Paper Doll Boutique is rising from the ashes. It has been two months since a devastating fire tore through the heart of Sayville’s business district on Main Street, but on Christmas Eve, an important announcement was made.
“We have been granted the best gift of all. An opportunity to continue our business and secure a new location in Sayville!” Paper Doll Vintage Boutique owner Dominique Maciejka wrote on social media.
Her new store will be located at 106 Railroad Avenue, not far from her popular former headquarters but now closer to the Sayville train station. However, that’s just one of the amenities Maciejka boasted about in her Instagram post.
The store has private parking, eliminating the need to cruise for an open spot. Maciejka plans to utilize this space for trunk sales and other events.
“The store may be smaller, but we will make it grand,” she writes.
Since the fire, Maciejka has operated from a pop-up shop inside Sayville N Spice, who gifted Paper Doll space, allowing them to recoup some lost holiday sales revenue. Maciejka will continue business at this location through late January and then make preparations for her new shop, which she hopes to open in March or April of 2025.
Boris Barber Shop, another shop gutted by the October 25 blaze, also chose to reopen on Railroad Avenue. The thoroughfare intersecting with Sayville’s Main Street has grown in popularity recently, heralded by the 2023 opening of Tiny Raccoon Books. However, Maciejka considers the 106 Railroad Ave. location a “stepping stone” rather than a final solution.
“We lost our entire inventory in that fire and need to start again,” said Maciejka in a telephone interview with GSBN. “I have people I want to keep employed, and this new storefront will give us a no-stress place to operate without time pressure until we can reopen on a larger scale.”
In the meantime, her soon-to-be new neighbor, the Sayville Theatre, is hosting a Paper Doll Vintage Boutique fundraiser on January 25, and Maciejka says she is looking forward to creative collaborations with the institution.
Maciejka also owns Paper Doll Curiosity Shoppe on East Main Street in downtown Patchogue. In early November, she filed a $4.5 million lawsuit claiming negligence against her former landlord, the owners of Café Joelle, for the fire that damaged eight businesses last fall.
