Rising Stars: Meet Silvia Gallo of Downtown Durham

Today we’d like to introduce you to Silvia Gallo.

Hi Silvia, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, how can you bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Hi, I am feeling shy about telling my story. I don’t think I am that interesting:) but here we go! My name is Silvia Lisa Marie Gallo. ( My mother loved Elvis; My father insisted I was named after his mother the Italian tradition) I daydreamed my way to bad report cards. I love socializing, and as a kid loved cutting my barbie’s hair ( My father was a barber & so was my grandfather). I did not attend university. I started working behind a chair ( as a Hairstylist) when I was 17 years old in Rochester, NY. I had a stint as a stylist in Washington, DC. I found my way to Raleigh, NC, and my first small business venture at age 35. After parting ways with my former business partner/husband, I was a bit lost and, for the first time in my adult life, lacking focus and passion for a way to earn dollars. I found myself sitting solo at a wine bar, feeling like being with people in a town where I knew not a soul thinking hmmm, this feels like the connection-friendly vibes that Ray Oldenburg references in the book The Great Good Place. (Cafés, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts are at the Heart of a Community) I decided a wine bar would be my next business venture. I was excited to have a goal. My purpose/passion has always been to connect with others and connect them to others. Hair was the medium in my first career, and now wine would be the second. I traveled for a few years around the globe, checking out wine bars and trying to gain the courage to open my bar before I ran through my funds from selling my shares of Blo.

One night I met Matthew Kaner, then co-owner of Bar Covell on Hollywood Blvd in Los Feliz, LA, CA. Matthew was charismatic and spoke with a passion and knowledge about wine that I had yet to experience on my bar-visiting research ventures. I Loved Covel! And I was determined to work for Matthew. I decided to own my bar when I worked for him and was mentored. He did not initially agree to this:) It took me a year to persuade him to hire me. I moved to LA, hoping that being near would allow me to scoop up a position at Covell when one opened—doing hair to get by and drinking a lot of wine to gain experience consistently hanging out at Covell and bugging Matthew to hire me.

I gave up after a year and drove back East, only to receive a call from him a few weeks later offering me a position at Augustine Wine Bar in Sherman Oaks ( the Valley) In LA. I hopped in my car and drove back to LA, where I had the most rewarding, humbling love of my life job experience for 6 Years. The Crowns inspired me on the street signs, and a friend listening to my musings of a crown in my someday wine bar logo started singing the song Killer Queen. The pandemic shut LA down for quite a long while. I decided to leave the West and head back to Carolina. Originally Charlotte was the city of interest.

To bring this long story to a close, I had frequented two renditions of wine bars at 117 East Main St in Durham when I would visit Carolina friends on trips from LA. During a visit in 2021, I decided to support the current wine bar owner in pandemic times by buying a bottle of wine to go when I arrived at the empty bar, and the lease sign in the window well changed my plans for Charlotte. I signed a lease within two months of that visit and opened Killer Queen 5 months later, and the rest is a cliche in my history.

Let’s dig deeper into the story – has it been an easy path, and if not, what challenges have you overcome?
Was it a smooth ride? Ha, a smooth ride and opening a business are never in the same sentence! Well, opening on the tail end of a pandemic was interesting. Staffing a bar after 2020 was no joke experiencing the challenges of bureaucracy. The term bureaucracy means “rule by desks or offices,” 🙂 had to make sure this was what I meant. Red tape costs small business entrepreneurs important dollars being a woman in business; there were struggles. However, you know what was smooth? With the open arms of the community, from our guests to the other business owners around us, we felt supported.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a community maker. I create spaces and businesses that use a medium to connect with souls that live in the community or are passing through places where we can spend time with others being present and stimulated by the company, offerings, and surroundings. Now more than ever, we all appreciate connecting live in person in stimulating environments. I am a sommelier, a small business owner, and a collector of souls that love food, wine, and chatting.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I am a risk taker. I have anxiety, yet wow, I don’t let it stop me. I have quit jobs to travel for extended periods. I have chosen passion over dollars. I have started three businesses so far, terrified and determined to spend my savings on funding myself each time. Yes I am a risk taker.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.killerqueendurham.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/killerqueendurham

Image Credits
https://williamtreed.com/blog/killer-queen-durham-nc William Reed Photography