Antiques sellers are purveyors of stories; no two shops are the same, each offering its own collection of peculiar pieces and timeworn nostalgia. It’s no different at UnQuiet, Coxsackies’ antiques and oddities shop, where there’s just as much excitement in pondering an object’s history as there is in uncovering its mystery. There is, however, one exception that allows UnQuiet to stand out among other antiques stores: the shop is also home to a pint-sized bar called Ravish Liquors.
“At UnQuiet, we have a cabinet-of-curiosities vibe,” says owner Sarah Gray Miller. “It’s hard to explain because there’s such an eclectic aesthetic: odd portraits, taxidermy, prissy furniture in unexpected fabrics—I like to say it’s ‘items that once belonged to your bachelor British uncle who traveled the world.’”
Open since December 2021, and located in a renovated 1880s brick firehouse, UnQuiet offers two floors of curious collectibles. In the bright and airy upstairs, you’ll find colorful furniture, crystal or silver table settings, art, and small taxidermy. Downstairs embraces a darker feel, with monochromatic furniture pieces, bearskin rugs, larger taxidermy, and as of February this year, there’s also the bar, nestled in a former jail.
“The original goal was to open an antiques store; I just happened to do it in the dead of winter, in upstate New York, in the middle of a pandemic,” Miller says. “I realized that antiques sales are unpredictable, so on quiet days during that first winter I would open a bottle of wine around four or so and invite friends over to share; sometimes they’d bring people, eventually our customers became friends and started joining us—it began to feel like I was running a very popular nonprofit night club. I realized I should open a bar, which could supplement the shop with a more predictable stream of income.”
While working on the process of obtaining a liquor license and designing a bar, Miller began BYOB Saturdays at the shop, and used that time as a form of market research, learning what her community of friends, shoppers, and visitors preferred to drink and eat. Ravish Liquors opened about a year later.
“It’s a tiny jewel box of a bar with dark design and brass lights—it’s intimate and cozy,” Miller says. “It’s not really a craft cocktail bar; our mixologist can make practically anything you want, but we’re more spirits-focused.” Libations are highly curated, given the bar’s small size: two choices each of vodkas, gins, and bourbons; a few whiskeys; one tequila, mezcal, and rum. Drinks by-the-glass range from $7-$15; cocktails with well brands are $12. A handful of red, white, rose, and sparkling wines range from $9-$15 per glass, and a few beer and sake options all run $8 or less.
As for noshing, Miller, who is of Mississippi origin, wanted to serve simple, Southern-inflected bites that would be practical to serve without a large prep kitchen. “We’ve got an arsenal of Crock-Pots behind the bar and the food is very Southern, authentic to who I am,” she says. Menu items include crawfish etouffee ($18), Frito pies—beef and bean chili over Fritos with cheese ($15), succotash salad ($12), and Lee Bros. Boiled Peanuts (a snack recipe by Matt and Ted Lee: brothers, James Beard award-winning cookbook authors, and Coxsackie residents; $7).
What the bar lacks in size, it makes up for in joie de vivre. “We’ve been nicknamed the ‘Upstate New Orleans’,” she explains, “We see a wonderful, heartwarming mix of people: Fridays are a little slower and more local, Saturdays we offer live music and see some out of town visitors, either night we’ll see a mix of ages from 20-somethings to one customer who’s over 100.” When the space is too small for the crowd, the party spills into the shop.
Although Miller’s roots stem from below the Mason-Dixon, she’s lived in the Hudson Valley for almost 20 years. She grew fond of the region after attending Vassar College, later becoming a weekender in 2008. During that time, she worked as an editor at various magazines including Country Living, Modern Farmer, Saveur, and other popular publications that began moving from print to online and slashing staff.
“When Saveur got the ax, it was my realization and wakeup call that a career in print media was no longer glamorous or lucrative and wouldn’t last forever for me,” Miller explains. “Meanwhile, I had a house in Athens worth money and full of stuff. I’ve always been an avid collector and realized that I take great pleasure in finding objects but not a lot of pleasure from owning them, so I thought about creating a brick-and-mortar shop.”
Her former career only reinforced Miller’s knack for community cultivation and eye for eccentricity. “I’m an amateur shopkeeper and barkeep but not an amateur when it comes to food, decor, or collection,” she says. “I spent a long time as an editor-in-chief, telling stories through visuals and words, and I’m still always interested in an object’s backstory—our price tags are ridiculously detailed. And at the bar, you’ll find people with their own stories.”
There’s even a tale behind the Ravish Liquors sign, which Miller bought more than a decade ago and used to hang in her home. When she decided to use it for the bar, she brought it to a shop to be rehabbed; the man who worked on it happened to be the grandson of the man who originally made the sign. He recognized it as a former liquor store in Hudson that belonged to the pro baseball player Tony Ravish.
“Stories like this add to the sense of community we have around here,” Miller explains. “A few years ago, if you walked into a bar, it used to be city people on one side, locals on another. But here, people come together. Somewhere along the way, the hospitality and design worlds became sort of intimidating—but they shouldn’t be. They should be about making people feel comfortable. People say they feel at home here, and that matters to me—that we’re cool; not cold.”
