Polar bear
Gulino
Owner of The Pinewood
Failed at more careers than most plushies will ever attempt, and eventually succeeded at warmth.
What Gulino does
Runs The Pinewood: pours the drinks, tells the stories, and keeps the heart-shaped door swinging. Also founded The Plushy Society, the whole world you're standing in, a job nobody gave him and nobody can take away.
The story
He was born in the Arctic, which is a dramatic way of saying somewhere cold and far away, to a mother he barely remembers and a sky that went on forever. Then the hunters came. The part that isn't cozy, he tends to skip.
What followed was a long journey, at the end of which a human family decided to adopt him. They gave him a name, a shelf, and far too much love. The last one, he says, is the best gift he has ever been given.
He has been, in roughly this order: a competitive fishing champion (briefly), a singer (loudly), an actor (unconvincingly), a DJ (apologies to that whole summer), a barman (finally, something), and an activist (ongoing). He failed at most of them with tremendous style, which is its own kind of talent, and the only one he will admit to.
Eventually he did the most rebellious thing a dreamer can do: he studied. Entrepreneurship and innovation, no less. Then he bought the café he used to work in, cut a heart out of the front door, and called it “The Pinewood”. He strives to make experiences that delight his customers, because nothing makes him happier than hearing one say “Thank you for putting all this together. This is my favorite place to spend time.”
Ask him what he believes in and the answer never wavers: love, dreams and courage. Everything else, the fish, the records, the framed reviews, was just the scenic route to the café he was always going to run.
More of the cast
More plushies are waiting behind the door
Sign up to meet the rest of the cast, discover their little stories, and see where they spend their time.
And many more cozy friends.