by Stephanie Dusek/ Hank Graf

Ridge Rattan is not just a business for Mary Jo Quatela, it is home.

“Half of it was our home, and the front was the store,” said Quatela. “It is how we started. My mom was making the cushions and my dad was making the furniture.”

Today Mary Jo and her brother run the family business.

“My father started this business 40 years ago,” said Michael. “Every piece of furniture is custom made to the customer’s own order.”

They have years of experience answering a common question: “everyone asks the difference between wicker and rattan,” said Michael. “Rattan is a vine that is grown in Southeast Asia. It is scraped of its skin, and the center portion of the pole. Most of our product comes unfinished, and we add the value here in Rochester.”

Workers apply the finish in the Rochester plant, and then we sew the cushions just like mom used to do. The brother and sister team added something for a new generation of furniture shoppers.

“We decided to put an interior design center in our store,” said Mary Jo. “This was because we were getting a lot of calls from people who wanted us to come to their home and do a plan how to arrange the furniture in the home.”

They hope additions like that will strengthen the business that their Italian immigrant parents started years ago.

“I think that is why my brother and I are so proud to work in this business,” said Mary Jo. “They came to this country for the American dream and they fulfilled that dream, and we want to carry it and take it to the next level.”