Hip And Humble Home co-owner Danny Weinberg inside his Broad Street store, set to open this week. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI 
It took Danny Weinberg a matter of seconds to decide on Red Bank as the newest location for his longtime business, Hip And Humble Home.
Weinberg, a Teaneck resident, had recently closed his New York City shop and was driving through Red Bank about six weeks ago when he spotted a vacancy on Broad Street.
“I just drove down here one day, saw the ‘for lease’ sign and the price was right,” Weinberg, 48, said. “I didn’t look anywhere else.”
Six weeks later, Weinberg’s stock of unique wooden imports, mostly from Indonesia dining tables, chairs, dressers and bed frames, among others is packed into 58 Broad, and Weinberg is ready to tap into demand for used furniture.
Hip and Humble offers antique wooden imports as its mainstays, but vases and artwork are among the variety. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
“It’s pretty niche, man. You either like it or you don’t.” said Weinberg, the son of Senator Loretta Weinberg. “But really, what store isn’t niche?”
Hip and Humble is one-of-a-kind, though, and it starts with the ownership. On his Facebook page, Weinberg identifies himself as the store’s “owner and king.” His business partner of 17 years, Dominic Voci, lives in Indonesia. Voci takes travels all over the island nation to root out potential merchandise, then takes his finds home to refurbish and send them to the states for Weinberg to set up on the showroom floor.
“They’ll have a little street market kind of thing going on, or he’ll have guys coming up to him with stuff,” Weinberg said. “Dom will take 20-hour rides into a village to find stuff.”
They also have shipments coming in from places like Morocco and India, or in some cases, as close as Pennsylvania, if the quality and potential fits their brand, which, by the way, is neither ‘antique’ nor ‘hippy,’ Weinberg is quick to point out.
“We’re a furniture store,” he said, adding that he can do custom work. “Some of this is up to 100 years old. Most everything is old vintage is the word I like to use.”
Moving into the downtown with the array of furniture, art and accessories fits with Hip and Humble’s reputation.
Weinberg and Voci have operated stores in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Ridgewood. Rising rents and the depressed economy forced them out of the larger markets and might have driven them to call it quits, but Weinberg said Red Bank especially with the “key to Red Bank,” Restoration Hardware, as a close neighbor will keep him from having to look for another line of work.
“It’s do or die out here. It’s either this or get a job,” Weinberg said, “and I don’t want to get a job.”
Hip and Humble was waiting on a certificate of occupancy from the borough last week. Assuming that clears, it’ll be open for business this week, he said.\.
The hours are tentatively set for 11a to 7p, and closing at 6p on Sunday, but Weinberg said that could change depending on what people want.
“If people are bustling about, I’ll stay here ’til 10,” he said. “I have no life outside of this. I’m focused.”
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In other Retail Churn news, look for Wooly Monmouth, the knitting supply store, to move by early next month. After seven years at 9 Monmouth Street, owner Dori Cohen Kershner is relocating the shop down the block to 27 Monmouth, most recently home to Lavender Blue.
