The Team Player

December 23, 2014
The first thing you see when you enter Pete Silletti‘s office is the company logo. If you don’t recognize the “you’re in good hands” corporate art, it is spelled out in huge, shiny silver letters: Allstate. Pete owns the Allstate office on 23rd Avenue. Pete’s profession is about helping people in need. He sells auto, home, life and business insurance. What he likes to think of as peace of mind. Clients only contact him when disaster strikes — the car crashes,…

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The Re-Rooted Florists

December 16, 2014
There’s not enough room in Teddy’s Florist for the plants and the people, so George Stelios starts moving the flowers to the street. George has always been in the flower business. He apologizes for the inconvenience. For three decades, he had worked in a much larger and more prominent space. Teddy’s Florist, which sold its first bouquet in 1922, was a 31st Street landmark even when he and his sister, Clare Petropoulos, bought it in 1984. Before buying Teddy’s, Clare worked…

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The Tree Santa

December 9, 2014
Up against the snow-white fence, there’s a pile of Christmas trees, trussed up like Thanksgiving turkeys. Harry started NYCtrees.com last season. In the opposite corner of the mini-backyard, there’s a box full of table-top trees, their tender emerald needles reaching toward the holiday sky. They are hemmed in by stacks and stacks of evergreens everywhere, everywhere, everywhere. NYCtrees.com is based on 21st Street. Standing in the center of this forest of Fraser firs is Harry DeLucia,…

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The Man in Transition

December 2, 2014
There’s nothing ordinary about Clay Nelms‘ story. So don’t let the stereotypical musical-style synopsis fool you: Small-town boy with big-city dreams comes to New York because he’s gotta sing and dance. Clay Nelms was Broadway bound. Spoiler: Clay didn’t make it big — or small — on Broadway. Don’t let that get you down; he doesn’t. What he ended up doing is far more interesting and surprising, even to himself. Clay, a towering tenor who talks…

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The Rx Man

November 24, 2014
The old wooden floor creaks, and Harry Xidias smiles. He finds the sound comforting. Harry owns City View Pharmacy. When he hears it, he knows he’s home. Home is City View Pharmacy, the business he founded nearly a decade ago in a building that’s old enough to be his grandfather. Harry, sanguine and solid, looks up at the tin ceiling. It, too, carries the weight of time. He could have covered it with acoustic tile, but he painted it welcome white instead. “City View is all about…

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