Charles Arena Dr. Alice Holloway Young Gerry Buckley Charles Arena Contributing Editor Melissa McGrain sits down for a chat with longtime friend Charles Arena to talk family, work, and his evolution from florist to local doyen of organic luxury living. Jonathan Rutherford
You grew up in an Italian family. Yes, in West Irondequoit. On Kings Gate Street with my sister, Jean Marie. My parents built the house when I was 3 because it was equal distance between Christ the King, where I went from grades 1 to 8, and Bishop Kearney, where I went from 9 to 12. Isn’t that funny? You are such a good Catholic. Isn’t it amazing how parents do that? What was your family like? impactful going out there. You would go through the hallway to get to the house from the garage, and there’d be cheese hanging. I mean, he made his own wine. It was like onestop shopping. You’d always leave with stuff, and she always would have more food than you possibly could even imagine. And nothing was a big deal. But, of course, it had to be. Looking back, it had to be a lot of work. But that’s just what they did, and they were cute together. They were a little round, and they 4. Four is my cut-off point. What kind of alarms are they? Just on my iPhone. But my father used to call me every morning. Whenever I needed to get up. “Chaz, son, time to get up.” “Thanks, Dad.” Isn’t that funny? Because I would tell him, “Can you call me tomorrow morning?” I didn’t trust my alarm. So he would set his alarm to call me. Scenes from Arena’s shop on East Avenue My mother was Italian but didn’t seem it. So we’d go out to my grandparent’s house— her parents—and get the whole, full dose of Italian. What do you remember most? My grandfather gardened organic. Anything from the kitchen table went into the garden. They reused plastics, and he would capture rainwater and store it in barrels because he liked the rainwater for his plants. He had a compost pile. My grandmother would make eggs, and then the eggshells went in the garden. He would graft his own trees, and there was every kind of fruit tree imaginable. It was magical. It was magical. That’s where you started. Oh my God, absolutely. That was so were adorable. Her English wasn’t great, but she was very loving. Why did you stay in Rochester, Charles? I was busy. I was just busy. Honestly, and as it turns out, I’m kind of a homebody, you know. But I also like getting away from here and looking at it from a distance, too, getting what I need and coming back and jumping back in. I do get a little goofy when I don’t get out of here. But that’s because when I’m here, all I’m really doing is working, which is fine. What time do you wake up to go to work? I start waking up at 3:30 a.m. I have seven or eight different alarms and depending on how I’m feeling and what’s on my head about the day, I’ll hit one or I’ll wait for the next one. But the latest I wake up is usually before That’s really sweet! Is there something that you do every day that you find meditative? It’s the start of the day with my cut-flower team, my flower-processing team, because I think that’s one thing in most flower shops that’s overlooked, the actual floral hygiene. Every flower in the store is handled every single day. And every vase is sterilized. The new product comes in, and it’s inspected. And I’m front and center. New product comes in every day? Every day, all day. And way before the store opens, I meet with my team. The other thing that is a part of my morning ritual is right after flower processing or just before flower processing, I always do something I don’t want to do. I get it right out of the way. Issue 9 <strong>January</strong> / <strong>February</strong> <strong>2015</strong> | <strong>POST</strong> 15
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