D’Errico Jewelry, Mount Kisco
By James Miranda
When Salvatore D’Errico was 17 years old, his older brother, Richard, asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. Salvatore was working at a pizzeria and thought he’d open one himself.
Instead, his older brother asked “You want to work with me?”
Richard D’Errico was working in Manhattan as a diamond setter’s apprentice. He was handy and had a way with tools, more so than his younger brother. But Richard showed Salvatore the tools and taught him the basics of his craft.
The brothers began working on a bench in the bedroom of their Bronx home, fixing jewelry for family and residents in the neighborhood.
That work turned out to be the foundation for D’Errico Jewelry.
“We need this dynamic to do this business,” said Richard D’Errico, whose parents worked together in a bakery. “The key to that is that we have two different jobs: I’m a mechanic and he’s more in design and sales.”
The D’Errico brothers opened the Westchester D’Errico Jewelry locations in Scarsdale and Mount Kisco in 1998 and 2007, respectively, after they moved the business from the Morris Park section of the Bronx. Both current stores take on an identity of their own.
The Scarsdale store serves as the factory where the jewelry-making process takes place. There’s a constant buzzing from saws and the noise of compressed steam. While some custom work is done in Mount Kisco, the East Main Street location is a more intimate setting.
Both offer custom jewelry design, which is D’Errico Jewelry’s specialty, along with selling diamonds, engagement rings and wedding bands. Being able to take out-of-date jewelry and repurpose it to a customer’s liking is much of what the brothers do and is a part of what they call a “renaissance” in retail.
“We found a niche and a service that no one else is providing,” Richard D’Errico said. “The previous generations have very large, very different, out-of-style jewelry (compared to today) and that stuff is in the families being passed down. We’re able to pull that apart, take the gems and the metal and turn it all into something contemporary.”
The process starts with a sketch and estimate. A customer and craftsman sit down to sketch out what the piece will look like and settle on the cost. The next step is bringing it to life through a 3D print and using that image to cast the actual jewelry, a method called lost-wax casting.
Finally, they polish the jewelry and set gems or diamonds.
Half of their customers come in for repairs, custom orders and refurbishing, Richard D’Errico said. The ability to create custom jewelry has allowed D’Errico Jewelry to give back to the industry through apprenticeships and philanthropic endeavors such as creating pieces for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
“We’d never knock anyone, but if you go into other jewelry stores there’s a lot of nice folks inside there that are well dressed and they’re smart but they’re buying and selling jewelry,” Salvatore D’Errico said. “They’re not working on it, they’re not servicing it. I always say that when you come into our store it’s a different feel. It’s like Santa Claus with the elves.”
D’Errico Jewelry is located at 159 E. Main St. in Mount Kisco and at 509 Central Park Ave. in Scarsdale. The Mount Kisco store is closed Sunday and open Monday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday 1 to 6 p.m.; Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday 10:15 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Thursday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Scarsdale location is closed on Monday and open on Tuesday 1 to 6 p.m.; Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Thursday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
For more information, call 914-864-2688 (Mount Kisco) or 914-722-1940 (Scarsdale).
