“Chatting with Sally between courses about marmalade made me very happy,” says Troy Chatterton. Sally as in Sally Clarke—the UK’s answer to Alice Waters—whom Chatterton flew to London to meet and receive several books for his new East Village shop, Wild Sorrel Cookbooks.
“After lunch, I crossed the street to pick up my big green Sally Clarke bag that was beautifully packed and waiting, filled with Sally Clarke’s Book and First Put on Your Apron. I love being able to offer Sally’s books to my customers,” he says.
Chatterton, 57, who has worked at the beloved West Village book shop Three Lives and Co. for 14 years, opened Wild Sorrel in April. Its wooden shelves hold both new and old cookbooks (and a few from local heroes, like Patti Smith) as well as some rarities. Roughly split in half between new and old, cookbooks like Maida Heatter’s Pies and Tarts can be found in a section labeled “Pie.” Meanwhile My Paris Kitchen by David Lebovitz turns up in the “French” section, which is near a section labeled “Ina Garten.” There’s big names, like Ina, and Alice Waters and Alison Roman, but also utter rarities and one-offs sitting happily next to celebrity cookbooks (Dave Letterman’s mom did one).
Sitting on a bench built between shelves, and with the same wood, a browser might be approached by Olive, Chatterton’s border terrier, who often greets with a bark. “Olive, we’ve talked about this,” says Chatterton, offering her a treat.
“I always knew I wanted the built-in benches so that people would have a place to sit,” he says. They’re upholstered with a fabric Chatterton gave his partner, Sam Wilson, for Christmas two years ago. “I didn’t know Sam could make cushions. He made them in a day. The fabric was made by Vanessa Bell [sister of Virginia Woolf]. Virginia Woolf had her favorite reading chair covered in this fabric. That it’s in this shop is wonderful.”
At his old job at Three Lives, there was a portrait of Woolf at the cashier. His version: a drawing of Alice Waters by Chatterton’s friend, the painter Timothy Hull. Next to it, a drawing of a shallot by Waters’ friend Patricia Curtan. With his friends Max and Kaori Wang, the husband-and-wife team of Max Wang Studio, they built, painted, and decorated every inch of the sunny shop by hand.
The space is an ode to Chatterton’s own interests (cooking, certainly, but also art, ceramics, and floristry); to the neighborhood (the Superiority Burger Cookbook, and East Village Cookbook are bestsellers); and to his travels (there’s plates from a potter in Woolwich, Maine, where Chatterton goes in the summer). Fashion, too (next to the register there’s copies of Charlie Porter’s What Artists Wear).
Chatterton moved to New York from his hometown of Dayton, Ohio, in 1992 to become a fashion designer. When he couldn’t get into FIT, he ended up in a fabric shop, and then in casting at Condé Nast before his lifelong love of books brought him to Three Lives in the early 2010s.
Chatterton thought he’d work at Three Lives “until the end,” he says. But one day, walking home, he couldn’t shake the idea of having his own shop that was an expression of his interests.
“I love to cook. I love to go to the market. I love to read cookbooks. I’ve loved meeting the many cooks over the years that have come through Three Lives.” He raised $70,000 with a Kickstarter, asked his friends for help, and, after a seven-week build, was ready to open his doors in April.
But first, London, where he went to find books not only from Sally Clarke but from chef acquaintances who are also collectors, like Jeremy Lee of Quo Vadis. “He has such a generosity of spirit, both in the way he talks about food and the way that he cooks, and just who he is,” Chatterton says. He had told Lee about Wild Sorrel over email, and Lee invited him to Quo Vadis.
“Suddenly, in came Jeremy, and we had just a great night. Halfway through dinner, he got up, went to coat check, came to the table with a bag of books, all from his mum’s home in Scotland. And right there at the restaurant, he kind of gave me the backstory of each book.”
Chatterton brings not only those books but that same generosity of spirit to Wild Sorrel. Stop by the shop and ask him about a book, or the art, or his ceramics. He’ll share their story. Olive, too.
🔖 Wild Sorrel Picks
AMMAZZA!: Culinary Adventures from New York to Italy and Back Again by Hillary Sterline
Sungold Tomato Salad with Castelvetrano Olives & Fennel Pollen
Cake From Lucie: Recipes and Techniques from the French Countryside to New York City by Lucie Franc de Ferriere
Cardamom Polenta Rose Water Bundt Cake
WILD SORREL COOKBOOKS
332 E 13th St, New York, NY 10003 (East Village) | @wildsorrelcookbooks
