ILLUSTRATION BY NOLAN PELLETIER
Jason Hertzenberg left a career in finance to take over a 2,000-square-foot former junk shop in 2014. “My mother cried,” recalls Hertzenberg, 46. “But I always liked fixing things and seeing how they worked.” In a unique business model, he picks up for free, provided there are enough furnishings, decor, art, and ephemera to successfully salvage. Any furniture items of quality—made of solid wood, no particle board—he will spruce up and often alter somehow. “I didn’t pay a nickel for any of these things,” he says, “so I can sell them for half of what they’re worth.”
Hertzenberg has developed a specialty restoring and even revamping classic furniture pieces from any era. “We reinvent, rebuild, and redo,” he says, adding that sometimes customers will co-customize a piece with him. Hertzenberg’s own inspired brainstorm: A small credenza made from a foot-thick tree branch, bark and all, sliced in half long-wise and attached horizontally atop a cast-iron Singer sewing machine base. At Recycle Cincinnati there are no price tags (just ask!), no consignment, and no strictly-adhered-to hours of operation. If you can roll with the nontraditional approach to retail, there’s a conversation piece in your home’s future—for a bargain.
Recycle Cincinnati, 7426 Montgomery Rd., Silverton, (513) 633-7064, @recycle.cincinnati
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