Howie Holdridge has thought a lot about what makes a great shop, and he's reached a firm conclusion: it isn't the inventory. It's the welcome. Hausfrau Haven gets this right. You don't just go there to buy something — you go there because it feels good to be inside, and because the people who run it seem genuinely glad you stopped in.

Howie learned this from two Village shopkeepers he won't name but thinks of often. They understood that a shop is a kind of anchor for a street, and a street is a kind of anchor for a neighborhood. He passes this philosophy along to anyone who'll listen, which in his experience is most people, especially if you catch them in the right mood on a good afternoon on S. Third Street.