Tucked into a cozy corner of Riverwest, The Polish Flat is less of a store and more of a neighborhood treasure hunt. Run by Celeste Carroll and Gigi Kliesmet, the pop-up vintage and antique shop opens just a few days each month.
When the doors swing open, you can find retro clothing, quirky knick-knacks, handmade art, and fresh local baked goods that make the space feel more like a community hangout than a typical thrift stop.
What started with Instagram posts and backyard rummage sales has evolved into a brick-and-mortar shop on Fratney Street where neighbors gather, stories get swapped, and old objects find new life.
Check out the rest of our Q&A with Celeste and Gigi below!
How did The Polish Flat get its start?
The Polish Flat is a vintage, antique, and thrift shop that operates on a pop-up basis. We are open a few days each month, typically on Saturdays and Sundays (and a few Friday nights!) that we announce at the beginning of each month.
We feature antiques, retro clothing and jewelry, quirky decor, interesting knick knacks, handmade art, practical household items, and even fresh local bakery during each popup. We like to say we are “curiously uncurated” because we don’t want to take ourselves too seriously. We want our store to feel like a treasure hunt in your own neighborhood! We also occasionally host community events, fundraisers and workshops in our storefront.
The two of us (Celeste Carroll and Gigi Kliesmet) actually met for the first time at the Riverwest Rummage Sale almost four years ago! A few months after that, our paths crossed again when we found ourselves working in the same office in downtown Milwaukee, doing marketing and graphic design. We found that we shared much in common, from being Milwaukee-born and raised to loving this city’s amazing architectural history to being able to go antiquing for hours on end (lol). We both grew up thrifting with our families and having a curiosity for Milwaukee’s past. The Polish Flat grew from this friendship!
Our business grew organically. We started with local markets and posting to our friends on instagram, then eventually had a booth at the Riverwest rummage sale (the biannual block party and community rummage sale run by Art Bar, just down the street from our storefront) where we got hooked on curating and interacting with friends and fellow vintage fans. This turned into our own backyard rummage sales, then, with a bit of luck, our brick and mortar shop on Fratney and Chambers that grew out of a spontaneous lease signing two years ago.
How long have you been in business? Have you faced any major challenges with growing your business or any triumph stories?
We’ve been operating some form of “the polish flat” for 3 years, from instagram to backyard rummage sales to our brick and mortar shop which officially opened in December 2024.
Highlights:
Realizing that we have the power to create the community we want to see more of in this world. We wanted to create a space for people in Riverwest to gather and get to know one another along with all the other really amazing, thoughtful, creative businesses in the neighborhood. It’s important to give people these opportunities, and to continue supporting our small businesses especially with the recent closures of beloved Milwaukee businesses this last year.
Celebrating one year of our brick and mortar shop in December!
Organizing Blueberry Fest with our Riverwest neighbors, Seven Swans creperie, Ebb & Flow and Eucalyptus and Co. It was hugely successful and brought together food, art, and vintage sellers to our little block in riverwest. We even got to go on the news to talk about the event! We’re in the planning phase of Blueberry Fest 2026 and can’t wait. We love having events that invite other creators and small business owners to get involved.
Hosting fundraisers for organizations important to us in our space, our first group art class and workshop, transitioning from backyard markets to brick & mortar shop, and building an awesome community corner in Riverwest which includes Seven swans Creperie and eucalyptus & co. You can find coffee, crepes, bakery flowers, art classes and vintage goods all in our little corner.
We’ve gotten to know our community and neighborhood so well and that has been really rewarding. It feels nice to be contributing something to Riverwest that creates joy in the hard times we see a lot of today.
Challenges:
Navigating how to run our own small business, from the back end to social media. The sourcing for the shop is the fun part– the accounting is the hard part. Neither of us had a lot of experience running a full on brick and mortar shop, and sometimes we still feel like we’re getting the hang of it even though we do love it! People’s support has always made it worth it, though.
What is The Polish Flat, and why did you feel it would be a good fit in Milwaukee?
We get this question all the time! A Polish flat is a mulitfamily home, with the units stacked on top of one another instead of side by side. Built in the 20th century in Milwaukee, typically by Polish immigrants, families with limited means would build a home, and then when they were financially able, their community would come together and raise the cottages up on posts to build a second living space or unit underneath.
The beauty of this arrangement is that it enabled families to end up with both a home and a modestly priced rental apartment unit for their extended family or neighbors– it balanced affordability and quality.
The cottages were designed to be flexible with an immigrant family’s needs while leaving room for families in this city to grow and flourish in their neighborhoods. Most of the remaining Polish flats are found in cities with working class roots, like Chicago and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, especially in the Riverwest neighborhood, and they’re a really beautiful piece of our history. They’re a testament to how resourceful and creative these folks were in building up their lives, families and entire community.
Milwaukee has always been home to us and the people who live here are fiercely passionate about their community. You can see that in our city’s unique architecture! Today, we’re used to people in our city painting their polish flats fun colors, tending to their surrounding gardens, or hanging out on the porch with neighbors. Our historic buildings remind us of Riverwest’s roots and where we came from in the same way that antiques tell stories about the people who once owned them. Gigi and I have always appreciated this unique architectural feature in the city, and they remind us of home and our family roots. Many of our friends and family currently live in polish flats, though we understand the irony that our brick and mortar shop isn’t actually in a polish flat (it’s in a 1910 cream city brick triplex, which we also love 🙂
What’s the mission behind The Polish Flat?
Preserving and sharing stories about our communities and our city by creating a place for folks to be curious about old things. We hope The Polish Flat will inspire people to keep learning about our collective past and invite them to have conversations about the people, stories, architecture, and historical gems that make Milwaukee and the Midwest so unique. Our goal is to provide our community with a space to meet their neighbors, share stories about old things, and decorate their lives.
We have an interest in community oriented events that shift resale focus from big corporations to small, local organizations and people.
We want to give people options to keep their money local and their purchases environmentally sustainable. When you buy items secondhand, you’re giving them a second (or third or fourth) life and keeping perfectly usable items out of the landfill.
We believe in accessible pricing that allows people to decorate their lives (from their homes to themselves) sustainably and with variety. We try to keep our prices as affordable as possible.
What is it like being a small business in MKE? If you’re a woman, minority, or LGBTQ+ owned business, please feel free to touch on your experiences as an entrepreneur in that space as well.
Being a small business owner with a brick-and-mortar shop is all new to us. We’re learning every day! We are LGBTQ- and women- owned and are proud. We’re lucky to have been able to continue growing our business, and we are grateful to our community for their support. Riverwest is such a welcoming place. People seem to be really excited by what we’ve created– it feels like folks were itching for new spaces and experiences in Riverwest that not only let them treasure hunt for antiques but allow for walking around the neighborhood on a Saturday morning with a coffee in hand and a friend in tandem.
Our community has really shown up for us and we are so grateful. We’ve found that people are eager to stop by their favorite neighborhood spots to get to know others, catch up with friends, purchase a knick knack or 2 and keep their money local. Our neighbors are always out and about on walks with friends or dogs. Our neighbor down the block plants a beautiful flower garden along Fratney Street every summer– you can tell that people care about the neighborhood.
What do you like about being in Milwaukee?
Milwaukee is a diverse community with a wide array of unique neighborhoods and communities, all with their own unique stories and backgrounds. We love Milwaukee’s rich history and architecture– there’s a lot of that here. The working class roots of this city give Milwaukee a very layered, unique personality and character. Like any place, Milwaukee has a lot of room to grow, but there are a lot of things we can learn from here and there are people willing to try and make this city better through community, creativity and determination.
Gigi and I’s families have deep generational roots in this city. Both of our Polish grandparents grew up in Riverwest just blocks from where The Polish Flat currently is. It feels really special to be so attached to your home city and to share that love and history with other folks who are curious to learn more.
Riverwest holds on to its history in the small businesses, the architecture and homes, and most importantly the people who live here– we’re reminded of this every day in our 115 year old storefront that was once a grocery store and butcher shop. In Milwaukee, you find a lot of people with deep ties to the city. We learn new things about different neighborhoods all the time from our customers!
What’s your favorite part about what you’re doing?
Meeting our customers and making new friends, seeing the joy on their faces when they find something that speaks to them. Sourcing an item and knowing someone will absolutely love this or that it will remind them of something from their childhood. Knowing the joy a trinket will bring to someone’s day as a gift for a loved one or for their own home. Creating a space for people to get to know their neighbors over wine and snacks and thrifing at one of our events. We’ve realized that the most rewarding part of this job is seeing how this space brings people together.
Is there anything you look for when sourcing antique or vintage items?
Items with a story. Finds made from quality materials, with a type of craftsmanship you just don’t see in the modern age. Objects with local ties– Victorian postcards from Wisconsin cities, glass bottles from Milwaukee’s brewing history, vintage type setting drawers from the Hamilton Wood Type Company in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Old handmade quilts, brass with character, handpainted art that makes us think about who created it, pieces with woodgrain that you can tell have seen many decades! Vintage items that inspire creativity and joy in the everyday.
What can people expect when going to The Polish Flat?
A knick knack you didn’t know you needed. Something that makes you experience nostalgia. Fresh in-house sourdough bakery from Heidi of Rise by Rose. The good company of friends and your community. A solid playlist with music that matches the mood of the day. Space to sit out front and hang out and meet your neighbors. We’ve noticed that folks in our neighborhood will be on their daily walk and often pop in just to say hi with their dog in tow (we’re dog friendly!) Our mailman comes in and hand delivers our mail on our market days. Moms and daughters will come in and make a Riverwest day trip centered around our market days. It feels very old school and special.
Anything else we should know about your business or anything you’d like to mention? Any favorite stories or finds?
Something that was very special to us was receiving a letter in the mail last summer from a woman named Marion. The envelope contained a hand written note and old photos of our storefront and building. Marion explained that her father and grandfather, as well as her extended family, ran the original butcher shop in our storefront nearly 100 years ago, from the 1920’s through the 50’s.
She remembered being a kid and running around the shop and apartments in the building, and hanging out with her aunts and uncles in the apartment units. Marion came to The Polish Flat on one of our market days and we gave her a full tour of our shop as well as an apartment unit.
You could tell she was so excited to revisit a piece of her childhood– She told us that the last time she had stepped foot in the building was 1947, which blew our minds! She’s got to be in her late 80’s now. We treasure the photos of our storefront– Seeing the sawdust floors of the storefront, men with big mustaches, and old fashioned outfits is fascinating. The same tin ceilings we have now are right there in the photos from the 1920’s. Those ceilings have seen a lot of Riverwesterners in their life!
We’ve since become pen pals with Marion and invite her to our events. She lives south of Milwaukee now, but we love staying in touch with her– she’s got a lot of stories to share. We still get chills thinking about how special an experience this was. Her original letter and photos are framed next to our cash register and customers always enjoy taking a look at it.
After Marion’s family’s butcher shop, another grocery store operated in the storefront for a few more decades. After that, it was a frame shop and an art studio until we moved in. Apparently, people really like running their businesses out of 2974 N. Fratney, because this corner has seen businesses operating for decades here! If you have more details about our storefront, Riverwest, or your family history in the community, let us know! We always enjoy discovering the secrets of Riverwest’s history.
We love running The Polish Flat– it’s truly a dream job. Who knows if we’ll be open more often throughout the month in the future– we like how spontaneous our events feel as we run them now. It allows us to keep our offerings and events feeling fresh and exciting. You can stay up to date with us on our Instagram @the.polish.flat, on Facebook and on TikTok. We post upcoming market dates, new finds, sneak peeks, and stuff we find interesting about Milwaukee and its history online. We hope to see you at the Flat soon!