For the past 26 years, LuCretia Sisk has been the sole owner of Room Service Vintage, one of Austin's most beloved and acclaimed vintage stores. However, the store announced August 6 that Sisk will be handing the vintage reins over to a new owner, Audrie San Miguel.
San Miguel is best known as the co-owner of South Congress store Prototype Vintage, and has been in and out of Room Service, both as a shopper and employee, for nearly three decades. In fact, she was the very first employee back in 1999 when Sisk took over ownership of Room Service from original owner and founder Patsy Rocker.
The store was founded in 1981, when Rocker transformed a North Loop pharmacy into one of Austin's first vintage stores. From its earliest days, Room Service has offered an eclectic mix of vintage furniture, decor, clothing, and rare finds for everyone from college students on a budget to discerning vintage collectors. Upon retirement in the late 90s, Rocker passed the torch to Sisk, and now Sisk passes it along to her protégé, San Miguel.
Room Service has been Austin's funkiest vintage shop on North Loop since it opened in '81. Photo courtesy of Room Service
“I met Audrie way back in 1999. Soon after, I hired her as my first employee," said Sisk in a press release. "When she opened her own shop, I knew she would make it a success. Twenty years later she has proven herself to be an excellent businesswoman. Having been a regular Room Service customer for 30+ years, she knows what it is that keeps customers coming back. It’s more than just the constantly-changing inventory[;] the store has a sense of humor and an ‘accessible-to-all’ atmosphere.”
San Miguel will continue the decades-old tradition of keeping this store female-owned and operated, but that's not to say she won't be making some big changes.
The first big change is expanding the operating hours. Having been open from noon to 6 pm, the store will now be open earlier and later, from 10 am to 8 pm.
The second change is expanding the already 4,000-square foot store's retail space by about 400 square feet.
"As a customer of over 30 years, I just really wanted more of a good thing," San Miguel explains to CultureMap. The store's old layaway space, as well as some storage space, will be converted. That means knocking down some walls, and expanding "in phases" over the next couple of weeks, to give customers more room to shop.
"Back in June there was a flood that sort of put [the expansion] in hyper speed," San Miguel says, describing how during the very meeting where she told employees about the change in ownership, a sudden flash flood swept through the store, drenching everything and ruining the floor. "Because of the flood, in that moment, so many of the changes [we'd already laid out] had to happen super-duper quick."
But even with this super quick expansion of store and longer hours, it's important to San Miguel that Room Service maintains the character of North Loop, one of the "last remaining truly Austin neighborhoods," she says.
As for Sisk, she'll continue to sell her items — now in a larger space — and according to San Miguel, she's excited to have more time to do what she loves the most: "treasure hunting."
"LuCretia and I always just got along really well, from the beginning," San Miguel says. "At that time she was managing, selling, and working, and I told her, 'If you need any help at all, I'm here; I want to do it.' And so my life took a drastic turn from that one interaction. Everything I know about resale came from LuCretia mentoring me... And here we are 26 years later."
"It's really a full circle moment for me," she concludes.
To celebrate these changes, Room Service will host an open house on August 30 with a DJ, special prizes, and drawings. It will be free and open to all; guests are encouraged to bring friends and family to shop along to the beat.
Room Service is located at 117 E. North Loop, and now, is open from 10 am to 8 pm daily.
