Skip to content

A town square for an unsquare town

redbankgreen

Standing for the vitality of Red Bank, its community, and the fun we have together.

RED BANK: HOMEWARES SHOP MOVES RIGHT IN

red-bank-19-monmouth-022820-1-500x332-6931235City Barn/Country Penthouse has opened for business at 19 Monmouth Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

rcsm2_0105081-220x165-9667185

Commercial real estate deals rarely happen as quickly as the one that led to Friday’s opening of a new homewares store in downtown Red Bank.

Read all about here in redbankgreen‘s latest edition of Retail Churn.

red-bank-city-barn-022820-500x332-6967752Carrie Carretta and Rick Giambastini in their store. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

The new shop is City Barn/Country Penthouse, which took over the storefront at 19 Monmouth Street recently vacated by specialty olive oil and vinegar shop Carter & Cavero.

It’s owned by the wife-and-husband pair Carrie Carretta and Rick Giambastini, who relocated their 18-month-old business from Bellworks in Holmdel.

The couple, who live in a townhouse next door to Bellworks, had been generally happy in the former Bell Labs site, they said.

But “it’s a long-term proposition” before the still-evolving facility generates the level of foot traffic they needed, Giambastini told Churn.

So they started looking not long ago at Red Bank, which Carretta was familiar with as a 27 -year resident of Monmouth County. (Giambastini, whom she married four years ago, is from the San Francisco area.)

One day less than a month ago, broker CJ Frank, of Brothers Commercial, was showing them 22 Monmouth Street, the vacant former Christian Science Reading Room, when Carretta looked across the street at the still-occupied Carter & Cavero store.

“She pointed and said, ‘we want something like that,'” Frank told Churn.

“I said, ‘too bad that’s not available, because that’s really our vibe,'” Carretta recalled. With its full-glass frontage, wood floors and tin ceiling, it would make an ideal setting for their shop’s mix of rustic and industrial home touches, she said.

But while the space was not formally on the market, it turns out Carter & Cavero had previously confided to Frank that it was interested in getting out of its lease after 12 years there.

“They really loved the space,” Frank said of the couple. “They made a very fast deal.”

The agreement was signed earlier this month. After refinishing the floors and stocking the shelves, City Barn/Country Penthouse began its soft opening at noon Friday.

The store carries rustic signs, embroidered throw pillows and other decorating touches. It has market-exclusive deals with catstudio and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia, Carretta said.

One item that caught our eye was a Bristow table lamp made from repurposed galvanized pipe for $295.

Carretta, who has a full-time career in the pharmaceutical industry, picks the products and does the design. She’ll leave daily management of the store to Giambastini, whose background is in municipal taxation.

The store is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week.

 

 

Remember: Nothing makes a Red Bank friend happier than to hear "I saw you on Red Bank Green!"
redbankgreen Classics
Partyline
JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION
Performers at Red Bank’s Juneteenth community celebration Sunday at Johnny Jazz Park. (photo by Brian Donohue)      
BUTTERFLIES LOVE THE WEED
Save the monarch, plant butterfly weed. (photo and text by Partyline contributor Roseann DalPra)  
LANTERNFLY PARTY
An invasive ailanthus tree sprouting in front of the US Post Office on Broad Street is covered with invasive spotted lantern fly nymphs Wedn ...
STREETCORNER SERENADE
An Irish doodle named Cheddar listens to native New Jerseyan, singer/songwriter and former Houston resident Tom Foti, (identified in the hea ...
Red Bank 5K Fun!!!
Red Bank Classic – June 14th, 2025 (photo by Partyline contributor Adam Kaplan)  
RAINBOW OVER RED BANK
Saturday, before and after the storm that rolled through town. (photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus)    
Mini Ballers Bring the Heat at Fusion Basketball School
As the temperatures heat up, so does the competition in the mini baller clinic at Fusion School of Basketball. These little tykes are intens ...
DOZENS OF PLEIN AIR ARTISTS “PAINT RED BANK”
Plein air artists take over town for first ever "Paint Red Bank" event. (click to read)
RED BANK: SIGN ON ICONIC DANNY’S STEAK HOUSE COMES DOWN
The sign hanging from the shuttered Danny's Steak House comes down ten months after a manager reported Danny's Steakhouse would be back "bet ...
FOR YANKEES FANS, GOOD TRASH PICKIN’
A collection of framed photographs of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and other New York Yankees greats was placed curbside along with a ...
RED BANK: NEW HANDICAPPED PARKING, WEST SIDE MEETING PLANNED
New handicapped parking sign West Side advocate had pressed for is installed, with meeting planned to discuss other concerns. (click to read ...
SUNSET AT SUMMER’S START
Crazy sunset clouds shot from Monmouth Boat Club on the Friday evening at the start of Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer. ...
SIDEWALK GOES FROM WORST TO FIRST
P (photo by Brian Donohue) What had been, in our estimation – and apparently in the eyes of the several people who have emailed and te ...
RED BANK: PEERING FROM ON HIGH, ACROSS THE DECADES
Roofers on the Azalea Red Bank top off the project in the shadow of a sculpture depicting another generation of construction workers who toi ...
BRICK FACELIFT CONTINUES ON MONMOUTH STREET
A million-dollar brick sidwalk makeover of Monmouth Street in Red Bank continues.
JAY AND SILENT EAGLE
A very loud blue jay squawks at an indiferent bald eagle in a treetop alongside the Swimming River in Red Bank this week. (Partyline photo b ...
PIZZA LOVING SQUIRREL SPOTTED IN RED BANK
Pizza squirrel spotted in Red Bank. (click to read)
GET YOUR MA SOMETHIN’ NICE AT THE RED BANK FARMERS MARKET
It’s a beautiful and sunny Mother’s Day for the first instance of the farmer’s market, held every Sunday, beginning in May ...
SIGN? WHAT SIGN?
Folks in Red Bank Wednesday exercising their riparian rights to access tidal waters first encoded into Roman law in 500 AD and later adopted ...
FANTASTIC MR. FOX
Partyline contributor captures photo of backyard fox.