Business

Business Brief: The Ivy Ladder

JOANNE SHERMAN PHOTO The women of Ivy Ladder, a family affair for the Ferrers: Danielle Ferrer, right, next to her mom, Shirley Ferrer, are the owners. Shirley’s other daughter, LoriAnn Ferrer Plock, left, and granddaughter Rebecca Plock, work together to make the new shop an interesting and unique place to visit.

A brand new business, the Ivy Ladder, blossomed this spring at 2 Grand Avenue in the Heights, but it’s run by a familiar face — or in this case, faces. Shirley Ferrer and her daughter Danielle Ferrer have teamed up to open the Ivy Ladder, right next to Cicero’s Barbershop. The shop features “repurposed” and consignment items, treasures for the unique home and garden, new giftware, decorative items, cottage furniture and a line of locally crafted tablecloths, place mats and pillows. The Ivy Ladder also offers homemade chocolate candy and Island-grown lavender sachets and mists and many other items. Merchandise changes frequently. When one item is purchased, it’s replaced by something new and usually different.
Locals might remember that Shirley, who runs Shirley Ferrer Tag Sales, has previously owned two stores: Times Past Antiques in the Heights and D. L. Christopher in the center. She said that her daughter LoriAnn and granddaughter Rebecca, who’s majoring in art history at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, help out at the Ivy Ladder when they can, prompting LoriAnn to comment, “It truly is a family-run business.”
Originally, the family wanted to call the store “George’s Daughters,” Shirley said, naming it after her late husband and former Police Chief George Ferrer, but the county refused to let them use the name, because “George wasn’t there to okay it.”
Mother, daughters and granddaughter chose the name “Ivy Ladder,” when Rebecca decided that the name reminded her of a favorite store in Asheville, North Carolina, called the Screen Door. It carries similar items, but on a larger scale, LoriAnn said.
Shirley welcomes queries about consignments, if people feel they have something they might like her to sell for them. “They can call me or just stop on by,” she said. Some people come to the store to ask about bringing in a consignment item and end up buying items to take home.
Though the Ivy Ladder’s space is small, somewhat like a cottage, the women have managed to pack many unusual and eclectic items into every nook and cranny. LoriAnn says the shop’s hours are on “Island” time. It’s opened Thursdays through Mondays, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., but sometimes earlier and sometimes later. For information call the Ivy Ladder at 749-0568.