Your Friendly Neighborhood
Physical Therapist
Phil Serras and Rodney Ramirez,
owners of Triboro PT on Astoria’s
24th Avenue, were both born in
Queens; they both studied physical
therapy in the Netherlands; and
they both returned to Queens with
the eventual goal of opening and
operating their own practice — a goal they
realized 12 years ago last month.
But, despite the fact that their stories are
so intertwined, their serendipitous meeting
didn’t occur until they’d both returned
to Queens from the Netherlands. They had
graduated around the same time and met at
their first job as physical therapists, when they
started working at a practice in Forest Hills.
“When we met each other, we realized
that we both studied physical therapy in
the Netherlands at the same time, in the
same program, but were at different campuses
in different cities,” Serras said. “We
immediately hit it off and became friends
and started hanging out and always talked
about opening up our own office.”
After they worked at the Forest Hill practice
for about seven years, they decided to
take the leap. With the help and guidance
of fellow physical therapist Alex Sherman,
who had recently opened up his own office
in the Bronx, Serras and Ramirez opened
Triboro PT — and they’re still going strong
12 years later.
According to their website, their practice
specializes in all orthopedic and neurological
disorders, including post surgical, back
and neck pain, sports injuries, balance and
gait disturbances, work related injuries, automobile
injuries and more.
The two were drawn to the Netherlands
for largely similar reasons, not the least of
which is the quality of physical care that the
Dutch are renowned for.
“When I started applying to physical therapy
programs I saw that there was this program for
38 APRI L 2 0 1 9
American students to go study physical therapy
in the Netherlands and upon graduation
come back to the USA and work for an agency
here,” Serras said. “The Dutch are very well
known and respected in the field of physical
therapy and manual therapy.”
“I first found out about the program in the
Netherlands from an advertisement in a PT
journal that I saw while working as a physical
therapy aide in Forest Hills,” Ramirez
explained. “The program sounded like it
was a great opportunity to study in Europe,
get a great education, as well as do some
traveling.”
But when it was time for the two to settle
down to a career in the United States, neither
had any doubt that they wanted to return
to Queens.
“Being born to Greek immigrant parents
and growing up Greek American, Astoria
was always the Greek capital outside of
Greece,” Serras said. “As young kids, we
always came to Astoria to visit family, go
shopping with my parents at the Greek grocery
stores, butcher shops, and bakeries. I
remember coming to Astoria Pool as a kid
with my summer camp.”
As a teenager and young adult, Serras has
fond memories of watching cool cars drive
by Astoria Park and visiting Greek cafes, restaurants,
bars and clubs in the area.
“I always loved Astoria from a young kid
until now,” he said. "Today I love the diversity
you find in Astoria along with the influx
of the young people who have moved in,
which has led to the opening of so many
great restaurants, bars, cafes and stores.”
And given that their practice has been going
strong for over 12 years, it seems that
Astoria has responded well to Triboro PT.
“Opening up any business is always a
challenge and can take a while to be successful
or can also fail in a short time,” Serras
said. “I think the fact that we have been
MIND + BODY
By DANIEL GROGAN