New vintage and antique shop opens near downtown SLO. Take a look inside
Rhonda O’Dell said she was not meant to be a business owner. But nine years after buying her first storefront, she has a total of three vintage and antique stores around SLO County.
“Things fall in my lap,” O’Dell told The Tribune. “Sometimes I’m not even necessarily looking for something, and then, if it’s the right thing to do, it just happens.”
“It just kind of happened,” has been O’Dell’s life motto.
After working in advertising for over 25 years, she purchased the antique shop Pismo Pickers in 2017 after meeting the former owner twice and being told she should buy the brick-and-mortar in Pismo Beach.
“I’m talking to her on the phone one day, she says, ‘You should buy my store,’” O’Dell said. “Literally, that’s how it happened. I wasn’t even thinking about it, and I said, ‘Well, how much?’”
O’Dell later opened Rhonda’s Relics in Arroyo Grande in 2022, selling designer vintage at the 148 W Branch St. location.
In September, her third location, Monterey Street Vintage & Antiques, opened at 1599 Monterey St., in the spot where SLO Consignment formerly was — a “good little location,” according to O’Dell.
The new vintage and antique store is filled to the brim with trinkets, vinyl records, clothing, furniture, jewelry, dishes and plenty of knick-knacks.
“I do love the vintage look, and it’s just fun to see the old Depression glass and different things that were back from the old days,” she said. “It brings back memories, because I still tend to watch old TV shows like Andy Griffith and all these. I’ll say, ‘We have one of those in the store,’ and that show was from the ‘60s. It’s kind of fun.”
Over 20 vendors fill Monterey Street Vintage & Antiques, each with their designated corner of the store and specialty, whether in rock and roll posters, jewelry, Kodak cameras or ceramic animals.
From $1 trinkets to a $925 red chest from China, the antique store has items full of stories and past lives.
“That’s what I like about old stuff, there’s a story,” O’Dell said. “It’s just kind of neat to see how something got to where it is. We don’t always know the story, but sometimes someone sells me something and will say, ‘This was my grandmother’s, and it’s a 100-year-old piece of furniture.’ I just think that’s kind of cool.”
O’Dell said the next step for the vintage and antique shop is to host small flea markets in the back of the shop, trunk shows outside in the parking lot and fundraisers for local nonprofit animal rescues in April.
“That’s my big passion, is animals,” she said. “Even more than vintage I would say, because I just hate to see them get dumped, and I’ve been in this for a long time.”
The Monterey Street Vintage & Antiques will also celebrate its grand opening come the spring, O’Dell said, and while she is currently unsure on the exact date, she will announce all upcoming events on the shop’s Instagram page.
For more information
Monterey Street Vintage & Antiques is open Monday through Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
For more information about the new antique store, visit its Instagram page or call 805-544-5900.
