Paulanna Cuccinello

Paulanna Cuccinello is the founder, owner, and heart behind pergolina, a curated gift shop born in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles. For thirty-five years, Paulanna welcomed people into her brick-and-mortar shop on Riverside Drive. Today, she carries that same spirit online at pergolina.com, where she ships hand-picked treasures across the United States.

About Paulanna Cuccinello

Paulanna is a shopkeeper in the old sense of the word. A true merchant, she does not simply sell things. She chooses them. She notices color, shape, feeling, memory, humor, and soul. Her eye was shaped by family, flowers, art, Italy, work, and the close village life of Toluca Lake. She curated the world that is pergolina.

Her family’s roots in Toluca Lake go back nearly a century. Her grandfather landscaped homes in the area in the 1930s, including Bing Crosby’s residence on Forman Avenue. Her parents, Anthony and Rose Chimo, later opened Flowers by Anthony Rose on Riverside Drive. Tony was the Anthony. Her mother was the Rose.

They worked together every day for forty-eight years.

Tony was a florist, but that word does not say enough. He was a talented colorist, a sculptor, and a creative. Rose ran the business. She made bridesmaids’ headpieces and had an interior design company. Together, they built a family business with flowers, service, skill, and grit.

Paulanna grew up inside that world. It was an Italian family business, which meant everyone helped. Paulanna, her brother, and her sister did not ask if they were going to work. They went. At Christmas, Paulanna would drive, or Nino would drive, and they would bring Steven C. to help load truckloads of poinsettias. Sometimes it took two trips.

Her father would leave the house around midnight to go downtown to the Los Angeles Flower Mart. He knew everyone there. There was the Japanese side and the American side. To Paulanna, it felt like a city of its own. She can still hear his keys jingling as he ran from one end of the market to the other.

Weekends meant weddings. Bouquets. Headpieces. Stephanotis, each bloom wired by hand, then shaped with care. The work was delicate, but the hours were long. Floral design was not glamorous. It was hard, dirty work. It meant standing all day. It meant early mornings, late nights, sore hands, and no shortcuts.

Fifteen years before her parents retired, Tony had his first quintuple bypass. Paulanna came to work full time. She began booking her own appointments with brides. She sat with families who had lost loved ones. She made pieces for newborns. She used to tease her father and say they worked “from womb to tomb.”

But she loved the profession.

She loved making things with her hands. She loved the instant reward of creating with incredible materials from all over the world. She loved helping make someone’s dream come true. She loved working beside Tony. She loved what he taught her.

He taught her to take pride. To step back and really look. To give the best service possible. To love what you do each day. To understand that working with your hands is a gift.

Those are the tools Paulanna brought to pergolina.

Before opening her own shop, Paulanna worked as a floral designer and artist for fifteen years. She understood flowers, display, color, and the way one small detail can change the feeling of a room. She also understood people. She learned how to listen. She learned how to help someone find the right gift. She learned that a shop can become more than a shop when people feel known inside it.

In 1990, Paulanna opened pergolina in a small space at the front of her parents’ flower shop. The name comes from a pergola, the garden arbor one walks through on the way to something lovely. That image became the feeling of the store. Pergolina was meant to be a passage. A threshold. A small opening into beauty, delight, and surprise.

When her parents retired in 1995, Paulanna expanded into the full space. The shop became her canvas. She filled it with gifts, jewelry, paper goods, books, home pieces, apothecary finds, children’s treasures, and artful objects from local and international makers. The style was European, with an Italian undertone. It reflected how Paulanna was raised, how she saw the world, and how she wanted people to feel when they stepped inside.

Pergolina became known for treasures with character. A customer might find Italian room diffusers, European soaps, handwoven throws, jewelry, art, greeting cards, toys, candles, books, or an object no one else would think to carry. The store was never about mass goods. It was about finding the thing that felt personal.

Paulanna’s work gave pergolina a rare kind of atmosphere. It was warm, curious, artistic, and a little theatrical. The shop welcomed the creative and quirky thinker. It welcomed children, longtime neighbors, gift-hunters, artists, collectors, and passersby. People came in to buy gifts, but they often stayed for conversation, comfort, laughter, or quiet company.

There was a no gossiping rule. Pergolina was a safe place. People could laugh there. They could cry there. They could tell a story and trust that it would stay inside the walls. Paulanna treated customers like family, whether they were longtime locals, the mail carrier, young shoppers buying a first romantic gift, children playing shop, or well-known faces from the neighborhood.

Paulanna’s work also reached beyond retail. For years, pergolina served as a small cultural gathering place in Toluca Lake. Paulanna hosted art shows, Italian language classes, children’s craft days, and painting classes. She helped local artists show their work. She brought people together through events that felt personal, generous, and alive.

Her community work became part of her legacy. Paulanna chaired the Toluca Lake Chamber of Commerce Holiday Open House for five years. She helped bring life to local traditions, including caroling, music, tree lighting, and festive gatherings. She also co-hosted the annual Martini Party with neighboring businesses.

In 2018, Paulanna helped lead the Toluca Lake median beautification project on Riverside Drive at Placidia Avenue. She imagined trees, green space, and a more beautiful street for everyone who passed through the village. Seeing that project come to life became one of her proudest community contributions.

In 2019, the Toluca Lake Chamber of Commerce honored pergolina with its Small Business Award. The award recognized not only the store, but Paulanna’s long-standing role in the neighborhood. Her eye for artful gifts, her care for people, and her steady presence helped make pergolina a Toluca Lake landmark.

In 2024, pergolina helped host a charity art exhibition for The Heart Channels. The show featured local artists and gave a portion of each sale to support the cause. It was another example of Paulanna’s belief that beauty, community, and generosity belong together.

After thirty-five years in the heart of Toluca Lake Village, Paulanna closed the doors of the physical store in late May 2025. More than 400 longtime customers came to her farewell gathering earlier that year. The closing marked the end of a beloved local chapter, but not the end of pergolina.

Paulanna described the next chapter as a time to fly free. Pergolina now lives online, with the same hand-picked spirit that filled the shop for decades. The storefront has changed, but the heart has not. Paulanna still chooses every treasure with care. She still believes in beauty, kindness, memory, and surprise. She still wants every person who finds pergolina to feel welcomed.

Her husband, Steve, has been her silent partner and right hand for more than fifty years. Behind the public warmth of the shop was also a quiet partnership, steady support, and a long shared life.

Paulanna’s story is the story of a woman who turned a shop into a world. It began with Tony and Rose, with flowers, family, midnight trips to the market, and work done by hand. It grew into a haven for art, gifts, stories, and friendship. It now continues online, carrying the same invitation it always held.

Paulanna still goes to the flower market at least once a month. When she runs down the aisles, she hears her keys jingle.

Come in and look around. Be kind to one another. Treat all as if they were royalty.