Profile

Growing up in Cobble Hill, Denise Tao often went to the quiet corner of Kane and Cheever to visit her grandfather’s decades-old butcher shop and the gift shop her grandmother managed next door that sold candles and costume jewelry. When both grandparents retired in 1992, Tao combined the two spaces into a cluttered treasure trove of vintage furniture, collectibles, and oddities that today attracts a steady stream of neighborhood locals. A former clothing designer for Madison Avenue and Soho shops, Tao is now on the road almost every week, scouring estate sales and auctions across the U.S. and in Canada for inventory. And while she has a personal penchant for Danish Modern, no time period is neglected at Little Luna. The small back room is still filled with incense, candles, picture frames, and jewelry. The front room’s butcher cases have been replaced, though, with enticing finds like a silent Remington typewriter, cut-crystal lamp, Star Wars board games, vintage postcards, and a cherrywood armoire. Glass bottles excavated from twenty feet below Brooklyn’s streets glitter beside shelves filled with bric-a-brac such as vintage doilies, antique doorknobs, and a forties brass lipstick holder. — Kate Rockwood