MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) Design Store SoHo

Just across the street from Balthazar and Sur La Table is the MOMA Design Store, SoHo outlet on Spring Street. The original MOMA Design Store across the street from the Museum of Modern Art in midtown Manhattan is one of my must-visit shops whenever I am in New York. I had never been to the SoHo outlet before so we decided to check it out. The MOMA Design store is always stocked with clever, interesting and beautiful items so it is always a pleasure to visit. Uniquely designed bowls, glasses, placemats, doodads for the home, jewelry, t-shirts, lamps, toys, etc. all make you stop and think and smile that someone has taken the design of an item just that one or two steps further. They have classic items like Aalto glass vases that they have carried for decades owing to their beautiful and functional and popular design, and new items that never cease to awe an occasional visitor to the shop. I can rarely enter this store and leave without buying something…

Surprisingly, this time around, it was Mrs. MM that ended up buying a doodad… a clever, modern and sleek tea infuser from blomus, a german firm. The stainless steel tube with perforated holes allows the tea leaves to steep and when you are done the leaves are easily discarded with a simple thumb motion. We have several types of tea infusers in the house, from the ones that cost cents to sterling silver ones, since we tend to make a cup of tea at a time these days rather than whole pots of tea (which really treats good tea leaves as it should be treated). It might seem a bit irreverent to use this modern doodad on some spectacular tea from Mariage Freres, but it did make a nice cup of tea… Oh, and I should also mention that their plastic shopping bags are rather clever, see-through on one side and opaque on the other…