Last fall, chef Flynn McGarry opened the doors to Gem Home, a new home goods store and café on New York’s Lower East Side. More than just a retail concept, Gem Home feels like a natural extension of McGarry himself — a space that brings together his passion for design, food, and travel in a way that feels both curated and deeply personal.
Gem Home blends vintage finds, everyday objects, and a rotating menu of seasonal dishes — all chosen, sourced, or crafted by McGarry. The front of the store offers shelves of rare and thoughtful pieces: a metal vase from Kyoto circa 1900, a silver-and-horn spoon from Denmark, hand towels from a Dutch atelier, or a custom-scented hand soap made in collaboration with British fragrance house Ffern, housed in ceramics by Shane Gabier.
Further in, the café invites guests to sit down at handcrafted oak tables — also built by McGarry — and enjoy simple, comforting meals made with ingredients from local farms. The menu changes daily and reflects McGarry’s instinctive, ingredient-first approach. The space itself has the warmth and ease of a lived-in home. Red oak shelving, Danish lighting, and wall colors chosen from Farrow & Ball create a calm, minimalist atmosphere reminiscent of 1970s California interiors — one of McGarry’s long-time design references.
The idea for Gem Home started years ago, when McGarry began selling extra design objects he had sourced for his restaurants. What began as a side project grew into a vision: a place where the things he loved — good food, beautiful objects, and meaningful details — could live together under one roof. “I’ve always loved collecting pieces for my restaurants, but there’s only so much you can fit into a dining room,” says McGarry. “Gem Home gives me the space to keep discovering and sharing the things that inspire me.”
With Gem and Gem Wine already beloved destinations for thoughtful dining in New York, Gem Home rounds out a trilogy of spaces where Flynn McGarry invites people not just to eat — but to live a little more intentionally.
