Photo by Cheryl Gerber

Bryan Batt has done as much for Magazine Street as the television show Mad Men has done for the revival of all things from the sixties. “Magazine Street is unique because almost every store is individually owned by an interesting person,” he said with a smile as he sat in his secret garden behind Hazelnut, his shop in the 5500 block of Magazine Street. “It is all about the way the owners run their business and how much they love what they do.”

No doubt about it, Batt is a cheerleader for Magazine Street. When he and Tom Cianfichi, his partner, decided to open a shop in New Orleans, Magazine was the street they both selected. “Hazelnut is a perfect fit for the street,” he said. “We carefully, personally select everything we have in our shop, and we both love to meet the public.

Battt wasn’t surprised when readers of Country Roads selected Wirthmore Antiques as their favorite shop from his list of five. “It’s an amazing shop with some of the most unique antiques you can find anywhere,” he said.

Then he hastened to tell about his long friendship with Gay Wirth, the owner of Wirthmore. “After landing my first Broadway show, I put down a deposit on an apartment in Manhattan, which was small but had great bones: high ceiling, decorative moldings and gracious proportion. Fresh out of college, I had few possessions—a framed telegram from Helen Hayes welcoming me to Broadway and a poster of a Hans Hofmann painting.

“I decided my living room needed a tall, imposing French provincial armoire and it wasn’t hard to for me to decide what to do. I simply called my friend Gay and explained what I wanted. Soon the perfect eighteenth-century walnut armoire was shipped to New York, and it has had a place of importance in every place I have lived over the years.”

While Batt has cut a wide circle of success on Broadway, on television and in personal appearances, there is no mistaking his love for New Orleans. “My roots are here … in New Orleans,” he said. “Although we keep an apartment in Manhattan and live bicoastal, I love owning a shop and a home in New Orleans.”

Probably best known for portraying Salvatore Romano on AMC’s award-winning Mad Men series. Batt has also written two books; his newest is Big Easy Style: Creating Rooms You Love to Live In (in which Wirthmore Antiques is frequently mentioned). The other is She Ain’t Heavy, She’s My Mother, a tribute to his mother Gayle Batt, who passed away last year.

Wirthmore Antiques
3727 Magazine Street
(504) 269-0660
wirthmoreantiques.com

Hazelnut
5515 Magazine Street
(504) 891-2424

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