The Dandé Lion says ‘farewell to retail world’ after 52 years

Owner Joann Long says ‘it’s just time’ to close the legendary shop

Some retail shops, over time, become important parts of a community’s image or identity. This is true of The Dandé Lion in Mountain Brook Village, which has operated for 52 years.

Generations of shoppers have come to The Dandé Lion to find quality furniture, home decor and unique gift items.

However, nothing lasts forever.

The owner, Joann Long, announced in October she will close The Dandé Lion permanently in late December.

“It’s just time,” Long told Village Living. “That’s what I’m telling people. It’s just time.”

“It’s time to have a new chapter in life,” Long said.

“I say that Dandé Lion and Joann Long are saying farewell to the retail world,” she said.

The news that Long and The Dandé Lion are saying goodbye elicited strong reactions in Mountain Brook.

“The Dandé Lion was one of the iconic businesses that helped define Mountain Brook Village,” Mayor Stewart Welch III said. “Everyone who lives here has shopped there on many occasions. It is always sad when any retailer closes its doors but particularly so when it’s a longstanding business such as The Dandé Lion.”

The Dandé Lion “was the go-to for wedding gifts or that special item for that special someone,” said Suzan Doidge, executive director of the Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce.

Long’s store “is a great example of the type of businesses the Mountain Brook community loves to support: local, personable and longstanding,” said Molly Wallace, Chamber project manager.

“Joann, like many of our other business owners, grew up here and continues to live here,” Wallace said. “This is far more than a workplace destination for her. Her whole life is invested in this community.”

City Councilor Alice Womack — the council liaison to the Chamber of Commerce — calls The Dandé Lion “a Mountain Brook institution.”

Womack heard about Long’s store even before she moved to the city, she said.

“Neither my husband and I were from here, but we received several wedding gifts from The Dandé Lion, so I knew this place must be a popular retailer,” Womack said. “When I became a resident, I got to know Joann through the Chamber of Commerce and her passion for serving our community through providing a successful retail shop.”

Long’s mother — Joan Conzelman Long — opened The Dandé Lion in English Village in 1969. In about 1973, her mother moved the operation to Culver Road in Mountain Brook Village.

Long was involved in the store from the beginning, helping her mother during breaks from college.

She earned an undergraduate degree in education from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, and completed a graduate degree in special education and learning disabilities at the University of Missouri in 1974.

She taught in Atlanta for five years but moved back to Birmingham in 1979 and began working full-time at The Dandé Lion.

Long and her mother “worked very well together,” she said.

“We always thought a lot the same, and we both had very good taste,” Long said.

Her mother “always said to buy things you personally like because you can sell them, and she always said love what you do or leave it, that there is no in-between,” Long told Village Living in 2014.

Long’s mother died of liver cancer in 1988, and Long became the store’s owner.

In 2018, she moved The Dandé Lion to its current space at 2416 Canterbury Road.

A commitment to customer service has made The Dandé Lion special, she said.

“We’ve always helped the customer find what they needed,” Long said. “We helped solve their challenges or if they were having a problem deciding, for example, what serving pieces they needed.”

The store is about helping shoppers by “answering questions and finding what works for them,” she said.

“Friendliness and helpfulness” are also factors in the store’s popularity, Long said.

“People have come in and said, ‘It’s because of your friendliness that I always like to come here first,’” Long said.

The aspect of the business that Long enjoyed the most is “the interaction with our customers and spending time making them feel positive about what they bought,” she said.

Long “didn’t just provide unique gifts, she provided a unique personal experience,” Womack said. “She just recently assisted me in making a floral arrangement. All I did was take her a container, and she built it out with orchids et cetera, making several phone calls to be sure she was doing what I wanted. That’s what you get with boutique Mountain Brook service and she definitely provided that.”

The store has loyal customers not just in Birmingham but in Alabama and other states, such as Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia, Long said.

Since announcing The Dandé Lion will close, Long has tried to help her longtime customers figure out other places where they can shop.

“I know their personalities,” Long said.

It’s important that those consumer dollars stay in Mountain Brook, she said.

“I want them to shop local and stay local,” Long said.

Of course, she notes that The Dandé Lion remains open through the holidays and still has “a lot of great things to sell.”

At press time, these treasures included etageres, or shelves, baker racks, dining room tables, antique books, mirrors, silk flowers, sofas and some china, she said.

The Dandé Lion will certainly be missed, said Ricky Bromberg, president of Bromberg’s jewelers in Mountain Brook Village.

However, Bromberg said he’s happy for Long “that she’ll have the opportunity to do some things she enjoys doing.”

“It’s a happy occasion, but also a sad occasion,” he said.

When we spoke to Long, she was focused on her remaining weeks in the shop, not on her future.

“I’m not focusing on that,” she said. “I have no earthly idea. It’s a new chapter.”