When hair stylist and Pravana trainer Stacie Kowalski first received a phone call asking if she would be interested in opening a hair salon in developer Rocco Termini’s Houk Lofts, she wasn’t quite sure what to think of the offer. While Stacie had been in the hair industry for 22 years, she had never operated her own hair salon, and she wasn’t sure if she was up to the task for a couple of good reasons. She had a young child, and she was the Northeast trainer for an exclusive line of hair care products called Pravana (a boutique hair care company out of California).
So what did it take for Stacie to jump onboard with the project? Two words. “Grote Street”. “It’s the street that my grandmother grew up on… and then my mother… and then me,” Stacie reminisced. “We owned our house on Grote until just three years ago. When I learned that Rocco had developed a property right down the street from where I grew up… all of that history… I knew that I needed to give the opportunity a closer look, so I accepted the offer to go and see the place, which at the time was a real mess as it was being developed. But I still believed in the neighborhood and I knew that this was going to be a good development. When we moved out of the neighborhood it was mainly due to being a slave to a 100 year old house. Not a day has gone by that I don’t think about the decision we made to sell… especially now that I’ve opened Salon in The City.”
Even though Stacie has been gone from the neighborhood for three years, she has somehow found her way back, set up in a beautiful industrial loft style salon in a rebounding neighborhood, where her clients can come and get pampered with services and products that are unique to the salon. “It’s amazing how this all worked out,” she continued. “If it weren’t for the memories of the neighborhood, and the fact that three times a year I offer training sessions to stylists who come from Boston, NYC, Toronto, etc. Plus I already have a built in clientele here in Buffalo, the Houk building turned out to be everything that I needed, and I suppose I wanted. Right now it’s just me at the salon, as my customers acclimate to the new surroundings, but after the first of the year I will be hiring staff to work here with me. This urban chic salon and retail space has three stations, and along with Mike Andrzejewski’s neighboring “Ink,inc” high-end tattoo salon, the combo provides a “heaven & hell” themed anchor business corner to the 100% filled living loft building (behind Papa Jake’s on Elmwood and right around the corner from CooCooU, and Wegman’s). This redevelopment project is also part of the old FWS Complex project which is currently being reconverted into a hotel, catering hall, and business office site and will be the future home of Buffalo Spree Magazine.”
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Salon in The City | 316 Grote St., Buffalo, New York 14207 | (716) 479-0217
Services: Haircuts, color, texture, styling, Remy hair extensions