We’ve long loved 50th and Xerxes, the south Minneapolis vintage and antiques hotbed, for afternoons spent treasure-hunting in stores such as Hunt and Gather, Loft Antiques, and A Rare Bird. And so has Julie Melendez, a vintage dealer who nabbed a spot selling at Loft nearly a decade ago after she brought in a particularly stunning pair of brass candelabras she found in a trash pile to sell in the shop (yes, that’s really how she got her start!).
“I love Loft and that whole community. But I wanted more space,” Melendez says. “I was in the lower level, and I was getting furniture stuck! At least twice, I brought things down there and had to bring them right back up.”
And then late last year, almost like kismet, a former hair salon space on the southwest side of that same corner opened up—and Melendez jumped on the opportunity. She opened Vintage J.A.M. (the initials represent her full name: Julie Anne Melendez) in November and almost immediately filled the space the way she had been dreaming of…