More on the office with the tree in it

From the Daily News:

A kindly auto shop owner didn’t have the heart to axe an in-the-way tree when he built his Queens office decades ago.

Now Tommy Cali works with the 50-foot tree growing through the middle of his desk.

“We call it the tree house,” Cali, 59, said of his office at Cove Auto Towing & Recovery in Astoria.

“I’m a a green thumb. I like plants.”

Some 32 years ago, Cali converted the enclosed front porch of his 27th Ave. home into an office for his thriving business. The garage where he fixes cars is right next door.

There was just one problem — the tree.

“My wife didn’t want me to cut it down,” he said. “So we built around it. Everybody said I was crazy.”

His wife’s grandparents had lived in their house for decades.

“It’s sentimental,” he said. “They used to play dominoes under the tree. We all used to gather here.”

I'm sure DOB will be visiting him shortly.