The neighborhood’s first legal cannabis dispensary has opened on Chambers: Alto (I was slow on the uptake but of course it means “high’ in Italian) is among the 190+ dispensaries now open in the state and about the 35th in Manhattan. They opened on August 31 and will host an official grand opening on Oct. 10.

The state gave priority to both people with convictions from past marijuana crimes and women and minorities with business experience, and the family behind Alto checked both those boxes. The Savo Group that holds the license includes Guido and Sandra Savocchi, who raised their five kids in Queens, and those now-grown children: Stephanie, Nicole, Daniela, Sarah and finally Andre, the baby at age 30.

Guido was convicted of possession in the late ’90s, and the event threw the family into a tailspin. He lost the deli he owned in Queens and then wasn’t able to find work. “You don’t have too many options after that,” Andre noted. So the family toggled and Sandra went to work and Guide stayed home as the full-time dad.

Fast forward to 2014, when Andre is on probation for selling (the charges in that case were eventually dismissed). He and his mother head out to San Diego when the city announces they are going recreational, but since the pair has no ties in California, it becomes too tough to pull it off. So then when Sandra heard on 1010 WINS that women-owned businesses and people with marijuana convictions would have priority for licenses, she organized the family to apply.

“We literally won the lottery,” Stephanie said.

Andre is full time at Alto, but everyone else in the family is keeping their day jobs — for now. Sandra is an office manager for a construction company in Queens; Stephanie works in business development for a national hair care company; Nicole works in veterinary medicine on Long Island; the other sisters are also in sales (I met three out of five in the store the other day).

“We are very close and we really enjoy working together,” Stephanie said. “We always wanted to start a family business. And we all know customer service.”

I am not a cannabis consumer, so I will leave it to comments to tell me how the product looks (and feels). But the plan is to make it an upscale shopping experience with high-quality “flower,” the vernacular these days (not bud or pot or weed). Hence the speakeasy flower shop false front. There’s a guard at the door and absolutely no marketing in the windows — just a small description on the overheard sign and a QR code on the door that takes you to the state’s cannabis dispensary verification page.

They sell pens, gummies, drinks, tinctures, edible sugars that you can cook with — they sold out of pre-rolled joints in the first five days of opening. And it’s not easy to get supplies. The state requires that dispensaries source from in-state manufacturers, and Andre says those producers are having trouble keeping up with demand.

“We are fully stocked now and we get new stuff every day, but the variety is not really there and there is also short supply,” he said. New York has partnered with some big California manufacturers to train folks here, so they can carry some of those brands. Selling out on the joints was a surprise, but it’s helped them understand demand in the area.

Since cannabis is still not legal on a federal level, national banks will not allow credit card sales at dispensaries. So the business takes cash (there’s an ATM inside) and debit cards, where the sale rounds up to the closest $5 and there’s an additional 3.5 percent service fee. No surprise: So far sales have been split 60/40 in favor of cashless.

Andre scouted locations around the city — he lives in Hell’s Kitchen — and looked at dozens, but wanted to be Downtown. The Patriot, they said, was a mess — “it’s like they were coming back the next day and just never did,” Nicole said — but it’s cleaned up ok (the upstairs is just for employees).

As a start-up, it saves on staffing costs to have all the sibs helping out — it truly is family owned and operated. (Everyone in there except the security guard is family, so when you stop by, likely you are talking to a sib.) The hope is the business could eventually support the six families.

“We are not going to be the next Rockefellers but we can probably do well,” Andre said. “We’re definitely going to try.”

Alto on Chambers
110 Chambers | Church & West Broadway
info@altocanna.nyc
Monday to Thursday 9a to 9p
Friday and Saturday, 9a to 11p
Sunday, 9 to 5