Inside the Santa Ynez Valley Magazine Winter 2002 Edition

Esau celebrates 20 years
By Leslee Goodman

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Gary Esau started his home interiors business in 1983, after tiring of the daily drive to Santa Barbara to sell floor and window coverings for Hayward’s home furnishings.

“I was fishing off the Gaviota Pier and met a couple who was finishing construction of their home in the Valley,” Gary says. “I sold them 16 sets of blinds right there on the pier.”

Esau reasoned that if he could do that well on an impromptu fishing trip, why should he go to work every day for someone else?

He set up shop in Santa Ynez, across the street from the Red Barn, specializing in blinds, shutters and upholstery&emdash;a skill he had learned at Nordic Upholstery, in Buellton.

A year later he met his future wife, Judeen, at a party. Judeen has an artistic eye and it wasn’t long until she was helping out with the business, adding drapes, valances, and custom bedspreads to Esau’s offerings. Judeen even made the custom bedspreads herself, using an oversized quilting machine that the couple kept in a spare room at home.

She kept her “day job” as a hygienist in a local dentist office, however, until she married Gary in 1987. Her first sale as a fulltime Esau Co. employee was to her former boss, outfitting his dental office with new drapes.

To this day, the two divide the workload according to their initial inclinations: “Gary handles all the shutters and blinds,” Judeen explains. “I handle all the fabric orders.”

Besides serving the Valley’s residential needs, Esau Co. has built quite a business for itself in the commercial sector, as well.

“We’ve done virtually all the schools in the Valley,” Gary says, “and almost every office building on Alamo Pintado. To tell you the truth, I don’t even remember how we got into that aspect of it. I think it was just word of mouth.”

About eight years ago, the Esaus moved their business to its present location at 1060 Faraday, where they enjoy a reputation as the oldest interiors shop in the Valley specializing in window treatments.

Although Esau Co. employed a fulltime upholsterer, Gilbert Ramirez, for 12 years, Gary gave the upholstery business to Ramirez a few years ago. Ramirez still works out of their shop, and Gary still answers the phone with a breezy, “Esau and Ramirez”

Another addition that Judeen brought to Esau Co. was her passion for Middle Eastern dance, furnishings, and accessories. She devotes a section of the shop to the display of imports from Egypt, Turkey, and India-items such as kilim pillows and rugs, exotic jewelry, fashion scarves, and other personal and decorative accessories.

Across the street from Esau Co., in Judeen’s School of Middle Eastern Dance, she sells more additional imports&emdash;mostly dance costumes, bangles, belts, and accessories.

“I’ve been crazy for dancing ever since I was a little kid,” Judeen says. “The exotic, tribal clothing fascinated me; I finally started belly dancing in 1975.”

Judeen made her first trip to the Middle East in 1989, traveling with a group of dancers interested in studying Egyptian dance and culture, as well as shopping for costumes and fabrics. She’s made many trips since, most of them on her own.

“I feel very comfortable, now, going by myself,” she says. “The people value tourism, want to do business, and do their best to make you as comfortable as possible.”

Judeen teaches three dance classes a week from her studio in Santa Ynez, as well as two classes a week in Lompoc, and two in Santa Barbara. She also spends much of her time traveling to fairs and festivals, where she sells her imports, teaches and performs.

“I make a lot of sales on the road,” she acknowledges. Although people contact her to teach and perform in their area, they are almost always interested in her dance costumes, fabrics and bangles and beads.

Valley residents, too, are fascinated by her products. “Middle Eastern carpets and kilims work very well in Santa Ynez,” she explains. “They’re tribal and rustic and look great in ranch houses. They also tie in well with Native American furnishings.”

Rustic appeal, after all, is what attracted both Judeen and Gary to the Valley in the first place.

“I was raised on a horse farm and was always into horses in Walnut Creek.” she says, referring to her hometown.

When she and her first husband came to Santa Ynez in 1980 to consider relocating, Judeen needed no convincing. Although the marriage ended, Judeen stayed, feeling right at home among her horse-loving neighbors.

Gary, too, came to Santa Ynez with his first spouse. He also chose Santa Ynez for its small-town feel and rural atmosphere.

“It just seemed like a better place to raise a family,” he says, of the decision that brought him here in 1969.

As it’s turned out, as Esau Co. goes into its 20th year, it’s also not a bad place to grow a business.