Smoking a joint with your siblings is a sacred teenage tradition, something that bonds you across clouds of smoke—a furtive secret you all keep from your parents. For the five Savocchi siblings, it seemed an innocent enough past time during their childhood in Queens. But it was also prequel to their eventual entry into New York’s adult-use cannabis industry.
Now, on the streets of Tribeca, locals, tourists, and medical patients alike can stop and smell both the literal and cannabis flowers of Alto dispensary. It’s quite literally a family affair—siblings André, Stephanie, Nicole, Daniela, and Sarah, and parents Guido and Sandra man the ship and tend the bar, even as most of them juggle day jobs (for now).
“It’s been a wild ride to get here.”
Nicole Savocchi
The five siblings smoked together, but their parents were hip too—it was Guido’s cannabis arrest in the ‘90s that qualified them for the license, though the interest had been there for years. Sandra was the first to alert the family after hearing about the passing of the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act in 2021.
“I heard it on the radio going to work,” she says. “When I heard that this program was available, I’m like, ‘this is for us.’ Right away, I phoned André, and I said, ‘I just heard this, this and this. It’s going to be a difficult process I hear, but we have to do it.’ And he ran with it.”
André is the baby of the family, but he’s the driving force behind Alto. He’d delved the deepest into the cannabis world, including research in other states, and is the only sibling full-time at the store. During its intense renovation, he donned a white hazmat suit and got his hands dirty.
“At times, it definitely kind of feels like we’re building a plane as we’re flying it, just trying to navigate this new landscape. To now be open, we’re all just definitely happy to be here and be a part of the Tribeca community. There’s definitely a unique synergy and chemistry in our work.”
André Savocchi
He also curates the store’s menu, which includes multi-state brands like Wyld Gummies, Kiva Confections, and Select vapes as well as local hits like MFNY concentrates and Umami flower. The menu has to reflect all the multitudes of New York, just like the shop’s environment.
Customers waltzing through Tribeca’s artsy alleys won’t find anyone not named Savocchi on the floor by design. It should feel like coming to your cool family friend’s house, whether you want something to liven up your evening or have a need for something medicinal.
If you don’t partake, you can still buy the other kind of flowers in the front of the store. Alto’s Tribeca shop also has a second-floor space that will one day (Office of Cannabis Management permitting) become an events and consumption lounge.
Until then, if you’re in Tribeca, why not stop in and smell the flowers?
“I think when we’re all together, we’re not workers. We all have that level of dedication. People walk in, they’re like, ‘Oh, this feels so nice here. This definitely feels like a family vibe,’ even before they even know we’re family. They can actually feel that energy.”
Stephanie Savocchi
