WASHINGTON HEIGHTS − When newcomers shop at Fort Washington Florist, they get more bang for their buck than just a pretty bouquet.
They also make a new friend.
Owner Betty Zafiros personally greets every patron who walks in the door and delivers customer service that smacks of small-town living, despite the store’s location on the bustling corner of Broadway and 181st Street.
“You gotta go that extra mile,” said Zafiros, 60, of running the historic flower shop that originally opened in 1917.
For her, running the shop is the realization of a childhood dream. Zafiros said she remembers watching her father run his own flower shop in Forest Hills, Queens, and telling herself she would do the same one day.
She finally achieved that goal in the late 1980s, after helping her family run the popular Riverdale Diner on Broadway and West 238th Street for years. Now, 23 years later, she is the neighborhood's go-to person for everything from simple flowers to household plants and more lavish floral arrangements.
“She’s the best,” said customer Bill Lewis, a Washington Heights resident who stopped in to thank Zafiros for a recent arrangement she made. “She’s generous, sweet, delightful, and she knows her stuff.”
Andre Soriano, who stopped by the store last week with his mother-in-law, Aminta Bertoni, to order a bouquet, said nobody in the neighborhood can compare.
“She is really amazing,” he said in a mixture of Spanish and English that was spoken between his mother-in-law and Zafiros, who is Greek. Zafiros said she quickly learned Spanish when she first opened.
“Nobody told me I would need to know Spanish when I got here, but running a flower shop here means having a dictionary in the drawer and learning how to say 'hola,'” she said. "We have such a great mixture of people in this neighborhood, they make for a great salad."
The personal touch means long hours at the shop for Zafiros. She typically works 14-hour days, followed by private consultations with brides at a local coffee shop or restaurant, where she gets to know her client so she can deliver a special arrangement that doesn’t just come off the shelf.
“I like to sit one-on-one with the brides. I want to meet them, see them, get an idea of who they are so I can make something special for them,” she said.
Weddings and funerals are a big part of Zafiro's work, and she typically makes arrangements for about two to five weddings per weekend, plus additional events. Word of mouth has meant her flowers have adorned events throughout the city and metro area.
“When you are a good florist and someone calls, you have to go out of your way to make sure they are happy, even if it sometimes means not making money on the order,” she said. "It’s all about pleasing my customers.”
Although Zafiros’ shop counts a steady stream of customers, even in the morning midweek, she said the pressure she feels as small business owner has grown over the years with rising rents and taxes.
“The small business person is what keeps the economy going,” she said. “We employ local people and bring money into an area. It’s a shame to see so many storefronts empty.”
For Pedro del Rio, a Cuban native who moved to Washington Heights about the same time Zafiros opened her shop, frequenting the store makes him feel connected to his community in a more tangible way.
“Yes, the flowers are important, and I like having them in my home,” he said in Spanish after recently picking up a small bouquet of carnations. “But the people are what’s most important. And Betty, well, she is a love.”
DNAinfo is profiling a small business a day in advance of Small Business Saturday, which encourages residents to shop local on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Read more profiles on our Small Business Saturday page.
