It's a sunny summer afternoon in San Francisco, and Maxine Siu is inside her flower shop, wrapping a simple bunch of peonies for a customer. Her daughter, 5-year-old Ruby, scatters rose petals onto the floor while her 3-year-old son, Simon, chews on a hunk of baguette and plays with his trucks amidst the blooms. Down the block, Maxine's husband, Joel Bleskacek, closes the door to his wine shop, then stops to scoop a cone at the adjoining ice cream stand. Clearly, this is no ordinary family business.
"We bring our kids almost everywhere," says Maxine, a slim and stylish 35-year-old with a tranquil demeanor. "There's really no separation between work and home."
Along quaint, tree-lined 18th Street in San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood, Maxine and Joel are known as the couple with the great kids and the great stores. First came Bell and Trunk Flowers, a petite storefront filled with blooms, baby clothes, and well-edited home accessories, which Maxine took over from its previous owner seven years ago. Five years later, Joel and a business partner opened Ruby Wine and Market to showcase southern Italian labels and hard-to-find gourmet goods. When the tiny slice of storefront between the flower shop and market became available, it seemed tailor-made for an ice cream stand.
This artful blend of food and family is the ideal arrangement for a couple who met at the revered Bay Area restaurant Oliveto, where she was a sous-chef and he was a server. They're the first to admit that their relationship was initially an attraction of opposites. "She's quieter, and I'm kind of a loudmouth," chuckles Joel. What they shared was a connoisseur's knowledge of food and wine.
Ruby was born less than a year after they were married. Maxine's work at the florist meant getting up at 1:30 a.m. three days a week to buy her goods at the competitive San Francisco Flower Market. When Ruby was only 1 week old, Maxine went back to work, taking the baby with her.
"Ruby literally grew up in the flower shop," says Joel. Maxine would put the infant in a car seat and keep an eye on her as she worked. "For the most part, she slept," Maxine says. Two weeks after Simon was born, he was going to work with his toddler sibling.
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