Tamarind Tree celebrates grand opening

Tamarind Tree owner Sean Sheppard is flanked by employees Robyn Frost, left, and Rigel Herman.

By David Sedore, Palm Beach Business.com

DELRAY BEACH — It’s not the usual career path, software engineer to flower shop owner, but that’s the one Sean Sheppard has found himself taking.

Sheppard, along with his daughter, Fallon, owns and operates the Tamerind Tree Gallery on Atlantic Avenue in Delray. The gallery, part antique shop, part art gallery and part flower shop, celebrated its grand opening Thursday with Mayor Woodie McDuffie, members of the city commission and the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce joining in.

“We’re taking it one day at a time,” Sheppard said in an interview afterwards. “We’ve got big plans.”

Until June, Sheppard was a software engineer at a New York-based software company. When he left the firm, he signed a non-compete agreement that prohibits him from working in the field for five years.

Looking for something to do with his life, he decided to pursue his passions — he’s an antique collector and an artist. He sort of fell into the flower business  — what he calls a gravy proposition — and oddly enough that’s the part of his shop that’s done best since it opened in December.

The shop also provides Sheppard, a 10-year Delray Resident, the added bonus of staying off the road following a career of traveling. “My wish was not to leave home again.”

He hopes his East Atlantic Avenue location gives Tamarind Tree an edge in building up local business, noting that his shop is now the only flower shop on Delray’s main street.

In the meantime, he’s working on developing his website and reaching out to local churches and synagogues, nursing homes and hospitals.

Evidence of Sheppard’s passions dot the shop: his paintings hang on the wall and plants from his home are on display through out.

Rigel Herman and Robyn Frost help Sheppard run the shop. Daughter Fallon Sheppard, a part-owner in the business, is a student at Columbia in New York.

Herman, who move to Delray Beach recently after living in Chicago, met Sheppard through a mutual friend. She comes to the business naturally — her father owned an antiques store, her mother a flower shop.

Herman helped Sheppard pick the location for the shop and assists in researching the latest trends in merchandise and in stocking shelves with items that customers want.

“It’s been a learning experience, definitely,” Herman said of her involvement in Tamarind Tree. “You can never stop. It makes it interesting.”

Delray City Commissioner Angelita Gray, with shop owner Sean Sheppard and Delray Mayor Woodie McDuffie.