Allie Pisarro-Grant
Allie Pisarro-Grant
Co-Founder of Alcove
New York, NY
www.alcove.shop
instagram @alcove.shop
instagram @apg_agape
WHAT DO YOU DO?
“I’m co-owner of a specialty smoke shop in NYC called Alcove, where my husband and I curate a selection of smokeware and other fine goods hand-made with technical skill and contemporary, beautiful design.”
I’m relatively new to the above-ground “cannabis space”; my background is in publishing, museum retail, and art. I’m a painter, a cook, and generally a maker.
Currently in my role as co-owner of Alcove, which has temporarily closed in the LES and moved online-only, I wear a number of different hats. I’m the buyer, juggling incoming inventory, budgets, and researching new product. I’m the creative director, executing the vision of my co-owner and I for Alcove to be an inspiring destination for cannabis lovers. I run our Instagram, where I try to share art that inspires us alongside the beautiful products we stock.
I also push myself to do my best at the design work involved in the shop, whether it’s creating new gifs for our IG stories or the packaging for our web orders. My biggest challenge and greatest pleasure at the moment is our product photography ~ this plays a huge part in my efforts to improve the website, and it’s a skill I’m still working on honing, but I love doing it; I’ve got a simple set up in our home studio where I take the photos.
WHAT STEPS DID YOU TAKE TO GET TO WHERE YOU ARE NOW?
I took a huge leap leaving my job in the publishing world in 2018 to open the store last year. I had been employed for nearly ten years (hired right out of art school once I got to NYC in 2009) in various roles at the same company; I started as an intern at X-Initiative in Chelsea, was hired as an bookseller there, became assistant manager & then manager of the company’s bookstore at MoMA PS1, was promoted to buyer while I ran programming and popups, helped open a new location in Los Angeles, and was promoted to National Buyer before finally switching gears completely within the company to focus on the distribution side of the business, where I managed backend data for tens of thousands of books!
If you had told me years ago that all that work would have led to me opening a smoke shop I would have scoffed, but in retrospect it all makes so much sense! I understand intimately the ins and outs of specialty retail, and that’s all due to the decade of experience gained prior to this current project.
How do you stand out in your field?
My analytical and project management skills coupled with my knowledge of art and the ability to transform visual ideas into physical reality continue to serve me well in the work I am doing today.
Whether it’s designing and creating a storefront from scratch, as we did with Alcove, or crafting hot Italian sausages from grind to cure, my passions lay in my insatiable need for knowledge and love of building from the ground up. I always want to know how things work from the inside out, and for me the best way to do so is to try it myself.
WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON RIGHT NOW?
Aside from figuring out how to carry my business through the covid crisis at hand, I am teaching myself how to pattern and sew a simple linen jumpsuit, studying textile dying with natural pigments, and working on the early stages of building an a-frame cabin on my parent’s property in North Carolina.
WHAT'S YOUR STYLE/PERSPECTIVE/TASTE? DO YOU HAVE A PROJECT THAT REPRESENTS THIS?
At thirty-something, I have the advantage of having grown up on the precipice of the digital revolution. I spent an equal amount of my childhood in a tent reading books by flashlight as I did in front of a PC building a city from scratch in The Sims.
As a Painting major with an Art History minor at RISD, I gained a deep respect for the ancient roots of the handmade, as well as an admiration for the various ranks of avant-garde artists who in each succession of historical periods across the globe have used that craft/work to speak about injustice and advocate for change.
This confluence of tradition and innovation is what I gravitate towards. I tried to explore that union in my painting practice, which culminated in a series of works on natural cotton canvas. In them, I used dyes intended for use in the textile industry combined with modern acrylic mediums to create abstractions that played with the balance between control and chaos.
WE ARE ALL SLASHIES WITH MULTIPLE SKILLS, WHICH ONE DO YOU WISH YOU COULD DO MORE OFTEN?
Coding! I run our website, where I put to use my geeky 90’s HTML skills, but those stalled out at CSS & light JavaScript. I’m so out of the loop that I don’t even know what language I’d start with – Ruby? Ruby on Rails? Python? You tell me.
WHAT IS FRUSTRATING YOU RIGHT NOW?
The unknown. I’m such a pragmatist and planner; uncertainty sometimes feels like my Kryptonite. The world is going to look a lot different just a few months from now due to the economic and social impact of the covid-19 pandemic, and I already feel myself shifting and bending to explore what the implications of it will be for my own life in the greater context of upheaval and change.
IF YOU COULD HIRE SOMEONE FOR $20/HR, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE THEM DO TO MAKE YOUR DAY EASIER?
I would love to hire someone to transcribe the audio of interviews I've conducted with artists and designers, and turn it into web content ~ It's been on my todo list for too long now.
LET'S BRING OUT THE TIME MACHINE. WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU COULD HAVE TOLD YOURSELF, WHEN, AND WHY?
I would have told myself a few years ago to dance like no one is watching…I used to feel paralyzed by fear of judgement (and I still have my moments!) but I try now to remind myself that for the most part, others are too busy thinking about themselves to criticize my every move. That’s a freeing thought that helps me move forward.
IF YOU COULD TALK TO AN EXPERT TO GAIN MORE INSIGHT ON SOMETHING, WHAT WOULD IT BE ABOUT?
I would love to talk to more people who have created a sustainable business around what they love. That’s ultimately the goal, isn’t it?
WHAT KIND OF OPPORTUNITIES/PROJECTS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
I would love to work on written & visual content creation projects, research projects, IRL user experience (i.e. unboxing/branding, packaging), zero-waste implementation, brand storytelling, textile design, and product development.
DESCRIBE YOUR IDEAL JOB/CLIENT/COLLABORATION.
My ideal client shares my passion for high quality, well crafted goods and feels a moral commitment to socially responsible practices like ecological sustainability and labor workers rights; a dream job would be working for Jennifer Francis and Allice Wells at Kindred Black.
WHAT IS YOUR HOURLY RATE, RETAINER, OR SALARY RANGE?
For the moment, I’m looking to collaborate for fun and mutual gain by sharing or trading skills and time.
HOW SHOULD SOMEONE APPROACH YOU ABOUT WORKING TOGETHER?
Email me at allie.p.grant@gmail.com and just say hi!
HOW DO YOU STAY CREATIVE?
Learning new things!
This member profile was originally published in May 2020.