LI firms' odd names are hard to forget

Frank Gscheidle has fielded phone calls from hundreds of Long Islanders over the past 15 years -- inquiring about train schedules, fares and lost and found items on the Long Island Rail Road. He even recalls an answering machine message in which an irate man shouted expletives -- until the machine's tape ran out -- because his wife had fallen down some icy stairs at the Ronkonkoma station.

And Gscheidle, 62, of Lake Ronkonkoma, doesn't even work for the LIRR. He and his wife, Joan, own a model train shop in Lake Ronkonkoma named Wrong Island Railroad.

Dean Vassalli, a 39-year-old business owner in Copiague, has received his share of interesting mail, including postcards from Pinelawn Cemetery, since establishing his hair salon, Curl Up & Dye, in 1996.

He said he never thought to change the name despite the occasional mortuary mix-ups. "My mom didn't like it at first," he said. "She thought it sounded fatalistic, but she's since grown to like it."

With 47,608 registered businesses in Nassau County and 48,351 in Suffolk County, some owners have gotten creative to get the names of their small businesses to stand out. The selection can be clever, cuddly or downright silly.

John Randazzo, 35, president of Poopie Hunter Inc., a pet waste removal business in Holbrook, "has this fascination with poop," according to his marketing director, Jerry Son. "He thinks the words 'poop' and 'poopie' are really funny," said Son, matter-of-factly. "John answers his own phone, and I'm sure he has a smile on his face every time he says the name."

Fun but not too cute
When making reference to the job of removing pet waste, owners of businesses such as Poopie Hunter, Scoopy Doo Ltd. in Glen Cove and Poop Be Gone in Port Jefferson Station usually rely on their sense of humor. "It wouldn't sound good if it was called Dog Fecal Matter Removal. Maybe a proctologist or gastroenterologist wouldn't get away with this, but we're not going in with a tie and jacket to pick up poop," said Son.

Ernie Canadeo, president of EGC Group, a marketing company in Melville, agrees. "To me, dog waste removal is dog waste removal. I think it's a subject you sort of tell it like it is," he said, adding, "You want to decide to have a name with a theme that conveys the essence of your business, service or product. I think that often people try to be too cute, and the attempt to be creative doesn't really enhance their business."

Canadeo believes Hooters is a business well named to tie into its theme. "This is an example of a place that serves average food and drinks, but they have a concept and a name that makes people interested."

One bar owner who grew up in a strict Catholic home where swearing was forbidden said he was looking for a name with "that certain amount of irreverence without being too satirical or goofy." He wound up choosing the name Effin Gruven.

"Going into this, I never knew how important the name was going to be and how important the sign outside was," said Joseph Dantona, 47, of Oceanside, who owns the bar in Bellmore. Dantona, who was a Volkswagen bug enthusiast at the time he opened his business 12 years ago, believes the hippie, tongue-in-cheek theme just came together. "People who passed the sign really wondered what was going on in here."

Dantona, who focuses on craft beers and single malt scotch, admits that it was really helpful that people took notice. "Most competitors near us were selling Bud and Bud Light. If it wasn't for the name, peace sign and neon attracting the 'crunchy kids' and former hippies, I'm not sure we would have made it [the] first year."

Serendipitous inspiration
While some proprietors take days or weeks or even months to figure out the perfect name, sometimes it comes down to serendipity. Chris Streames, 41, of Port Jefferson, is a contractor who in 2003 was driving on Sunrise Highway in Deer Park one time with a woman he was dating when they were caught in a bit of traffic due to a line of cars waiting for a car wash - from a handful of women in bikinis. He turned to his date and said, "I'm going to have girls in bikinis roofing for me so I can have people lining up." "That's great," she said. "They'll call it Babe Roof." Streames registered the name the next day.

As it turned out, Streames never did hire any women in bikinis - but the name did begin to take on a life of its own, he said.

"In my head it became Babe Ruth," said Streames. "I adopted the slogan 'Another Home Done,' and my logo contains a baseball with the name above it."

Even Babe Roof's phone number reflects the association to "The Babe." "A customer of mine pointed out that the last four digits are 0333 and that Babe Ruth's number was 3. I had no idea."

Curl Up & Dye owner Vassalli says he would like to say the name was a brainstorm, "but it wasn't. I actually got it from the movie 'The Blues Brothers.' It just stuck in my head." And he believes it has stuck with customers as well. "I have clients who have called and said they passed by and loved the name. They remember me when I give them a business card."

Playing off association
Local retail shops and services that use kitschy names don't often have aspirations to be national brand names, said Canadeo. "They just want a store that has a cute name that will get them some attention." It doesn't hurt, however, to play off a major brand name, as dog salons Groomingdale (in Bethpage) or Groomingdale's (in Northport) have done. "They are positioning themselves as sort of the upscale dog groomer," he said.

But dog groomers aren't always looking for that Westminster Dog Show look, opting instead for a personal connection, as Anthony DeCondo, 54, owner of Bark Avenue Bath & Biscuit Corp., points out. "When you walk in here you have no doubt the name fits me and my crew. It's a feel-good thing - you have no qualms about leaving your dog with us because we love the animals."

DeCondo, who with his wife, Renee, also volunteers for the Suffolk County SPCA, wanted to convey warmth with the name, mission statement and logo. "It was originally called Bark Avenue Ltd. when it was under different ownership," said DeCondo, who started working there in 2003 and bought it six months later after "spending years in the corporate world."

"I loved the Bark Avenue, but not the Limited," he said. "I sat around one day and just started drawing little tubs, and then I put a puppy in there with some bubbles. My wife was wowed by it. So we decided on the name and incorporated it so no one could steal it."

Making a dirty job sound pleasant
Warmth and friendliness are common themes with service-oriented businesses, especially when the service is for an unwelcome condition - namely, lice removal. There are two such places on Long Island that offer the unpleasant chore of cleansing, combing and nit picking.

Kathy Zappulla, 52, of Hauppauge, a mother of two, experienced her own lice epidemic while making gingerbread houses in 2008 with her sisters and their kids. Almost a year later, she decided it was time to "make a scary situation deliceful." She got her lice removal certificate and opened her salon, Deliceful, in November 2009.

"It's not a pleasant experience when your children get lice. It's time-consuming to get rid of it, and many parents don't know what to do," said Zappulla, whose website, deliceful.com, has clouds, colorful flowers and a photo of an angelic-looking girl. "Head Hunters, Nit Pickers and Lice Be Gone didn't sound warm and friendly to me," she said. "People are already grossed out by the situation. They don't want to be reminded about bugs."

Business partners Chris Bonanno, Carol Gilbert and Michelle Villella have also tried to convey a caring and pleasant atmosphere with their lice removal salon, Fairy Lice Mothers, in Oceanside, which they established in April 2008. Bonanno says that clients seem to like having the word ''mother'' in the name. The women were out to dinner with their husbands when they came up with the idea for the business. She says the men were skeptical at first but came to realize the women are providing a much-needed service to panicked parents.

"We put the kids at ease by letting them think we are really their fairy godmothers and are helping them get rid of their problem," said Bonanno. The logo is a cartoon of the three partners as fairy godmothers, and products all have the fairy godmother theme: a nit comb called Magic Wand, an enzyme called Magic Mousse and a shampoo called Magic Halo. Even their slogan, "Granting wishes by removing itches," is in tune with the fairy godmother theme.

Streames, whose client base is 90 percent residential, said people tell him they remember his commercials and "see my trucks all the time" and clients buy him Babe Ruth memorabilia to fill his office (none with real autographs so far).

"I've done estimates for potential clients who weren't ready to commit but have come back to me six months later," he said. "I have Mets fans who tell me they'll use me anyway. I couldn't have picked a better name."