the connection that you make with the people working there,” stated Matisse.
East Fork’s Expansion Plans
The Brooklyn store is part of East Fork’s larger strategy to balance its online presence with meaningful in-person experiences. Only 13% of the brand’s revenue comes from permanent physical retail, but Matisse sees significant potential in expanding the channel. “I’d much rather put money into a physical store than into Meta to grow e-commerce,” he explained. “It feels more aligned with our brand. What we make needs to be felt and held.”
East Fork’s move to Brooklyn echoes a broader trend among similar lifestyle-focused brands. Fable, a Canadian pottery company known for its minimalist dinnerware, has a couple of Canadian stores and has explored pop-ups in the US. Similarly, Our Place, a direct-to-consumer cookware and home goods brand opened its first retail location in Venice Beach last year, offering a tactile, curated experience for customers to interact with its cult-favorite Always Pan and other products. Jono Pandolfi, a pottery brand from New York, has a studio in New Jersey and hosts a holiday pop-up every year in SoHo.
Much like East Fork, these brands are tapping into growing consumer demand for thoughtfully designed, high-quality home goods that merge utility with beauty. By bringing their products directly to urban markets, they’re fostering more robust connections with their audiences and building community-centric retail spaces.
While no immediate plans exist for additional East Fork locations, Matisse is open to further expansion if the Brooklyn store proves successful. He also envisions unique concepts for the future, such as a restaurant tied to one of East Fork’s locations—a nod to brands like Vermont’s Simon Pearce, which combines retail with dining.
For now, the Brooklyn store represents a significant step forward for East Fork, bringing its thoughtfully crafted products to a bustling market where customers can see, touch, and connect with the brand in new ways.
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