A Day In Round Top With Double Shot of Sass

Hailey Daniels and Kailey Fletcher of Double Shot of Sass do Round Top at full speed: coffee by 8:30, a tightly edited shopping list, no time for lunch, a cooler of ice-cold Cokes in the car and one very firm stance on wagons.

There are people who approach Round Top with an itinerary, then there are Hailey Daniels and Kailey Fletcher.

The duo behind Double Shot of Sass knows where they’re going, who they’re stopping to see and, perhaps most importantly, what not to waste precious shopping time doing.

Lunch, apparently, is negotiable, too many finds to discover. “We’ll eat at dinner!”

A wagon? Absolutely not. They joke to Round Top Finds, “It slows us down," and just run finds to your car.

A shopping list? Also unnecessary.

Instead, their version of Round Top is built around instinct: a few places they return to every show, friends who have become part of the experience and whatever happens to “tickle our pickle” along the way.

It is fast, funny and refreshingly uncomplicated. Their day starts around 8:30 a.m.

COFFEE, THEN GO

If they’re staying at Hotel Lulu, Hailey and Kailey grab coffee from the bar or walk over to Mill Street before heading out for the day.

The order depends on the weather.

When it’s chilly: a dirty chai.

When Texas inevitably reminds everyone where they are: an iced matcha with 2% milk, sugar-free vanilla and a little honey.

Then they shop, and while Round Top rewards wandering, the pair has learned that trying to do everything can actually get in the way.

Their advice for someone with only one day?

Prioritize The Compound and Marburger Farm.

“We don’t recommend bopping to several properties.”

It may be one of the more useful pieces of Round Top advice. Pick a few places. Actually shop them. Leave enough room in the day for something you didn’t plan.

First is The Compound, and there is a very specific reason.

Their friend Lauren Shapiro of Shop Shapeau has her shop there, selling one-of-a-kind jackets created from authentic heirloom quilts sourced around the country.

“If you do anything at all, you stop to see her.”

They call themselves her “#1 hype girls,” and one of Shapiro’s quilted jackets is also among the pieces they believe you shouldn’t hesitate over when you find the right one.

Next comes Marburger Farm.

“A treasure trove of wonder.”

It’s where they visit favorite dealers including Throw Midland and Milagro Collective, and, according to the pair, inevitably find something they can’t leave without.

And then there’s Blue Hills: “so much to see and always great vendors.”

Three destinations. Plenty of ground to cover.

No need to turn the day into a race down Highway 237, and enough time to really explore their favorite spots. 

Ask Hailey and Kailey for the place more shoppers should know about and their answer comes with five exclamation points:

Tang Dynasty at The Arbors.

They already own roughly a dozen pieces and intend to keep adding to the collection.

That’s perhaps the best kind of Round Top endorsement. Not something admired once for a photograph, but a dealer whose pieces have actually made their way home, again and again. Tang Dynasty has everything from lamps to chinoiserie.

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Anyone who has lost track of time along Highway 237 can relate to this answer. Favorite lunch stop?

“Who has time for lunch when in Round Top? We will eat at dinner!”

Instead, there is another essential waiting in the car:

a cooler full of iced-down Coke.

If they need a mid-afternoon reset, they’ll head upstairs at Boon & Co. for a glass of wine around 3 p.m.

For a proper cocktail, it’s a lemon drop at Il Cuculo.

Then it’s right back to it.

Take It All In

What Hailey and Kailey love most about Round Top has very little to do with getting through a checklist.

“Time just slows down in RT.”

There is time for a conversation with a shop owner. Sunsets at Bader Ranch. Friends. The people they have met through years of coming here.

Asked about the best thing they’ve ever found, they don’t name an antique.

“We have found some really gorgeous things over the years, but it’s the friendships that we’ve made that have become like family [that] are the true treasures of our Round Top adventures.”

One memory captures it particularly well.

They were at a designer dinner honoring Mark D. Sikes and Aerin Lauder. It began proper and beautiful, dinner was served, and then the lights went down.

“It was an absolute party!!”

That juxtaposition feels particularly Round Top. Beautiful things and dirt roads. Serious design and a cooler full of Coke. A proper dinner that unexpectedly turns into a party.

Ask the pair to describe Round Top in three words and their answer is:

“Magical Time Machine.”

Maybe that’s also why they resist over-planning it.

Their advice for newcomers starts with a joke “Take a Valium and calm down,” but what follows is surprisingly good advice:

“Seriously, take it in! Let the wind blow you down Highway 237 and you will be absolutely amazed," and don't leave home without a measuring tape in your purse. Even if they don't have a wish list, they always have a measuring tape in their bag for the moment when something suddenly appears in front of them on their "wish" list.

And perhaps the best instruction of all:

“Have fun, buy the chair, and enjoy the hunt. Don’t get so tied up on what everyone else is doing, you will find your favorites!”

That feels like the perfect to note to end on, because a good day in Round Top isn’t necessarily the day you saw the most or followed the latest and greatest guide.

It’s the day you found your places. Heading to Round Top for Fall Show, you may find this dynamic duo catching a sunset at Bader Ranch or finally resting their feet and fueling up for the next day with dinner at LuLu's.

A DAY IN ROUND TOP WITH…

A Day in Round Top With… is a recurring Round Top Finds series asking the designers, dealers, collectors, creatives and characters who know Round Top well to show us the place through their eyes, where they shop, what they order, what they’re hunting for and the places they return to again and again.

Instagram: Double Shot of Sass