Steve English , co- owner of The Blossom Boys European Floral Shop in the heart of the beautiful Beverly neighborhood hails from Ohio. Upon his graduation from Kent State University as a theatre major with a concentration in costume design, friends and he decided New York was too scary to move to, California was too far, but Chicago was just right. They settled on moving to Chicago.
Steve English of The Blossom Boys
He is the proud father of a 30 year old son named Jason who he adopted when he was three years old. He had developmental disabilities and needed special care. He had a stroke at 6 months old .
He became friends with a successful florist in downtown Chicago who needed to hire Steve to help deal with the staff. By accident, Steve became interested in floral designing and worked there for 15 years.
Along came Ryan Steinbach, now the co-owner of Blossom Boys with Steve. They met on line. After six to eight weeks of communicating, they arrange to meet each other. They discover a mirage of things they have in common. The first and most important, is that they both love fabric stores. Ryan didn’t own a car at the time and Steve did. Ryan had a long list of car errands he wanted to do, and the most impressive to Steve was the stop at a fabric store. It was love at first sight… of a bolt of fabric.
By this time Steve was no longer working at the Floral Store. He was freelancing at Christmas time, making wreaths and other holiday decorations. He brought Ryan on board at the Floral Store and Ryan worked his way up the corporate floral ladder, so to speak.
Ryan was not happy at the store and noticed an ad for a florist shop for sale in Chicago’s Beverly area. He brought the ad home to Steve. They both made the journey to Beverly from the north side to see the shop. Steve’s first words were “I don’t think so”. What turned him around was Ryan and the influence of Ryan’s mother’s obsession with organization which had been deeply ingrained into Ryan’s upbringing.
English was the expert businessman and Steinbach had the artistic talent and incredible sense of colour to bring to the business. There is a generation gap between the two Blossom Boy owners. Ryan has a different outlook than Steve and this enables them to complement, challenge and motivate each other.
English would like to turn the shop into non-stop shopping. He noticed a need in the neighborhood for convenience and affordable shopping. English has a good eye for merchandise that moves well.
They recently bought a Tudor styled home in the Beverly neighborhood, and are busy making it into their own home. (English highly recommends the plumbing company Men in Sewers who did some outstanding work on their home).
English says of the Beverly neighborhood “it is the nicest community, very friendly, very little pretense”.
He and Ryan both love the community and are happy to have their business and their home here.
English also had a successful Ebay business selling antiques. He is a self made entrepreneur in the truest sense of the word.
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Tags: Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills Chicago, Chicago, Chicago Florist, Chicago Florist Beverly, design, floral designer, holiday
