Valentine’s Day holds a special place in the hearts of Kathryn and Roberto Moya, owners of Cin Cin Goods (pronounced chin chin) in Friday Harbor. The couple first met over twelve years ago in New York City while they were both working in the fashion industry. According to Roberto they “fell in love almost immediately, got married very quickly, and we’ve been married over 10 years now.”
Kathryn moved to New York to go to school for fashion, and two weeks after she graduated she found a full-time job and was working 60 hours a week in the industry the entire time she lived in New York. “I would get home at one in the morning, go to bed, wake up at 6 am and do it again. Because I was working on runway shows for Tory Burch, Coach, Theory and small brands, I was doing runway shows then had to get up and go to China the next day, and things like that. So it was great for your 20s and to do all those fun things, but it takes a toll.”
Working in the fashion industry in New York provided the couple the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting and famous people. One Valentine’s Day the couple commissioned a famous comic book artist to draw likenesses of them, “That was really sweet, and that’s our little family’” says Roberto of the colorful artwork proudly displayed in their shop.
Speaking of family, that’s what originally drew the couple to the islands. “My mother moved here in 2017,’ says Roberto. “She told us about it. She’s got a very thick Mexican accent and she was like ‘Free-day Harbor’ and I was like, What?”
“So as I’m Googling it, and saying I think she got scammed, she came here three times in the winter, and on the third time she bought a house. She just really liked the idea of living somewhere difficult to get to. And then she told us about the nesting Bald eagles in her backyard, and so I was like ‘That is a lie. I think they’re super extinct,’ and then we came here to see it and we fell in love with it and moved here in 2018.”
According to Kathryn and Roberto, the couple wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan, and move closer to family. “That was really important to us,” adds Roberto. Kathryn was already working remotely, so the move to Friday Harbor was “perfect” for the couple.
While fashion has kept them busy, food & wine has been their true love and what has created so many special memories and relationships for the couple. “So we never had friends in fashion,” says Kathryn, “we always had friends in wine, and that’s what we’re really passionate about is natural wine. So when we saw this shop was for sale we thought that was our opportunity to share something that we love and we’ve had a lot of great experiences with.”
“My mom loved this shop (formerly Friday Harbor Chocolates) and she’s the one that led us to the shop. She would come in here every week and buy a bunch of stuff, and she’s the one that told us that it was for sale. So that’s the reason we are here is because of my mother. In more ways than one.”
For the Moya’s, opening Cin Cin is a celebratory thing. “It’s a nice thing,” says Roberto. “We really liked the idea of making this place a really nice place for people to come to in whatever mood they’re in. They come in here and it kind of gets turned around or made better in any kind of small way.”
“That’s why we call it the Good Life Essentials because we have all the Good Life Essentials here,” adds Roberto. “Like natural wine, port, really nice beer from all over the world. We have some beer from Estonia and Belgium and lambic beers and amaros and vermouths. And we also have a really nice non-alcoholic section which we’ve curated ourselves so it’s got different antigens in them, or other things, that kind of make it worth drinking that kind of stuff. It’s all really fun stuff. And so we make sure that everything in here tastes really good and everything kind of keeps up with that ethos of being very conscious about what you’re eating and drinking and putting into your body.”
