A.J. Chiarella
The 914 Collective / Yonkers
Like many musicians, A.J. Chiarella was on his way to play at Austin’s legendary South by Southwest festival when the pandemic turned the world upside down in March 2020. “I turned around in Arkansas and drove straight back to Yonkers,” he recalls. His work as a music instructor and substitute teacher dried up with the shutdowns. With time on his hands and in search of a creative outlet, Chiarella began making videos to post on TikTok, the social media platform best known at the time for its popularity among young Gen Z users. At first, he mostly posted about music, but in time he decided to also create digital content about life around him in Westchester. “I’ve always been entrepreneurial, and I loved the idea of trying to build a local business at some point,” he says. “And so, I thought, ‘I should try to do some videos about where I live.’” He created accounts called The 914 Collective on TikTok and Instagram.
Chiarella quickly found that there was genuine curiosity out there for knowledge about what makes Westchester great. “From January 2023 to January 2024, I got about 40,000 followers on Instagram from zero, all organically, with TikTok and YouTube as well.” Videos from The 914 Collective tend to be hyperlocal; Chiarella often debates and ranks Westchester’s best pizzas and bagels, shows highlights around different Metro North stops, talks shop with local residents and business owners, and dispels myths about the county. (As in, it’s not upstate, okay?).
His follower count is steadily approaching 100,000 across different platforms, and content creation and digital marketing have become more than a way of life—he’s also an adjunct professor at Mercy University, teaching a course on Social Media Content Creation. The 914 Collective has partnered with a number of well-known local brands, including Ridge Hill and the City of Yonkers, and smaller businesses with lower budgets, too. Today, Chiarella also remains closely linked with Yonkers Brewing Company, which has become the community hub and music venue that he always hoped to create in Westchester. The only hitch? It’s getting harder for him to show up around town without fans taking notice, which has happened at a steakhouse in Rye and while walking through Getty Square. “My fiancée always goofs around that we can’t go anywhere anymore,” Chiarella says with a shrug.
Naoka Nakagawa
sprinkle.positivity.confetti Street Art / Valhalla
Naoka Nakagawa was a bit lost in the early days of the pandemic when she suddenly had to teach and entertain three kids at home. “I didn’t know what I was going to do with myself,” she remembers. “We couldn’t see my parents, we couldn’t see friends. I thought, ‘There must be people who live alone that feel really lonely. Why don’t we write positive messages for them?’” As a project and creative outlet, she and her family started painting kindness rocks and placing them around their neighborhood in Valhalla. The experiment turned into a practice of drawing daily inspirational quotes in chalk on her block. “It snowballed from there. I had children and I couldn’t go anywhere, so the only place I could draw was outside my house,” she says. “Every day, I was outside at 5 o’clock in the morning.” Despite having no formal art training and a full-time job in the financial sector, Nakagawa started an Instagram page for her drawings. “I knew I could draw, but it had never been a priority in my life,” she explains. She began receiving lots of positive feedback—kind words from strangers and even cookies and little gifts from neighbors who would make an extra effort to walk on her block to see her work in person each day. Soon enough, word got out. Little by little people started asking her to draw for commission, such as for birthday parties and special events. “Now people ask me to do all kinds of art projects,” she says.
These days, Nakagawa’s art is easy to find all around Westchester—at charity fundraisers and school gatherings, on store fronts and along road race routes. Despite her success, Nakagawa still didn’t believe she had really made it until her work was lauded by her family. “When I saw how touched my mom was, it was the highest compliment,” she says. “She’s a hard person to impress.”
“I thought, ‘There must be people who live alone that feel really lonely. Why don’t we write positive messages for them?’
”—NAOKA NAKAGAWA
Lisa Nayakrit
Luxury Fashion NY / Larchmont
As a girl Lisa Nayakrit loved to dress up, anytime, anywhere, for any reason. “It was the highlight of my day,” she recalls. Even back then she gravitated toward unique looks and would often seek out pieces that were unusual or rare to make a style statement. The only catch was that her taste trended toward the exclusive—read, expensive. She came across even more designer fashions while working three jobs in college. “When I found out the price points, I knew there was no way I could afford them,” she said. Her mission was clear: Find a way to score the designer items of her dreams, for less than typical retail. Over time that self-appointed mandate would lead her to open her shop Luxury Fashion NY in Larchmont (@shopluxuryfashionny). But first, she had to find her ways and means of sourcing. The trick was to foster relationships with sales associates in both big stores and smaller boutiques so they would sell to her at wholesale prices, so she could then pass on those savings to her own customers. By 2019, Nayakrit had started sourcing Gucci pieces for less, and she launched a personal shopping page on Instagram, where she would share deals. Meanwhile she was also working full-time as a criminal analyst. “After I signed out from work at 5 p.m., I would get on the phone with boutiques until they closed, trying to make connections and get items for my inventory,” she says. The relationships she built started to pay off nicely. By 2020, Nayakrit had friends and family asking for styling advice for special occasions. With shoe boxes, handbags, and other buys scattered all over her house, she found an empty storefront in Larchmont and tracked down the landlord by knocking on the door of the hair salon next door. Within two months, she had secured the space for Luxury Fashion NY. It opened in Fall 2021, just as social calendars were beginning to pick up again after the pandemic. Now, in addition to sourcing, styling, and selling, as well as appraising consignment items, Nayakrit has developed a new skill: advising her shoppers on how to get new items in their closets at home without getting in trouble with their spouses. “Sometimes my pricing is so compelling it’s really hard to walk away,” she admits with a laugh.
“Sometimes my pricing is so compelling it’s really hard to walk away.”
—LISA NAYAKRIT
Dave Phillips
Project Hot Sauce / Bronxville
When Covid closed down the Great White Way indefinitely, veteran musician Dave Phillips found himself off his normal routine. Suddenly, the bassist for the hit Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon” found himself moving across the country to Los Angeles, where his wife was working at the time, so they could at least weather the shutdown together. With time to try something new, Phillips decided to make hot sauces, inspired by the many different condiments he tasted when he traveled the world for work. Collaborating with a partner, Phillips started experimenting with recipes in a friend’s high-end kitchen and giving out samples to friends and family. Eventually, the pair launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to rent out a commercial kitchen to continue making new sauces while Phillips got the state certifications required to safely produce and sell food.
Even though he was in California at the time, his efforts had local roots. Prior to the pandemic, Phillips had started a garden in Bronxville to raise produce for soup kitchens and studied sustainable agriculture at Westchester Community College, where he coincidentally made connections to nearby farmers and gardeners who now provide the produce and ingredients that he incorporates in many of his hot sauces. When Phillips moved back to Westchester, aiming to continue the venture solo, he rented out a church kitchen next door to his apartment. Since returning, he’s found the business climate easier to navigate as he’s gotten Project Hot Sauce (@project.hot.sauce) off the ground. “It’s been nothing but green lights since I started.”
“Part of my mission is to help the farmers because the growing season here is really short.”
—DAVE PHILLIPS
At press time, Phillips was waiting to harvest some butternut squash from a local farm, which would go into creating Project Hot Sauce’s eighth flavor. “Part of my mission is to help the farmers because the growing season here is really short,” he points out. “By processing their vegetables, they end up with items to sell year round at their markets.” Beyond scattered pop-up appearances, Project Hot Sauce will soon establish a regular presence at the Pleasantville Farmers Market, alongside some growers that he already partners with. In the meantime, Phillips just netted second place for new producers at the NYC Hot Sauce Expo in September. With winter coming, things are only heating up. And yes, he is still playing bass on Broadway at night. In other words, the man is on fire.
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