This past weekend Pilsen welcomed its third record store in a year: Shady Rest Vintage & Vinyl, at 1659 S. Throop. Owners Nuntida Sirisombatwattana and Peter Kepha, a longtime couple, officially opened the shop Saturday. They’re also longtime vinyl collectors, and knew the ins and outs of crate digging before they met. Prior to finding a permanent storefront, they’d sell their wares at record fairs—which increasingly exhausted them. “I would pretty much carry the entire store with us,” Kepha says.
As Kepha points out, each shop has its own personality, and Shady Rest specializes in what he calls “a way of living.” In addition to selling records, the store also offers audio equipment; when I stopped by Sunday, I saw a lovingly presented array of speakers, turntables, and cassette decks—there was even a portable eight-track player. Shady Rest also stocks some furniture, books, and knickknacks. “This place looks like our house,” Kepha says. “[Only] a little cleaner.”
