Mate Gallery: A Coastal Cabinet of Curiosities
If you walk into Mate Gallery in Montecito Country Mart, it doesn’t announce itself loudly. It doesn’t need to. The shop is small, but it carries a quiet authority—an eye for the kind of objects that feel like they’ve been collected over decades, not Instagrammed overnight. Vintage buoys, weathered flags, curious curiosities: the kind of pieces that make you pause and wonder about their story.
“We wanted to bring a little piece of the East Coast to California—the colors, the textures, the feeling of a house that’s been lived in for decades.”
— Matt Albiani
This is the work of Matt Albiani and Ron Brand, the same duo behind Montauk’s Sea Roost. Where the Montauk house is about light, privacy, and slow-living, Mate Gallery is about objects, memories, and the kind of tactile nostalgia that makes you linger.
From Tag Sales to a Coastal Shop
Before Mate Gallery existed, Matt was testing his eye in “tastemaker tag sales” for One Kings Lane, curating collections online, imagining how the objects he loved might fit into someone else’s home. Ron was running Hula’s, a Hawaiian-inspired shop in Montecito, learning the rhythms of retail and how a small space could feel like a world.
Together, they realized they could combine Matt’s aesthetic sensibility with Ron’s retail instincts—and that became the spark for Mate Gallery: a shop that would feel collected, personal, and unmistakably their own.
Convincing the Landlord
Securing a space in Montecito Country Mart wasn’t immediate. The landlord was skeptical of two East Coast transplants opening a tiny shop in a well-curated corner of California. What turned the tide? A quiet recommendation from Matt’s network at One Kings Lane. In 2013, the gallery opened on a month-to-month trial—and it’s been quietly thriving ever since.
Building a Brand Before Instagram Made It a Buzzword
In the early days, Instagram didn’t exist as a business tool. Matt and Ron relied on storytelling, photography, and quiet curation to share their vision. Their aesthetic was clear from the start: nautical, New England, 70s/80s coastal nostalgia—shaded by memories of Nantucket, Cape Cod, and summers long past.
There was no rush to scale, no need for a trend-chasing strategy. Every object, every display, was about creating a space that felt like home—authentic, tactile, and slowly unfolding.
Inside the Gallery
Walk in and the space encourages exploration. You’ll find:
- Vintage nautical pieces—buoys, flags, ship ephemera.
- Books, artwork, textiles, and one-off curiosities.
- Small furniture that feels as if it’s always belonged there.
The gallery reflects the same lived-in warmth that defines Sea Roost—rooms, objects, and corners that feel like they’ve been collected over time, rather than staged for display.
The Hunt: Where Stories Begin
The magic of Mate Gallery comes from the hunt. Local trips—Brimfield, Cape Cod, Kennebunkport, Long Island—bring in treasures from the East Coast. International finds, from Paris flea markets to Scottish attic sales, arrive unexpectedly, sometimes in storage units, sometimes in shipments that feel like mini adventures.
For Matt and Ron, the thrill isn’t in selling—it’s in discovering, imagining, and giving objects a second life.
Staying True in a Crowded Landscape
With the rise of coastal and vintage shops on Instagram, imitation is inevitable. But for Matt and Ron, Mate Gallery’s value isn’t in being copied—it’s in staying authentic.
“The shop has to speak with its own voice, and that comes from decades of looking, collecting, and understanding what matters.”
— Ron Brand
Their curation remains distinctive: thoughtful, nostalgic, tactile, and personal. The gallery isn’t about trends—it’s about memory, materiality, and the quiet joy of discovery.
Mate Gallery Today
Nearly 13 years in, the gallery is still small, still unassuming, but it carries the weight of a fully realized aesthetic universe. It informs Sea Roost, feeds inspiration for other projects, and continues to be a space where objects tell stories, and stories inform design.
“We wanted a place where the past and the present could meet—a love letter to coastal memory and collected lives.”
— Matt Albiani
Why It Matters
Mate Gallery is a lesson in design-led, story-driven thinking. It shows how a coherent point of view—built slowly, intentionally, and with care—translates across spaces and projects. From shop to Montauk house, the ethos is the same: tradition over trend, authenticity over spectacle, and the joy of objects and spaces that feel lived-in.
Whether you visit in person or online, Mate Gallery offers the same eye that makes Sea Roost feel like home: curated, thoughtful, and quietly timeless.
Explore Sea Roost & Mate Gallery
Mate Gallery is from the creators of Sea Roost—their Montauk home available for monthly stays. Step inside their thoughtfully curated coastal retreat and experience the same eye for design, tradition, and storytelling that shapes their shop.
Reserve your stay at Sea Roost here: Sea Roost - Montauk
Then, explore the objects and curiosities that inspire them at Mate Gallery: Mate Gallery Online
Mate Gallery is located at 1014 Coast Village Road, Montecito, CA 93108, within the Montecito Country Mart shopping area, a charming village‑style center of boutiques and cafes.
Photography by: Matt Albiani
Interior Design and Curation of the Store: Matt Albiani and Ron Brand
