PETS
Poodle power Meet Hell’s Kitchen’s first canine CEO
O
K, we’ll say it. Winter in Manhattan is a beast. Relentless. The snow, the rain, and the wind send most of us scurrying from subway to office to subway to apartment most days, barely pausing to pull on and off gloves, scarves, and other related winter clothing essentials. But spare a thought for our pups. Sure, they have a built-in fur coat. But winter is kind of a bitch for them too. So when Joey, a miniature poodle shared between Hell’s Kitchen cousins Christy Kolar and Tess Soltau, started
“We started out using whatever materials we had available. We took apart an old ski glove once and attached it to a baby sock.” refusing to go outside for his wintertime walkies, the born entrepreneurs decided to take affirmative action. “Between the freezing sidewalks and the street salt, he was miserable,” they say. “The winter was unending, and having a pup in NYC who refused to walk outside was a bit of an issue. So we called around and tried different products but nothing seemed to meet all the needs we were looking for.” Tess is an actress, who has just ended her run with Wicked on Broadway as Glinda and is now in rehearsal for a new show, Diner. Christy is a designer who does freelance work in interior design. But the entrepreneurial blood runs thick in their family.
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Above: Tess and Christy with their beloved pooches and, right, cute cousins.
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