High, There! Cannabis Dispensary Alto Greets Nabe With Italian-Infused Hospitality

From: DowntownNY.com

Lower Manhattan’s first legal cannabis dispensary is here, and it’s a family affair.

Alto, which opened at 100 Chambers St. in September, is a labor of love run by five siblings from Little Neck, Queens. With an assist from their mother and father, the whole operation is a family business, and when you’re here, even you feel like you’re a part of the clan – everything from the decor to the overall vibe is warm and welcoming. 

“Working with my family has been great, but also the whole industry, the neighborhood too,” co-owner Stephanie Savocchi told the Downtown Alliance. “We’ve been really well-received, and we feel very blessed, honestly.”

Alto means “high” in Italian, and the siblings — including Stephanie, Nicole and Daniela, who were interviewed for this piece — chose the name to honor their Italian heritage, specifically their Italian-born father. When the siblings were young, their father was arrested on a cannabis-related charge, which eventually made him eligible for the state’s Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensaries license designed to give justice-involved New Yorkers a leg up on the new legal weed market. After their mother heard about the program on 1010 WINS, the siblings, who had long advocated getting into the legal cannabis market, saw their window. 



The Chambers Street shop looks different than other dispensaries. Instead of keeping the goods under sterile glass cases, products are colorfully displayed on shelves lining the walls, and flowers brighten the space with streetlamp fixtures adding a classy touch. The front of the store doubles as a flower shop — the other kind of flowers.

“We want it to feel like it’s more of a homey vibe,” Stephanie said. “Other dispensaries maybe seem a little clinical … We want to steer away from that.”

That means that instead of being met with a wall of touch-screen kiosks to take your order, customers are directed to a real person (often one of the siblings) who can provide consultation and guidance (and there is still one kiosk, for the shy). 

“We help them with every purchase, asking the right questions, figuring out what they need,” Stephanie said. “And most of the time, they take our recommendation.” 

Alto will soon offer more than just retail. The storefront was previously a dive bar that shut down during the pandemic, and the upstairs still has a bar space that the dispensary will be using for events, including educational and brand pop-ups. 

So far, the shop’s success has encouraged the Savocchi siblings to get even more involved in the budding business. Stephanie plans to leave her 20-year career in the hair care industry to work at the shop full time. Another sibling recently left a corporate career in veterinary medicine to join the team. Though, as is the case with most families, not every moment is paradise. As the Savocchis work out the kinks of new business ownership — and, crucially, how to work with one another — each day brings at least one in-family spat, Daniela says. 

“But then we ask each other, ‘What are you having for lunch?’ ” she said. “And everything’s swept under the rug.” 

And as for their father, who’s the reason for the shop in the first place? Nicole says he’s a big fan and a frequent visitor. 

“He comes here to just putter around all day,” she said.