New Arlington Heights antique shop offers curiosities, oddities and plenty of kitsch

Inspired by her uncle’s love of collecting, Sarese Hranicka has operated Uncle Lee’s Closet shop within antique malls in Elgin, Woodstock and Madison, Wisconsin, for the last decade.

Now, she’s ready to formally grand open a multi-vendor vintage shop of her own — Arlington Heights Antiques — this weekend.

The 1,750-square-foot storefront at 1723 E. Central Road quietly started welcoming foot traffic over the summer as Hranicka, daughter Elory and six others who rent space started setting up their displays. The shop — formerly a dry cleaners — is in the same strip mall as the popular and long-standing Mr. Allison’s diner.

The new place has a variety of everything that’s old: art, furniture, sculpture, clothing, jewelry, glassware, comic books, vinyl records, and a section labeled “curiosities and oddities” (like preserved sheep eyeballs and octopus in sealed glass containers).

Each vendor has their own style, flair and offerings. Elory Hranicka is into kitschy 1960s and 1970s clothes, art, pottery and trinkets. Other sections of the store display 19th century Eastlake-style oak furniture and decor. The “guy shop” is in the back — a mix of old Playboy magazines, cameras, fishing poles, fur pelts and toys.

“I have my taste, she has her taste,” Sarese Hranicka said. “You want to appeal to people with different stuff. … We hoped we got a little of everything for everybody.”

Their clientele is not who you might think: mostly people under age 65, the Hranickas say.

Even high schoolers are getting into antiquing.

Teens have found the shop for its selection of vintage clothing — like rock band T-shirts — and are even buying baseball cards and comic books again.

And twentysomethings are “coming around” to older furniture, Sarese Hranicka said, in lieu of assembling Ikea pieces with every move.

“People like to buy what’s in their grandmother’s house,” she said. “It’s warm.”

The grand opening event Saturday and Sunday — from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day — will include raffles every hour, a silent auction on bigger ticket items, treats from Jarosch Bakery and music.

The store’s regular hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday and Sunday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The store is closed Monday and Tuesday, when the mother-daughter duo “goes shopping” themselves — picking up new items to restock the shelves from auctions and people’s houses.

“You have to be constantly networking for new connections,” Sarese said. “It really is about connecting with people that have the same tastes and interests.”

The Palatine resident and native of Elk Grove Village has a varied background: She earned a journalism degree from Northern Illinois University, relocated to Houston for a career as an advertising account executive, later moved back and became a wife, mother, and in recent years, a registered dietitian. She operated Menshenables Judaica — an emporium for Jewish gifts and tchotchkes — in Buffalo Grove from 1997 to 2010.

When uncle Lee Wagman died in 2013, he left Hranicka all the collectibles he amassed — from high-end porcelain to almost any type of sculpture or artwork related to owls — that was inside his two-bedroom Chicago apartment. She sold a lot on eBay, but says she also “got the bug” to become a collector of antiques herself.

Now in business as a brick-and-mortar retailer, Hranicka thinks the store is opening at the right time — right before holiday shopping season.

“People that appreciate vintage things and realize the quality is even better and the prices are not higher — maybe lower — when they see that, (they say,) ‘Hey I need a gift, I may come into an antique shop.’ ”