Eat, Pray, Love, Shop

Italy, India, Indonesia … New Jersey? Readers of Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling Eat, Pray, Love may be surprised to learn that the latest chapter of the author’s life is unfolding in Frenchtown, New Jersey, where this past May, Gilbert and her husband, jewelry maker Jose Nunes, opened Two Buttons.

Hidden on a winding road behind a rusting Airstream trailer, their warehouse-y store is a trove of handpicked treasures from the couple’s travels in Southeast Asia: Silk-screened Vietnamese political posters from the 1970s bump up against chubby Buddhas and Javanese “tax evasion boxes” with secret compartments. “I was trying to describe the store, and I came up with, ‘If you want to come to a place that has absolutely nothing you need … ’” Gilbert says. “It’s like the opposite of Wal-Mart.” Also unlike Wal-Mart, the hours are whimsical: Check Twobuttons.com for the schedule.