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This Staten Islander has a lot of common scents.
Erica Werber has followed her nose — and heart — to create a candle brand inspired by the array of everyday aromas wafting through the Big Apple.
“The idea to move forward with this happened during COVID — the city was getting such a bad rap, people were moving out, there were only negative articles about homelessness and crime, and I just felt, ‘Can we take a step back and remember all the things we love about Manhattan and what makes the city so great?’” she told The Post.
The 41-year-old former licensing executive’s first candle creation was based upon her late father, Steven Schwartz, and his affinity for roasted cashews from the city’s sidewalk carts.
After he died in 2018, she said, “I found myself walking by them more often, and I was like, ‘How do I bottle the smell?’”
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, she purchased samples of cashews, peanuts and almonds so she could create a candle that would “smell exactly like a nut cart would.”
“Times Square was dead … The vendor I bought them from couldn’t believe I wanted 10 bags. I think I made his day,” she said.
Those packets were sent to a lab and the Hot Roasted Nut Cart candle was born.
Her first batch of scented candles included one called 28th Street Flower Cart, a mix of peony and rose aromas, and another, Soft Serve from the Corner Truck, inspired by Mister Softee. She ordered 2,000 units, which she thought would last two years, but ended up selling 10,000 in nine months. The candles sell for $45 a pop.
After that initial success, she officially launched her company, Literie, last March.
To date, Bodega Coffee, which has notes of espresso and cream, is her bestseller.
“I think bodega coffee is special, because after a few times of getting coffee at your local bodega, they remember your order and sometimes your name,” Werber said. “You just walk in and they start making it and you don’t have to exchange any conversation.”
A particularly cheesy offering: Pizza from a Guy Named Joe — which statistically sells the most with people named Joe. It’s a nod to Joe’s Pizza on Broadway near West 40th Street, close to her husband Yaron’s former office.
“I feel like [at] everybody’s local pizza place, I’m sure there’s a guy named Joe who works there,” she said of the branding.
Although she does not technically take requests, when customers smell something they say something.
Some suggestions that failed the whiff test: Fulton Fish Market, pastrami sandwich, and NYC taxi cab.
“I get it because a taxi is so New York, but what does that smell like? Because to me, it doesn’t smell good,” she said.
For April Fool’s Day last year, Werber announced a gag scent called Summer in the Subway. People actually believed she was peddling a candle that “smelled like hot trash.”
Since it didn’t really exist, purchasers received a different candle, with proceeds going to New York Cares, adding, “But there were people who actually asked if we would send them the label, so we actually produced labels.”
Her next release, on April 3, is Late Fees at the Library, which smells like paper and is inspired by the New York Public Library. It replaced an earlier idea for a papery scent called I Got a Parking Ticket.
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