Nothing new here: Venerable NYC businesses riding out pandemic after surviving decades of life’s twists and turns
Hard times are old hat for some of New York’s most iconic and enduring businesses, founded by immigrants and forged for survival with the sweat of their brows.
Pandemic? Been there, done that, back in 1918. Ditto for terrorist attacks and the Great Depression. The beloved Dodgers abandoned Brooklyn in the ’50s, while the ’70s delivered fiscal disaster. There were two World Wars, political corruption, racial unrest, assorted panics on Wall Street.
Through it all, and throughout the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, these too-tough-to-die businesses endure across the boroughs: Steinway Pianos in Queens. Rao’s restaurant in East Harlem. Egidio’s Pastry Shop in the Bronx. The Wonder Wheel on Coney Island. Sahadi’s supermarkets in Brooklyn.
There’s more, of course: Hammacher Schlemmer on E. 57th St. in Midtown. Cress Floral Decorators of Queens. Mendel Goldberg Fabrics in Manhattan. And Frank’s Sports Shop on East Tremont Ave. in the Bronx.
All share a common history, a tale of immigrants abandoning their homelands for the promise of success on a new shore. They opened businesses passed down from generation to generation, with some now into a second century as part of the fabric that keeps the city alive through good times and bad.
And they succeeded where so many others have failed, on the biggest stage in the world, decades after their original owners sailed into New York Harbor to grab a pushcart filled with flowers or find a storefront home for their dreams.
Coronavirus is just another obstacle to overcome as they yearn for the return of business as usual.
Ask Ron Sahadi, whose Lebanese forebearers opened A. Sahadi & Co. back in 1895. He took over the Brooklyn supermarket from dad Charles, who took over the job from a prior generation of the clan.
“We’re part of the community,” explained Sahadi, 48, who worked in the Brooklyn store when his father ran the place — just as his two teenage daughters do now.
“We’re real people,” he continued. “We love being part of the community. As business evolves and people’s needs evolve, we try to evolve. And it’s worked.”
Dennis Vourderis, whose family took over the legendary Wonder Wheel attraction in Coney Island back in 1982, cited bloodlines as crucial to a long-lasting success.
“We have to keep producing grandchildren to run it,” he joked, even as the pandemic erased summer plans for a 100th birthday celebration of the 150-foot high oceanfront ride.
The ties that bind stretch beyond families, as Maria Carmela Lucciola can explain. After 40 years behind the counter at Egidio’s Pastry Shop in the Bronx’s Little Italy, she talks about the bond between her store and the neighborhood, about the days when its founder Don Pasquale Egidio, would write letters for his illiterate fellow Italian immigrants to send back home.
She also acknowledges an edge over her 21st century competitors that has nothing to do with longevity: Her store’s most legendary pastry.
“They call it a ‘Holy Cannoli,’” she boasted.
Here are our NYC survivors:
CRESS FLORAL DECORATORS, established 1903, Queens
Lori Cress, co-owner with her husband of the Queens-based family business, says the secret to their longevity is really no secret at all.
“We just bend over backwards for our customers,” she explained on a recent morning as the smell of fresh-cut flowers wafted through her Little Neck store. “We do whatever we can to make them happy. We go the extra mile ... We have a lot of loyal customers, a large following.”
A visit to the shop feels a bit like time travelling: A worn tile floor covered in floral clippings. Photos of its Greek immigrant founder hang on the walls, along with old memorabilia and awards — mementos from the 117-year history of a business that bloomed from its modest start, a lone man behind a pushcart on the streets of Manhattan.
The Little Neck location opened 33 years ago, with the business moving from its initial Columbus Circle home to Woodside, Queens, and finally to its current incarnation.
Cress, 65, is married to the grandson of the business’ founder. The COVID-19 pandemic delivered a crushing blow to the store, with dozens of weddings (along with their attendant bouquets and floral centerpieces) canceled.
She shared tears with disappointed brides-to-be and fears about the future as family members rode an emotional roller-coaster. But she can see a light at the end of the tunnel and a better 2021.
“Absolutely,” she said. “We just have to sit tight and hold on.”
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RAO’S, established 1896, East Harlem
Since namesake founder Charles Rao opened his Italian restaurant just four years shy of the 20th century, his eponymous and ultraexclusive eatery has evolved into one of the city’s legendary dining locations.
Celebrities enter with the regular clientele through its famous red facade on E. 114th St. and Pleasant Ave. to feast on Uncle Vincent’s Lemon Chicken and the 16-ounce bone-in veal chop parmigiana. But as current co-owner Ron Straci explains, it’s more than the food that inspires the loyalty of its diners across parts of three centuries.
“Consistency and care for our customers,” he explains of its enduring allure. “We’re a small restaurant that’s always treated all our customers as if they’re family.”
With just four tables and six booths, landing a Rao’s reservation is on par with a unicorn sighting for most New Yorkers. The regulars are so regular that there are no menus. Some patrons still enjoy standing reservations dating back for decades.
Among the bold-faced guests welcomed there: Martin Scorsese. Bill and Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump. And much of the cast from “The Sopranos,” where late owner Frank Pellegrino memorably portrayed an FBI boss.
The restaurant closed for one day when the pandemic hit New York this past March, quickly offering takeout meals. Customers lined the sidewalk outside last week, waiting for their orders.
Straci sees the post-pandemic future as bright: “We’ll keep doing what we’ve done for all our friends, old and new. The same thing we’ve been doing for the last 100 years.”
DENO’S WONDER WHEEL, established 1920, Coney Island
Coronvius blew out the candles on the Coney Island summer of 2020 before the legendary Deno’s Wonder Wheel could celebrate its 100th birthday. In an odd coincidence, construction of the 150-foot high seaside attraction was underway when the 1918 flu pandemic struck the city.
“How ironic — 102 years later and we’re in the same situation,” says co-owner Dennis Vourderis, whose family took over the ride and surrounding amusement park in 1983. The original owner, a German immigrant named Herman Garms, kept the business in his family until Vourderis’ father Denos bought the park. The ride was renamed in his honor.
The Greek immigrant restored the deteriorating ride to past glory, and the Wonder Wheel was granted landmark status in 1989. Dennis says the ride remains a one-of-a-kind New York attraction.
“We give it a lot of love, we give it a lot of attention,” explained Vourderis, who runs the Wheel and its surrounding amusement park with brother Steve. “This ride is truly the most romantic ride in the world. It’s got an appeal for all ages. It’s a magical, magical place.”
The pandemic brought a huge financial hit, with summer-long plans for the centennial shut down. They were at one point hopeful of a July reopening, noting the Wonder Wheel — with its 24 individual cars — already offers social distancing.
“We are still remaining optimistic and positive that we will get the guidance necessary to operate the wheel for our 100th consecutive year,” said the 60-year-old Vourderis. But time is running out: The park closes for the season on Halloween.
EGIDIO’S PASTRY SHOP, established 1912, the Bronx
The old-school outpost in the Bronx’s Little Italy offers a mouth-watering array of pastries behind a long glass case: Freshly-made rainbow cookies, cheesecakes, cannolis. Just as enticing as their aroma is store owner Maria Carmela Lucciola, who took over the Arthur Ave. area business four decades ago.
What keeps her customers coming back, even as the city outside struggles with the virus?
“Honesty,” says the 68-year-old owner, whose English remains heavily accented from her Italian upbringing. “Be honest with the customers, and make a good product. We make a good product. And our cannoli are some of the best.”
There’s no denying that Lucciola’s presence runs neck and neck with her baked goods in drawing customers to Egidio’s. She chats with the locals in both English and Spanish, engaging in long conversations with neighborhood regulars.
“How are you?” she asks one customer. “How’s the family? Everyone feeling OK?”
But she’s a tougher cookie with her workers, offering pointed directions when not charming her clientele.
The shop’s walls feature a framed photo of the store’s founder, an Italian immigrant named Don Pasquale Egidio. The neighborhood along Arthur Ave. was mostly Italian back then, but Lucciola has changed with the times: Egidio’s also offers flan and Tres Leches cakes amidst her Italian specialties.
She cites one final advantage over other stores, an 85-year-old oven in the back with her dough-rolling machines and industrial-sized mixers: “Nobody has an oven like that.”
STEINWAY PIANOS, established 1853, Queens
German immigrant Henry Steinway, a cabinet maker in his homeland, came to New York City with grander plans.
The newly-arrived businessman founded Steinway Pianos in a loft on Varick St. in Manhattan in 1853, relocating in the next decade to a factory on a few hundred acres in the farmlands of ... Astoria, Queens.
His new home came with a sense of liberation, as Steinway ignored the old-school piano-making methods to create his unique brand of instrument.
His company endures as creator of the world’s most revered and renowned pianos, used by an assortment of the world’s great pianists present and past: Diana Krall, Billy Joel, Harry Connick Jr. and Bruce Hornsby. Cole Porter, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Arthur Rubenstein.
Henry was followed by another three generations of the family, all overseeing the year-long process of producing just one of the numbered pianos. The family’s last living connection to the patriarch ended when when his great-grandson died in 2008.
Their work still endures. And the smell of sawdust and wood is inescapable amid the sounds of machinery and the whirring of ceiling fans inside the factory.
“They came here with the skill, but then they realized in America — and especially in New York City at the time — it was all about innovation,” said Anthony Gilroy, senior marketing director for Steinway, during a tour of the factory.
This is not the piano company’s first pandemic, with the factory staying open during the 1918 flu outbreak that claimed more than 20,000 New Yorkers. COVID-19 forced a fourth-month shutdown from March 20 to July 20, costing Steinway one-third of its annual production.
Gilroy said the business remained imbued with Henry’s spirit: “We’re innovating to this day.”
SAHADI’S, established 1895, Brooklyn
The 125-year-old family supermarket business, home to both the typical fare and an assortment of hard-to-find Middle Eastern specialty items, was born in Manhattan before relocating across the Brooklyn Bridge 65 years ago.
Current owner Ron Sahadi, 48, took over the Cobble Hill business from his father Charles after working alongside his dad as a kid. Ron’s sister runs a recently-opened branch of the store in Sunset Park. And it was family patriarch Abrahim Sahadi, a Lebanese immigrant, who launched the business near the tail end of the 19th century, catering to the city’s growing local Lebanese and Syrian populations.
“We’re happy to be here still,” said Ron Sahadi. “There’s ’For Rent’ signs everywhere. We feel blessed to still be here with our community. There are definitely challenges to running a family business, but we’ve made it work this long.”
While times have changed, Sahadi’s prefers its old-school ways when it comes to customers. The store’s signature glass jars, filled with candy, chocolate, nuts and dried foods, remain available for purchase by the pound at the front of the business.
“We’re happy to give you a sample if you want,” said Sahadi. “We’re happy to talk it up, give you recommendations.”
The owner, though forced to close in-store shopping for two months by coronavirus, managed to get through the lean times without laying off any employees. He was thrilled to return to the store and his loyal customers.
“It’s good to be back,” he said. “We were closed for too long, and we missed the neighborhood. We missed the community.”
HAMMACHER SCHLEMMER, established 1848, Manhattan
The story of America’s longest running catalog shopping enterprise began modestly with a pair of German immigrants: Albert Hammacher and William Schlemmer, co-owners of the city’s best-known hardware store. The two bought their business at 221 Bowery from the previous owner; Schlemmer, who had worked at the location under Hammacher’s original partner Charles Tollner, came aboard in 1867.
Their first customers were carpenters and cabinetmakers seeking bolts, bits and hard-to-find tools. But the store changed with the times, soon offering car parts, appliances and home decor items as business continued to grow.
They became the first New York store to offer home delivery and to install electric lights. Hammacher Schlemmer also sold the city’s first electric toothbrush.
“We were always about what the consumer needed us to be,” explained Anne-Marie Resnick, vice president of marketing at the company. “We had the first can opener, the first coffee pot — the one thing about Hammacher Schlemmer is that they always stayed true to the needs of their customers at the time.
“They were able to evolve.”
The company moved to its current location on E. 57th St. in 1928, although it endures now as a purveyor of hard-to-find gadgets and gizmos arranged on dark wood shelves.
Consumers can find massage chairs, hovercrafts, state-of-the-art sun hats. You name it, and they have it — just like back in the day, although at a far steeper cost. The original owners’ descendants are now out of the business, which is owned by its employees.
“We generally stay as cutting edge as we can,” said Resnick.
MENDEL GOLDBERG FABRICS, established 1890, Manhattan
Alice Goldberg, fourth generation owner of the family fabric business, gets a little weepy when discussing the 130-year-old Hester St. business.
“This is more of a legacy, it’s not just a business,” she explains. “It’s a legacy. I walk in there, and I feel the strength of the Goldberg family. It’s a happy business, a happy business. I just want everybody to look great and feel great.”
Her great-grandfather, Mendel Goldberg, founded the business after arriving from Poland in 1890. He started with a push cart, buying leftover tailoring supplies from manufactures. Her grandfather sold silk for the linings of fur coats. And her dad became a wholesaler, with clients like Macy’s.
Alice, who started working at the business when her mother fell ill, oversaw the company’s move into the internet era. She doesn’t sell anything to her customers, as she explains it. It’s a process of give and take until both sides agree everything is perfect.
“Our motto is honesty and integrity — we stand behind that,” said Goldberg. “As long as we stay on message, we will be just fine.”
Despite the pandemic, she remains optimistic about the future. Her two daughters already work at the shop, and will someday take over from her.
“COVID-schmovid,” she says. “They aren’t going to beat us.”
FRANK’S SPORT SHOP, established 1922, the Bronx
At age 92, Mo Stein’s hearing isn’t what it once was. But the Bronx business owner’s dedication to his E. Tremont Ave. sporting goods store remains as strong as ever despite the current crisis.
“It’s been my life, basically been my life,” he says. “I’ve worked over 60 years here. We’ve operated from one little store until we took over the whole place. I remember the first store we ever had — it was a little coffee shop.”
Like his business, Mo is a neighborhood treasure. He chats with every customer who comes inside, where the store offers an array of fishing gear, baseball cleats, Yankees caps and goose down parkas. Or he stands outside the entrance, greeting passersby by name as they walk beneath the store’s neon sign.
The business was launched by his father Frank, a Russian immigrant whose name still adorns the store. A painting of his parents hangs in his office, with Mo occasionally speaking to his long-gone mom and dad.
Two of Mo’s longtime employees decided to stop working as COVID-19 spread. And he took a pay cut himself to make sure his remaining staff didn’t lose any income.
Stein, with a chuckle, acknowledges he’s not too worried about the future: “No, I’m going to drop dead soon enough ... I hate old people. All they do is complain about their doctors.”
