‘You just keep thinkin’, Butch. That’s what you’re good at.’— Sundance Kid to Butch Cassidy (from the movie of nearly the same name)I’ve got another million dollar idea! A Canadian cuisine restaurant! The food would be very similar to American, just more expensive — or maybe less, depending on the current exchange rate. OK, this is an over simplification. After all, there is back bacon and Molson beer. Actually, there would be quite a few things to give it that special ambience, and I think I would choose the ’70s as a theme.A large part of this would be a result of décor and employee training. Your host/hostess would greet you with, “How’zit goin’, eh?” Here comes your waiter on hockey skates. Did I mention that the floor would be an ice rink? All the help would wear color-coded toques (those knit caps). They would need them. The temperature would be displayed on a huge thermometer and would be kept at minus 10 degrees Celsius. Any American who could translate this to Fahrenheit would get a free dessert. I am pretty sure we would not be giving out many of these.Even before entering, your experience would begin. Snow-making machines would keep the parking lot in a perpetual state of whiteout. Search and rescue dogs would escort you to the front door, if you’re lucky. The waiting area would be set up to look like a customs checkpoint so that the long delays would feel natural. Aromatherapy machines would provide the odor of wet wool. There could be a drug-sniffing dog to play with. We would have specialized dining rooms, too, like the French Canadian section, which would be separate, of course, where the waiters would pretend not to understand English.There would be a single table in the back of the main dining area with a TV/VCR player for the Canadian Football League fans — both of them. We would show tapes of the best games — both of them.Another separate room, that you would have to know the password to get into, would be the old Underground Railroad Room from slave days, converted for draft refugees. When it came time for the check, it would be in Canadian currency so that you wouldn’t have a clue what you were actually being charged. You would do what Americans always do when in another country; hand the waiter a fistful of money and trust him to take the right amount. I believe this is what the restaurant business refers to as a profit center.Don’t get me wrong. I am just poking fun here. Some of my best friends are Canadians. Funny, though, I haven’t heard from any since running this idea past them. Bill Abrams resides in Pine Plains, a little town he likes to consider just a wee bit south of the Canadian border.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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