16 | BOROMAG.COM | APRIL 2015 BODY & SOUL REDKEN Salon SALON Story & PHOTOS BY BRADLEY HAWKS Redken Saloon Salon is a well-known spot on Astoria’s Grand Avenue--otherwise known as 30th Ave. Named a saloon because of the prolific wall of technicolored bottles, its staff specializes in extensions, as well as coloring—from highlights to lowlights to every color of hair imaginable. The result is a sleek salon with exposed brick walls, polished concrete floors, and a versatile staff devoted to perpetual training and education via on-site training from Redken. Women and men arrive—and more importantly, leave—with smiles as wide as the Mississippi River. On one visit, a stylist walked around the salon humming to a child whose mother was getting her tendrils wrapped in foil. Another time, a customer hugged her stylist after her final glance at the mirror. It is a salon full of skillful and talented stylists who miraculously maintain a welcoming atmosphere where all feel welcome. That sort of a culture and engagement from the community doesn’t merely fall from thin air. It demands a very special type of leadership, drive, ambition, and charisma. Owner Frank Arcabascio got his first barber’s chair in 1976 from his cousin, Joseph Giannola. “Astoria was a nice neighborhood then,” he recalls, ”not as built up, with a lot of empty storefronts on Astoria Boulevard.” His cousins started buying buildings around the barbershop, when the prices were very reasonable. “And now there is Basil Brick Oven Pizza, BZ Grill—there’s even a Starbucks, and now Sussex Bank. I really think that area between the train station and the park is the next spot to be.” But Arcabascio left that territory to his cousins. In 1982, he opened his own salon on Steinway, upstairs from what is now the Mini Star Diner. Over a decade later, in 1993 he finally ended up in his present location on 30th Avenue. Due to his passion for the community, he naturally soon became the President of the 30th Avenue Business Association—a torch he recently passed to Chris Giannakas, the co-owner of Ovelia. “Everything I learned about meetings,” explains Arcabascio, “and why I took it on, was from being a member of the Kiwanis,” which is a global volunteer organization. “I tried to bring an element of that in, developing scholarships for local schools and awarding plaques and certificates to local businesses.” “I think the coolest thing we did was start a restaurant week,” he recalls of his time in charge of the association, which represents three hundred fifty stores along the avenue. It was originally created, however, to fund the Christmas lights along the avenue between Steinway and Crescent. Though he no longer heads up the business association, he remains committed to serving the neighborhood. “Right now, we are doing a fundraiser for Lupus, collecting donations for a walk in the beginning of May,” admits explains Arcabascio, “and that idea came from my staff.” With a staff of twenty-two stylists, colorists, and cutters he finds a pool of an endless wealth of terrific ideas. A salon where you can get your hair cut or extended, colored, washed, and even contribute to a local charity? That’s the kind of business the community should never cut out. 36-17 30th Ave, As tor ia, NY 11103 (718) 956-3366 www.redkens aloon .com
BM042015
To see the actual publication please follow the link above