THE LEAFLET

At Casey Trees, we’re always making new friendships and connections with anyone and everyone who loves trees! Recently, we had the honor of working with Angel Gregorio from The Spice Suite to add 20 beautiful trees to her space – trees that will continue to grow and provide shade to the Black business block for generations to come. Our urban forester leading the project, Liam Ulasevich was able to share that, “Planting at The Spice Suite turned a fully concrete covered car lot into a lot with the potential of 80-100% canopy coverage in the future.”

Angel is the owner of The Spice Suite, a local shop and black business incubator in the Langdon neighborhood of Northeast DC. The spices and sauces sold at The Spice Suite can be DC-inspired, with spice mixes with names like “DC or Nothing” and “Cherry Blossom Blend”, and are made to inspire chefs and home cooks alike. Additionally, Angel’s non-profit, Black+Forth supports black entrepreneurship and career pathways by supporting and empowering other local grass-root business owners to maximize their own potential and success.

We met with Angel to learn more about her endeavors with Black+Forth and to see what’s on the horizon for the booked-and-busy entrepreneur herself! Watch our interview with Angel below or scroll down for the full read.

Casey Trees (CT): Who are you and what do you do?

Angel Gregorio (AG): I am Angel Gregorio; I am Owner and CEO of The Spice Suite and Black+Forth.

(CT): How did you become passionate about spices and cooking?

(AG): I kind of fell into it, it was pretty serendipitous. I didn’t grow up with a passion for spices or cooking, I just randomly opened the spice shop and then found myself as a full-time spice girl!

(CT): What was the inspiration behind Black+Forth and why was creating a space like this important for your community?

(AG): This idea of going back and forth with Black business owners to help sustain and run this business, while trying to come up with a name for what that model is and what that looks like. It came to me, like this cool name, Black+Forth – and so it stuck. And that became the name of my business model. And now the name of this “shopping center” or “strip mall” that DC calls this now, that I own.

The Spice Suite has always been a community centric business. [This is] simply an extension of the work that we’ve been doing for the past seven and a half years of supporting community, inviting community into our space, and finding new ways to connect with new people.

(CT): How were you introduced to Casey Trees?

(AG): I used to work in education, so I was an assistant principal, so I had known about Casey Trees just from work that they’ve done in communities and just being in DC I think is just like the premiere name that you know, when you think trees, you think Casey, right?

So, when I was going through the permitting process and learned from DOEE that I had to plant at least 18 trees on site – I set out to try to look for trees and you know, go online, because I’m like, “where do you buy a tree?”

So, I go online, I Google, and I was like, you know what? Why am I doing this? There’s an expert that knows more about trees than I could ever know. So, I literally sent an email to Casey Trees just asking if there was any support, or anybody that could help me figure out which trees to get, how to plant them, and what to do?

Liam came out to our site and said, “Actually, I think we could just handle this for you.” And I LITERALLY was shocked, like “I don’t even understand what you’re saying right now.” It was like somebody handed me a lottery ticket because, in essence, it saved me a ton of money and time on a project that already cost me way more money than I expected to spend.

So, I was just beyond grateful for Casey Trees to step in and decide to handle everything that had to do with making sure that we had the right trees on site, that we satisfied the DOEE requirements, and that we could be fully operational – because that was a huge step towards us being able to open.

I learned a lot through this process, I learned a lot about, a lot of things. Now I can read blueprints, I can now engage with the engineers and things on this project, and I learned through organizations like Casey Trees that there are people like me.

I spent seven and a half years giving back to the community, we hosted thousands of pop-ups with Black businesses. We hosted our community business school. We’ve done so many things with the community, and it is not often that other organizations turn to Spice Suite. Or turn to Angel and decide they are going to do something for me – with no strings attached. There was no long application that I had to fill out, there was no proposal to submit, it was literally, “We see what you’re doing, and it looks like it’s cool, and we believe in it – So we’re going to support you.”

And I am always grateful for people who give with no strings attached and trust that the good you do will be returned to you. [It also] makes me feel better knowing that [planting trees] is something that the city is taking more seriously, broadly, and it’s not just like a small business owner kind of woe that I have to bare by myself.

(CT): How do you think outdoor spaces can be made more inclusive/attract
more POC?

(AG): I think the issue is not around, like creating a space that is more inclusive for Black people. I think that’s more systemic. So, I think if anything, this is more an issue around accessibility, right?

We just need the same spaces in Ward 7 and 8 that they have in Wards 3 and 4. I think the bigger issue is that there needs to be more equity in how the spaces look. Like, If we’re planting more trees, then let’s plant more trees on MLK Avenue, the same way we’re doing on Wisconsin Avenue – and not think that because you’re in some quadrant or there’s some socioeconomic difference that you have a different requirement or deserve a different quality of life.

(CT): What is your relationship like with the outdoors?

(AG): My favorite season is Spring, so that I can be out. I love farmers markets. I love being able to do outdoorsy things like that. I am not the camping girl, I’m more of a glamper. I’m not rolling around in the grass, but I’m a person who appreciates beautiful things. I have a tattoo of a tree on my wrist because I really appreciate the beauty of trees. I think that they’re amazing; the historical significance, the way that they grow, the way that you tell their age, the strength of them. There are so many things that I find beautiful about trees, clearly enough to tattoo it on my arm – But I’m also not the girl who’s going to climb one! I can appreciate beautiful things without having to physically engage them.

(CT): What is your favorite tree and why?

(AG): My favorite tree is the cherry blossom tree. Not because I live in DC and we have them downtown – But in elementary school we had to do an art project and it was centered around the Cherry Blossom Festival. So, I did some art project that I vaguely remember using pink tissue paper and red tissue paper to create this cherry blossom tree. And I won an award for like some Art Cherry Blossom Festival thing back in elementary school! And I think from then it was kind of like, okay, that’s officially my favorite. Like I can make a cherry blossom tree out of tissue paper – so I’m clearly the expert on them. And it’s now my favorite tree.