The storefront is painted pink and blue, which makes it the easiest building to describe on Binghamton’s West Side. Inside, whole-bean coffee is sold by the pound, there is a jewelry case, a counter that buys unwanted gold, and — from January through prom season — racks of formal gowns. That is not a marketing concept. It is what forty-plus years of one independent storefront in New York’s Southern Tier turned into.
Tom Kelleher opened the business in 1982 as a gourmet coffee and crafts shop in roughly 300 square feet, and moved 1,000 pounds of coffee that first year. Local news covered the store passing a cumulative one million pounds sold. For the 40th anniversary in June 2022, a section of Main Street was closed off for a chicken barbecue and live music, and Mayor Jared Kraham marked the day with a proclamation.
The dress registry is the part worth knowing
Every gown sold is recorded against the buyer’s high school, and no one else from that school can then buy the same dress. For a school like Binghamton High, with about 1,290 students in grades 9 through 12, that is a concrete promise rather than a slogan — it is the difference between shopping here and ordering from a website that has no idea who else in Broome County clicked the same link.
When WBNG covered the 2023 collection unveiling in January of that year, the store had more than 700 dresses in stock in sizes 0 through 30, with special orders available through its designers for anything not on the floor. Buying for the season starts the previous May, at fashion shows around the country. Kelleher told the station the shop is “honored to be a part of that process.”
- Verified brands: Clarisse and Dave & Johnny. Both list this store on their own retailer locators.
- No appointment. Walk-ins try on gowns; help is one-on-one rather than a booked fitting slot.
- Homecoming too, not only spring prom.
- Listed hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Nine at night on a weekday is the useful detail here — a trip after practice or after a shift is possible. Call ahead in March and April anyway.
One street, three towns
Main Street in front of the store is NY 17C, and 17C stays Main Street the whole way through Johnson City, Endwell and Endicott, where it runs past Union-Endicott High School. A family in Endicott or Endwell can reach 184 Main Street without ever getting on the expressway. Heading the other direction, 17C bends east past Binghamton High School at 31 Main Street — same street, same 13905 ZIP, under a mile away — and ends at Front Street. Recreation Park and its carousel are a few blocks off Main to the west.
Mall shopping in this valley means Oakdale Commons in Johnson City, the 1975 enclosed mall now partly being redeveloped into apartments and child care space. Past that, the nearest large-market alternative is Syracuse, 73 miles up I-81, about an hour and fifteen minutes each way before anyone tries on anything. A dress store you can reach on a surface street, with evening hours and no appointment, is a different kind of errand.
The obvious caveat: this is a gift shop that also does prom, not a dedicated bridal-and-formal salon with a wall of fitting rooms. Anyone who wants a two-hour appointment with a stylist and a seamstress on staff should ask what is available before driving in. Anyone who wants to look at 700 gowns on a Tuesday evening and buy coffee on the way out is in the right place.