Rosie & Nails to Expand to a 2nd Salon on Sunset

Even in these tough economic times, there’s apparently one ‘growth’ business in Pacific Palisades: nail salons. Two months after Lemon Salon opened on Antioch Street, Rosie & Nails is expanding to a second location’the former Emerson-LeMay Cleaners space at 15333 Sunset (between Swarthmore and Via de la Paz).   Owner Martine Vo will spend two months remodeling her new 1,200-sq.-ft. location, which will have 12 spa chairs and two separate rooms for facials and massage. Her smaller current salon, at 829 Via de la Paz, has six spa chairs.   ’It’s a good location because it’s on a main street with more traffic,’ said Vo, who opened her first salon here in 1985. Her Sunset shop will also have six parking spaces in the back.   Vo acknowledged that this is a hard time to expand”I’m trying to get everything going with this economy”but she had an opportunity to gain a high-visibility storefront on Sunset when Emerson-LeMay closed in January.   ’We should support her effort to expand at a time when many owners are operating out of fear and caution,’ said customer Margaret Elias. ‘I walk around the Village and I see ‘For Lease’ signs, so this is inspirational and spirited.’   A few months ago, Vo began offering 20 percent off on services between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. ‘Our clients are happy with the offer,’ she said. ‘Everyone is trying to save a little bit here and a little bit there.’   She currently has 12 employees and will add more once the second shop opens. All employees will work at both salons.   Vo has a loyal following of longtime customers. Typical is Racheal Vogel, who started coming to Rosie’s in 1994. ‘The quality of service provided for the price is excellent,’ she said.   If Vo and her sister hadn’t made a wrong turn off the 405 freeway in Brentwood, the Palisades may never have had Rosie’s.   ’My sister already had a salon in Orange County and we were looking for another place,’ Vo said. Driving down the 405, they saw the Sunset exit and thought they were near the eastern stretch of Sunset Boulevard, near Silver Lake and Hollywood (at the Hollywood Freeway), so they exited and began driving west. Pretty soon, by accident, they drove through the Palisades and reached the beach. The two turned around, returned to the Village and fell in love with the community.   ’It’s beautiful’a nice area with nice people,’ said Vo, who found an empty storefront on Via and, after leasing the space, decided to call it Rosie & Nails, though neither sister had that name. ‘We thought it was a nice name, an easy American name to remember,’ said Vo, whose given name is B’chh’n`g.   She grew up in South Vietnam with her two brothers and five sisters, and can remember the end of the war, when North Vietnamese came in droves to the south. ‘It was scary,’ she recalled. ‘I could hear the guns shooting.’   Vo’s family moved to Hawaii in 1980, where she finished high school and changed her first name to Martine. Three years later they moved to downtown Los Angeles, then to Hawthorne, before settling mostly in Orange County.   After graduating from beauty school, Vo’s first job was at a salon in North Hollywood. She’s now married, with a 22-year-old son, and she carpools to work from Orange County with her staff.   ’We take two cars and take turns driving,’ Vo said. ‘It’s about 90 minutes to get here and an hour to go home.’   Vo has lately been exercising regularly at the YMCA, which is next door to Rosie’s, though she sometimes has just a spare half-hour. Last Thursday morning, with the spa chairs full, she realized it wasn’t going to be a gym day, so she took off her sneakers and went to work.   Rosie’s is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Call: (310) 459-1185.