Welcome to Small Batch
Gifts that mean something
A local's favorite - beautiful gifts, freshly prepared foods, delicious wines and seltzers, and home décor.
About Us
This started small. A few shelves in the lobby of our design studio in New Bern, in 2017. We'd been running a design studio, Trade Ideas - branding, websites, event planning, the whole thing - for years, and our clients kept asking us the same question: where can I find a gift that actually feels intentional? We didn't have a good answer. Nobody was curating that.
Who We Are
That's still our philosophy for the store. We look for artisanal gifts we know will be treasured - things you won't find in big-box stores. We want to meet the makers, hold the things, and curate a cohesive, beautiful collection. If it doesn't make us pause, it doesn't make it to the shelf. We've done the hunting, so you don't have to.
It started with a few shelves
So we had a friend build us a few shelves - lovingly restored from an old tobacco barn. Those shelves set the tone for the shop: handcrafted, work from the heart, beauty in its simplest form. Neither of us had run a shop before, but between us we had almost thirty years of design instinct, a strong work ethic, friendly personalities, and a feeling that a gift should mean something specific to the person opening it. That turned out to be enough.
Made by people we know
Vietri ceramics from a small town in southern Italy we've stocked for years. Candles that burn clean and have customers asking what smells so good the moment they walk in. Estelle's hand-blown colored glass, which catches the afternoon light in a way photographs never quite get right. J. Mills and Marie + Oakley - jewelry from makers we know by first name. Gourmet pantry goods, wedding gifts wrapped the way you'd want a wedding gift wrapped, and freshly prepared meals in the freezer for the evenings nobody has the energy to cook.
More of a living room
In February 2021, we moved into our current space, and it's grown into something we'd been planning for a while. There's a wine bar in the back filled with delicious wines, garden-style tables, and a large farmhouse table perfect for classes, small meetings, or friends. Our calendar is full of wine tastings, watercolor classes, Mahjong nights, cookie and cupcake decorating, baby showers, retirement parties, and just-because gatherings.
We say "the shop," but it's really more of a living room — with friends and family to fill it. Wander in on a Thursday afternoon for a present and end up staying for a glass or two of wine? That wouldn't be unusual at all.
Corporate gifting
The other half of what we do is corporate gifting - and it came back around the way we started, through our design work. Realtors, bankers, attorneys, healthcare practices, and insurance brokers across the Carolinas come to us because a client gift shouldn't feel like a client gift.
We design, assemble, and ship or deliver closing gifts, referral programs, and holiday gifts for companies large and small. We curate each collection and hand-pack every gift — custom packaging, branded cards, and well-designed stationery.
Come see us
We're located in Greater New Bern, NC, on Trent Road. We're open Tuesday through Saturday most weeks (Tuesday through Friday in the summer) - but check the website or call the shop if you're coming from out of town. We're happy to meet before or after regular hours by appointment.
Not local? We can wrap and ship anything in the shop, and we'll write a personalized card on your behalf if it's a gift.
— Shannon & Ann
