Featured Owners

Painting Chicago in a Style All Their Own: Logan Square Couple Opens Pinot’s Palette

If you visit Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, you’ll find an independent vibe--streets lined with bungalows, craft cocktail bars, and art galleries. It’s the perfect vibe for an independent thinker like Tony Porfirio, who with his wife Tamara, opened a Pinot’s Palette in the trendy neighborhood in May 2016. When he first found Pinot’s Palette, Tony’s creativity and enthusiastic leadership had hit a brick wall in corporate America. He knew it was time to conquer a new challenge. He was tired [...]

By   Feb, 13, 2020  Featured Owners

Snowball of Success: Pinot’s Palette Franchisees Embrace California Lifestyle

Being stranded in a blizzard can really put life in perspective. It did for Scott Lockerd, who experienced the frightening weather event while working as a geologist in Wyoming. So, while stuck in that storm, Scott did the logical thing for blizzard survival: He called his wife Cherisse and told her that he wanted to quit his job and open a paint and sip studio with her. Cherisse, who worked in human relations in Denver at the time, thought Scott [...]

By   Oct, 18, 2019  Featured Owners
Pinot's Palette Modesto

Bright Space: Opening Act for Modesto Pinot’s Palette

Lisa Cook is the first to admit she has a problem. It all started when she and husband Jim opened a Pinot’s Palette® paint and sip studio in Modesto, California, and things spiraled from there. But her secret isn’t a dark one. Indeed, her very bright problem is that she’s completely out of wall space at home, with hand-painted art gracing every nook and cranny. Lisa grew up as the daughter of a professional artist, and her dad made sure [...]

By   Jul, 23, 2018  Featured Owners
Pinot's Palette Brick

Blazing New Trails: Brick Pinot’s Palette Opens Opportunity

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail,” Ralph Waldo Emerson said. Diana Chams seems to embrace the philosophy of the 19th century poet. Instead of meandering down smooth paths, the owner of Brick, New Jersey’s new Pinot’s Palette® craves the steep terrain of opportunities born of challenge. Diana felt herself joyfully coasting on one of those smooth paths in her roles as a special education substitute teacher, stay [...]

By   May, 25, 2018  Featured Owners
Pinot's Palette Pasadena

New Marching Orders: Veterans Launch Pinot’s Palette Pasadena

Freddy and Nancy Castillo figured if they could survive the rigor of military careers, they could handle opening a franchise. So when Nancy retired from her 20 years of service, and Freddy saw his retirement looming in the near future, they decided to open a Pinot’s Palette® paint and sip franchise in Pasadena, California. They attended a class at another Pinot’s Palette and decided the venture would be fun to work on together. After looking at other paint and sip [...]

By   Apr, 16, 2018  Featured Owners
Leslie Warren Pinot's Palette Livermore

Worth the Wait: Pinot’s Palette Livermore Savors Success

Leslie Warren has been helping people smile her entire career. First, for two decades working her way up the ladder in dental practices, she pursued pearly white perfection. More recently, she has changed her focus from the anatomy of a healthy smile to giving people a reason to smile--that reason being a night of relaxation and entertainment at her Pinot’s Palette® paint and sip studio in Livermore, California. Dentistry led Leslie to Pinot’s Palette. Literally. As she planned her dental [...]

By   Mar, 08, 2018  Featured Owners
VetFran Pinot's Palette Owners

Veteran Franchisees Open South Hill Paint and Sip

What do Harry Truman, George W. Bush, and Pinot’s Palette® franchisees Ray and Heidi Leonard have in common? They all served in the National Guard. While the former presidents may have focused on national security and foreign relations, Ray and Heidi are learning to focus on local community and customer relations as owners of the South Hill, Washington Pinot’s Palette. But Ray and Heidi haven’t left their day jobs. The couple met in the Army National Guard, were deployed on [...]

By   Sep, 25, 2017  Featured Owners , , ,
Couple Buys Established Pinot's Palette Studio

Opportunity Knocks: Couple Buys Established Pinot’s Palette Studio in Ellicott City, MD

“Present opportunities are not to be neglected; they rarely visit us twice,” Voltaire said. Rod Vese and Lisa Pape may not have been reading 18th century philosophy when opportunity knocked on their door, but they still embraced Voltaire’s advice. The couple had visited various paint and sip studios and particularly enjoyed relaxing evenings at the Pinot’s Palette® in Ellicott City, Maryland – so when they heard the studio was up for sale, they were quick to take the opportunity. Purchasing an [...]

By   Aug, 08, 2017  Featured Owners ,
Career Change: Engineers Open Paint and Wine Studio in Orange County

Engineering a Partnership: Orange County Pinot’s Palette

There’s an adage for a balanced life: “Don’t take work home with you.” Mahesh and Sree Ghanta respectfully disagree. Both trained as professional engineers, the couple enjoyed spending relaxing evenings together discussing complex engineering challenges and bouncing ideas off each other. Throughout their careers, they kept the dream of entrepreneurship on the back burner. But when the right opportunity presented itself--opening a Pinot’s Palette® franchise in Rancho Santa Margarita, California--the couple knew that business partnership would be a natural fit. After [...]

By   Jul, 25, 2017  Featured Owners , ,
Friends become business partners | Pinot's Palette franchises

Friendship’s Brush with Business: Duo Debuts Nutley Pinot’s Palette

Trailblazer Colleen Carlee spent months researching potential franchises, searching for a unique and different venture, before signing with Pinot’s Palette® a few years ago. Her Montclair, New Jersey studio became the first of its kind in the entire Northeast as she introduced the town’s artistic community to the entertaining culture of upscale paint and sip. The studio garnered so much business that she soon turned her thoughts to opening a second location. But Colleen had learned that solo trailblazing can [...]

By   May, 23, 2017  Featured Owners