Frank Pollaro, exotic wood whisperer, ultra-high-end furniture maker to everyone from Steinway & Sons to Larry Ellison, can point to the moment when his fledgling New Jersey company caught a rocket: It was the day in 1995 when New York architect Charles Gwathmey introduced him to music and movie mogul David Geffen. "With Charlie and his clients it was never 'Frank would like to bid on your dining table,'" Pollaro says of the late Gwathmey. "It was: 'Meet Frank Pollaro, he's going to build the table for your dining room.'" That seems to have suited Geffen, because shortly thereafter he began talking up Polla-ro's extraordinary Art Deco-influenced furniture to his rarefied circle of friends, a practice he continues to this day.
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