Minding your business: He hopes to serve a taste for Americana
Photo credit: Photo by Danielle Finkelstein for Newsday | Bill Sukow has just signed a licensing agreement with the Norman Rockwell estate to use Rockwell's work in Norman Rockwell themed restaurants. He will break ground on the first in Stony Brook in January. (Aug. 4, 2009)
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Norman Rockwell's warm and fuzzy portraits of Americana are widely admired, even though his visions may have been more dream than reality. Soon, Rockwell's paintings of an idyllic America will be popping up on Long Island, but not in an art gallery.
Bill Sukow, a Sayville restaurateur, plans to open the first of about eight Norman Rockwell-themed restaurants in Stony Brook in January. Sukow, who owned the Bayport House restaurant before selling it two years ago, has signed a deal with the Norman Rockwell Estate Licensing Co. in Niles, Ill., giving him the right to display copies of the Rockwell drawings and sell artifacts at the 3,500-square-foot, moderately priced restaurants. They will feature such American dishes as Southern fried chicken and apple pie.
Sukow got the idea after visiting a Rockwell museum in Stockbridge, Mass. He raced home and wrote a business plan. Sukow is going to be busy. The agreement he signed calls on him to open eight to ten such restaurants in the next five years. A total of four will be on Long Island. People, Sukow thinks, "are yearning for Americana."
Mary Seitz-Pagano, the Rockwell Estate's licensing director, said there are no such theme restaurants in the country. "I think this is a great idea," she said.
Little success in tapping
SBA recovery loan program
Some small businesses hard-pressed for cash thought relief was on the way in the form of a Small Business Administration program - America's Recovery Capital - aimed at paying down debt. But the businesses, and bankers, say the program that offers $35,000 in loans, has so far been of no help.
Amy Mantione, owner of Element Graphic Design in Babylon Village, wanted a $10,000 or $15,000 loan. One bank said she needed $250,000 minimum in deposits. Another said she did not have enough debt. "It seemed the SBA gave the banks minimum criteria for making the loans, and the banks then added their own criteria," she said.
Andrew Saluk, business banking officer at Citizens Bank in East Northport, said he received a dozen applications, but none were approved. The SBA requires not only two years of financials from applicants, but also wants the bank to determine how the loan would help the small business over a two-year period.
SBA spokesman Jonathan Swain said the program is new and any kinks need to be worked out. "We encourage small business" to pursue it.
A caterer starts serving
cooking lessons too
A caterer teaching people how to cook would seem to make as much business sense as a mechanic giving lessons in how to repair automobiles. Yet on a Thursday night in Smithtown, 12 women clad in bright red aprons listened raptly as chef Roberto Valencia of Elegant Eating Ltd., explained how to make hors d'oeuvres.
For Myra Naseem and Neil Schumer, Elegant Eating's co-owners, the classes make perfect sense. They bring in money, and help make up for the approximately 10 percent revenue loss the caterer has suffered in the recession.
The women - all teachers or staff at Setauket Elementary School who signed up together - were learning to make lettuce wraps with steak or chicken. The three-hour classes are each $60 to $65.
"I aspire to be a cook," said Donna Beer of Wading River.
Jeanine Villari of Northport wants to impress her gourmet cook husband with new cooking skills. Maureen Reyes of Setauket thinks of the future. "When I retire, I'd like to be a caterer," she said.
Naseem does not feel threatened. There are specialty dishes she won't teach, such as her Florentine lace cookies or teriyaki salmon. "I don't want to sound arrogant," she said. "But no one is going to be able to do this like we do."
