Meet Brass Unicorn Vintage, Old Town Temecula’s New Nostalgia-Filled Gen-X Haven

TEMECULA, CA — Somewhere between the vintage cat-show ribbons, old paperback novels, vinyl records and authentic backstage passes to a jar full of unused matchbooks, visitors to Old Town Temecula’s newest vintage shop, The Brass Unicorn Vintage, may experience an unexpected sensation:

Wait. We had one of those.

That is exactly what Kathy Vinole, owner of The Brass Unicorn, is hoping for. The store has been open for almost one month and in that time, she's kept up with her vision of inspiring "remember when" conversation.

The independently owned vintage and antiques shop at 42050 Main St., Suite A— across from The Merc and In Bloom Bookery romance bookstore—takes an intentionally eclectic approach to resale, mixing vintage clothing, records, books, paper goods, jewelry, art, collectibles and pieces that resist easy categorization. Yet under the owner's careful eye, everything makes sense.

But Kathy describes it more simply. "These are items from the past, looking for a future," she says. Everything inside is "nostalgic, fun and definitely homey, comfortable,” she said while walking Patch through the store.

Then there is her unofficial description. “It's my menopause project,” she said, laughing. “I think I’ve always wanted my own shop, but I just never knew how to get there."

The opportunity emerged after the previous tenant, The Boulevard Emporium, moved its operation to Fourth Street Antiques. The Brass Unicorn LLC was formally filed in California on June 8, with the Main Street address listed as its principal place of business, according to business records. And with that, the hunt was on for the perfect items and displays for the store.

Interactive Storytelling

On Wednesday, Hey Grrrl Collective and The Brass Unicorn Vintage teamed up to host their inaugural Collage Chaos event. The pair will greet guests to create Classic B-Movie-inspired posters and prints in a mixed-media style. On the menu, including the collaging skills and burgeoning creativity, were charcuterie, refreshments and "epic tunes!"

This is the first of many such events to do what Kathy hoped when she opened her doors: create community.

A Vintage Time Warp

The Vinole family worked on the walls, the floors, and, yes, the air conditioning to give the vintage space the look and feel she wanted. Natural light became part of the plan.

What emerged is less a traditional antique mall and more a walk-in memory bank.

Bookshelves are filled with memorable titles from the 60s through the 80s, from Roots, Valley of the Dolls and The Thorn Birds.

Stacks of vintage records are easily browsed through, as are newer pressings, old sewing and yarn pieces, postcards, paper ephemera, vintage ribbons and curiosities that Kathy tends to find by searching the places other estate-sale shoppers overlook.

“(At estate sales, I'm) the one that’s in the room with the desk and the stationery and the paper clips,” she said. “I’m going through the drawers while everybody else is looking for, like, the diamonds. I look for the paper clips and the rubber bands. I’m looking for the postcards or the paper.”

One item in the shop: oversized World War II-era cigarette rolling papers.

Another: signed music memorabilia, including a Carly Simon copy of Anticipation, Kathy said.

Then there are the Tom Petty backstage passes.

“Oh, those are real,” she said.

And when you go, remember to snap up what sparks a memory. You'll rarely see the same merchandise twice.

So Why ‘Brass Unicorn Vintage’?

The name began with Kathy’s own collection.

“I’ve collected brass unicorns,” she said. “I started with one. Then I got another one.”

When she began thinking seriously about opening a store, she walked into her house and noticed one of the brass unicorns.

“Yep, that’s it,” she remembered thinking.

There was another bit of inspiration: the Brass Armadillo antique-mall name.

But for Kathy, it had to be the unicorn.

The Temecula shop should not be confused with a long-established metaphysical retailer with the same name in Fresno.

A Shop Built Around ‘Remember This?’

Vintage and resale shopping has plenty of established territory across Southern California, but many successful independent stores distinguish themselves through highly specific identities.

In Fullerton, Retropolis specializes in curated vintage clothing spanning decades, with shoppers particularly drawn to its ’80s, ’90s and Y2K-era apparel.

At Timeless Vintagentage in Old Towne Orange, the specialty tilts toward men’s vintage clothing, streetwear, band tees, Carhartt p,ieces and an unusually deep selection of throwback sports and soccer jerseys.

San Diego’s North Park neighborhood has Day to Day Vintage, where hand-curated clothing spans roughly the 1940s through the 2000s, with Americana, workwear, streetwear, and Y2K pieces among its specialties. The shop also organizes a recurring vintage market.

And in Palm Springs, Revivals Stores - Palm Springs mixes clothing, vintage furnishings, housewares and other secondhand finds with a charitable mission supporting DAP Health — making shopping there as much about community fundraising as treasure hunting.

A recent LAist guide to Southern California thrifting highlighted increasing specialization, pointing shoppers toward stores for everything from curated Y2K clothing to sports jerseys and Coachella Valley resale finds.

The Brass Unicorn Vintage enters that landscape with a different specialty: recognition.

Kathy wants customers to stumble across something they had forgotten existed.

A lamp their parents owned.

A novel that sat on the family bookshelf.

A record someone played repeatedly.

A concert t-shirt you wished you'd bought.

An old piece of stationery, ribbon or kitchenware that can unexpectedly drop a shopper back into another decade.

“It’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, I haven’t thought about—’” she said.

Patch’s first walk through the shop produced that reaction repeatedly.

“Some stores you walk in and you don’t want to touch anything,” I told Kathy during the interview. “But this looks like it’s like a living museum.”

Kathy wants people touching things.

Some fragile paper goods remain protected in plastic, she said, but if someone wants a closer look, she will pull them out.

More Than A Place To Shop

The bigger goal is community.

Kathy wants to host local artists, crafting workshops and events about twice a month, including junk-journal classes using vintage papers and ephemera. On Wednesday, she'll open the doors to make that dream a reality with B-movie-inspired collages.

“I want to work with the community,” she said.

She also hopes to organize a community hygiene night where residents can bring items such as toilet paper, feminine hygiene products, diapers, wipes, and deodorant for distribution to people in need.

The motivation comes partly from wanting to share more beauty and fun in the world.

“I think there’s just been so much ugliness in the world,” she said. “A lot of ugly that people are tired of.” She hopes this shop becomes a place where people can simply enjoy each other. And perhaps sell enough of those oddities that she gets to do what every vintage dealer secretly loves most:

Go looking for more.

“I want everybody, like, come on in, look around, tell me your stories,” Kathy said. “Let’s just start talking.”

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