Tutti — the Italian word for “all,” as well as the philosophy behind Mel Andrel’s new storefront at 105 Abeel Street — is for all and everyone.

Andrel was born and raised in New Jersey and is intimately familiar with the machinations of growing up in an Italian-American household. After her grandmother passed away three years ago, Mel was mourning her loss while working part-time selling prints of her art and as a freelance graphic designer. During that time, she uncovered her grandmother’s handwritten recipes, scrawled in her scratchy script on low-quality postcards — many of them fraying and half legible.

It was after this that she decided to embark on the world of stationery, starting with her signature tomato sticky notes, and eventually forming the Mel Andrel brand. She realized that stationery was the path she wanted to structure her small business around.

“I was bringing my childhood to life through my products,” Andrel said.

After living in Portland, Maine, for six years, Andrel began to feel that the city’s distance from New York was limiting her brand’s ability to grow. Many of the retailers now carrying her products were based in New York City, making the distance increasingly challenging. With Kingston’s easy commute to the city and the available space on Abeel Street, Andrel and her partner Pete packed up and moved to Kingston six months ago.

Tutti opened this past July and functions both as a way for people to discover the Mel Andrel brand and as Andrel’s studio space where she makes her products.

When stepping into Tutti, the playful, fun energy evoked in Andrel’s products is amplified in the space with other curated, unique, small-batch products similarly themed to food and Italian culture. These items from other companies include various food-shaped candles (think lemons, oranges, asparagus, bread and butter), specialty chips, mustards, olive oils, a variety of cook books and, of course, pastas and tomato sauces.

The store is an experience all its own — delightfully kitschy. Andrel’s products include her sticky notes, now available in a variety of designs, including oysters, lemon slices, croissants, shrimp, and more. The collection also includes notebooks, keychains, greeting cards, matches, paper clips, stickers, tea towels, metal trays, washi tape, hats, and patches.

Andrel fondly describes her style as “a food brand you can’t eat.”

“We really resonate with food writers, cookbook authors and chefs, people who are focused around food more than just being stationery or gifts. We like to be playful and use bold colors and I hand illustrate everything we make,” Andrel said.

The hand-drawn, personal touch comes through in all of Andrel’s products, as well as in the work of the makers she carries in-store. It’s a deliberate pushback against the increasingly prolific use of AI in graphic design — a medium Andrel was trained in and continues to use extensively throughout her brand.

Andrel is in her early-30s and reflected on owning a small business and how she went from working a 9 – 5 with an educational background in anthropology to owning and operating her own business full-time.

“My partner asked me if I wanted to make art full-time, but I thought there’s no way I’d make enough money doing that, I didn’t think it would be profitable. But I’ve proved myself wrong.”

Like any small business owner, Andrel often puts in 90-hour work weeks, but she believes in her brand and dedicates herself to it fully. “If you treat your passion like a side project it will always be that,” Andrel said.

Three years ago, Andrel was packing orders in her basement with a single shelf of products. A year later, she moved into her first studio space; now, she has her first storefront and more than 700 retailers around the world stocking her products. Andrel attributes much of that growth to her indefatigable nature.

Even with an entire storefront and studio space in the back, Andrel has already outgrown her studio as the brand continues to grow. She is now working toward finding a new space exclusively for her studio, which would allow her to expand the storefront into the back section of the current space.

Besides finding a new space for her studio, Andrel is also looking towards expanding her table wear section, taking a twist from strictly stationery to being more of a “food lifestyle brand,” and finding products she can create that fit within that mold.

Happily, Andrel reports that business “has been really good since we opened.”

“It’s such a unique shop for the area,” she said, adding that “we’re building something really special… I think Tutti has the potential to be a great place in Kingston so I’m excited to get the word out and get more people in the doors.”

At the end of the day, everything comes back to Andrel’s “Nana,” who she still holds close to her heart throughout this journey. “It’s about food and feeding everyone and making a place for neighbors to gather like my Nana did.”