Vintage and Vines blooms year round in North Belle Vernon
By EMILY BENNETT DiLULLO
ebennett@yourmvi.com
When you walk into Vintage and Vines on Broad Avenue in North Belle Vernon, one of the first things you might take notice of is the sweet and semi-spicy aroma of fresh flowers combined with the tangy notes of handmade soaps and handcrafted tea leaves. The scent itself is enough to draw you through the doors of the flower and antique hybrid shop, but the warmth of owner Jean Ann Gallo is enough to make you want to stay.
Originally from Newell in Fayette County, Gallo considers herself a life-long flower admirer. As an avid gardener, she has lived a consistently flora-filled life. It was when she first moved onto land with acreage that she began to grow her own flowers and dry them as a pastime.
“I always just loved to garden,” she said. “I didn’t go to school for it or anything.”
But she did attend school for merchandising — a field of study that’s helped her run an expanding business that she’s proud of, and assisted in giving her a life where she loves going to work.
“I get to do what I love,” Gallo said. “There’s not a lot of places where you can go to work and set your own hours and love what you do.”
Gallo worked as a retail executive in Pittsburgh for years, working as a store manager, divisional sales manager and buyer for various department stores downtown. On Nov. 5, 2013, she took the leap and opened her first business on Broad Avenue — an antique co-op outfitted with 18 interior dealers.
About a year after opening her antique business, Nichols, the local flower shop, closed its doors. Gallo saw an opportunity.
She brought along some of her best antique dealers, and a few months later, moved down the street into her new shop in May 2015.
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