Donald is a Mensch

One hot summer day I arrived at Gillies Coffee in Sunset Park. I've been drinking espresso since I was five. My first bank was a Medaglia d'Oro coffee can. I really had to know if Gillies was the oldest coffee roaster in Brooklyn. The garage door was open. So, I walked inside and asked someone. He escorted me to an office trailer and a few minutes later - to my surprise - the owner himself came out to greet me. While I would have been grateful for a glimpse and a whiff, Donald Schoenholt gave me - a perfect stranger - a private tour of the entire roasting operation.

You see, Donald is a mensch. To roughly translate, he's a stand-up guy who would do you a good turn and not ask anything back if you needed a hand.

The Gillies family had been in the coffee business since 1840 when Wright Gillies, a Scotsman, opened a coffee business in lower Manhattan. In 1843 he invested in a horse-powered roaster. Talk about going green. Early in the 20th Century, the Schoenholt family took ownership. Fortunately, the Schoenholts were no strangers to the coffee business. Before Starbucks and countless coffee retailers displaced New York's iconic anthora coffee cup, Gillies had several successful retail outlets of their own. Donald likes to say he knows more about coffee than business, but in a move nothing short of clairvoyant Gillies closed shop to focus on the wholesale business. He effectively converted the barbarians at the gate into customers.

Donald, with his distinctive New York accent, is a natural storyteller. He relishes talk about innovators in the coffee business like the Arbuckle brothers who pioneered methods of distributing roasted coffee and bygone brands like Osborn's Celebrated Prepared Java Coffee, the first to be individually packaged. His vision is global. After all, the beans come from everywhere - from Brazil to Tanzania. Ask, and he'll tell you that Gillies is the oldest continuously operating roaster in the Western Hemisphere.

Experienced as he may be, Donald continues to rely on advice handed down to him by his grandparents.  About quality, Donald praises his grandmother who taught him about "garbage in, garbage out" long before computer scientists popularized the phrase. In explaining how long roasted coffee needs to sit before packaging, he recounts his other grandmother's advice about how good things come to those who wait.

I happened to bike by after Hurricane Sandy on my way to Red Hook. There was a gas shortage and they needed enough to make a delivery to a hospital. A local brewer reached out to Donald because his supplier was out of commission. He had heard that Donald was a stand-up guy. He and his employees stood around debating options like a family pulling together, one even suggesting to siphon gas out of his own car's tank.  I suppose if you work for a mensch like Donald, one may be inclined to make such an offer.

Bicycling Makes Sense

Back in the 1990s I remember seeing a story on the evening news about a new bicycle recycling program for kids based in Manhattan. They were taught how to take apart bikes that were abandoned and to build new ones from the salvaged parts. I was too old to enter the program, but I thought it was a wonderful thing and am delighted that it's not only here today but has expanded to DUMBO, Brooklyn. In fact, today they even have a program for adults!

Recycle-A-Bicycle doesn't cater to cyclists training for the Tour-de-France or those anxious for a velodrome on the Columbia Street Waterfront. If you talk to Susan, the soft spoken shop manager there, she's more concerned about cultivating mutual respect between drivers and riders than pimping your ride with color-matched tires and frames. For Susan bicycling is liberating. She recommends ditching your car or not owning one in the first place and hopes that one day, we may consider bike paths in the same way we do sidewalks rather than as exclusive amenities.

Miguel "Crazy Legs", Head Mechanic

Susan, "Ace", Shop Manager

To Chris, who leads Recycle-A-Bicycle's volunteer night, "bicycling makes sense." Bicycles synthesize political and environmental concerns - the health benefits and lack of pollution make them ideal for knitting the gaps between subway stations and pedestrians and as  alternatives to cars. Recycling bicycles takes a lot of skill and the folks at Recycle-A-Bicycle are experts on bike maintenance and repair. Yet Chris empathizes with those who aren't so mechanically inclined (like me!). The mission is to demystify the bike; make them less trendy and more normal. If more Brooklynites ride bikes we may better appreciate how economical and convenient they are rather than as fashionably functional recreational vehicles.

Artisanal. A Family Thing.

Michael Rogak, Chocolatier

Ask Michael Rogak about the meaning of the word artisanal and he’ll give it to you straight. It’s about making small batches with skilled manual labor. Is that all? Isn’t there a lot more to it than that? After all, there’s a certain aura around the word that makes it seem hip and trendy. Perhaps it’s the whole artisanal way of life? Or maybe marketers have overused the word and made it altogether meaningless. To Mr. Rogak artisanal is simply not enough to breathe life into a business and to keep it going.

Michael Rogak should know. He comes from a family of artisanal candy makers. His grandfather immigrated from Russia to make candy here in Brooklyn back in the 1920s. Later his father got into the business. And when it was Michael’s turn his father made it clear that while he may never become wealthy he’ll always be able to take care of his family. So, back when JoMart Chocolates started in 1946 it wasn’t a money thing. It was a family thing. In fact, Marissa, his daughter, works alongside Michael today and, though he may be enjoying the taste of candy more than anything else right now, it’s likely that little Jake will get into the act one day too.

Years ago it was sad to see the other confectioners - and Brooklyn had many - leaving town. So, when the newcomers started making their way to Brooklyn it was refreshing. The trouble is that in selling the word artisanal as something new and fashionable one may come to doubt that an artisanal business that’s been around as long as JoMart’s can still make anything good. But JoMart isn’t an enormous out-of touch corporation. Look past the word at the artisans themselves and one may find a family like Michael’s preserving a tradition of making candy that continues to delight the neighborhood and beyond. 
 

Lori's Shoes

When I’m in a conversation with Lori, I get the feeling that her mind is on a high speed chase with a gazillion other things. Lori is a serial entrepreneur  with a degree from the Philadelphia College of Textiles & Science. Her first company was Promgirl. Later she started an organic cleaning products company and a wholesale pet products business. Now she owns Neighborhoodies. While Neighborhoodies isn’t her baby, it’s become her shoes. “Taking over someone’s business is like walking in someone else’s shoes. Eventually, they become your own shoes,” says Lori.

When she took over Neighborhoodies, the place was a mess. Literally. She emptied it of three dumpsters of trash, replaced the single phone line with a complete system and revamped the website. When customers drop in off the street, instead of stopping everything there’s a streamlined process to handle requests. Start-ups operate very differently from established businesses. Still, Neighborhoodies is a dynamic company and with Lori at the helm I can’t imagine it getting stale.

Lori’s challenge is to transform her brick and mortar business into an e-commerce enterprise while remaining true to its roots. Neighborhoodies offers a highly specialized service; customizing apparel with appliqué, embroidery and printing. The hoodies themselves are made of organic, recycled material and the inks are non-toxic. Customers include Rachael Ray, Questlove, and Eli Manning as well as the BBC, MTV and Yelp!.

In addition to the DUMBO storefront, now you can design your own hoodie on the Neighborhoodies website with the new Hoodie-O-Matic application. While widening service offerings with options like custom monograms, Lori is progressing on her mission to e-commercialize her business by offering live chat for custom collaborations online. Today Neighborhoodies is Lori’s own pair of highly customized shoes and she wears them well.

We All Wanna Make It

At 145 Front Street in DUMBO shoppers enter a U-shaped corridor lined with vendors selling everything from cupcakes and clothing to jewelry and skincare products. The air inside is charged with a vibe that makes shopping and vending compulsive. Thrust within this multifaceted mix of competitive forces one may find a certain artist peacefully painting on an easel in his glass-fronted studio. Craig Anthony Miller aka “Cam” of reInspire Brooklyn is the self-proclaimed Switzerland in the world that is The Shops.

reInspire Brooklyn is part of the reTreat empire that includes reBar, reRun and reBoy. Cam’s line of apparel, jewelry and paintings awaken the heart through creations infused with his passion. The designs themselves are inspired by the stained glass found in churches like Antioch Baptist Church in Bed-Stuy and the work of collectives of graffiti artists like TATS Cru. Cam made his bones on the streets of Alphabet City. His first live paintings were done outside of Tomkins Square Park. A beauty salon in SOHO commissioned his first mural and today his public works are essential to the fabric of DUMBO. As acting art director for reBar and reRun, Cam himself plays an influential role in DUMBO’s vibrant art scene.

Evoked by this soft spoken man’s heart is Ganesh, Lord of Success and Remover of Obstacles. A central figuring throughout many of Cam’s creations, Ganesh symbolizes our wish to overcome. “We all want to be successful,” says Cam. It’s true. We all want to make it. Still, it’s Cam’s view that success needn’t come at the expense of others. “Life is so much easier when you love. It’s too much work to hate.” And this attitude explains how reInspire Brooklyn is the Switzerland of The Shops.

A Sign of No Business

One day, I was walking down Berry Street in Williamsburg when I noticed an elderly gentleman cautiously surveying card tables laid out with what appeared to be chess sets outside a small ramshackle garage. He was going about it very deliberately, though I sensed he was approachable. The pieces were large and blocky. Some were plain and others ornately carved, but what caught my eye was the unfinished piece he held gingerly in his hand. I made some comment about the pieces and he responded with a challenge.  Boasting that he could beat a Grand Master, he challenged me in a thick Greek accent to beat him at “his game.” I’d win $100 if he lost, but I wanted to know more about this game of his. 

And so, for well over an hour we sat together like friends from the Old Country. We reminisced about how Brooklyn was over thirty years ago when he emigrated here from Greece. How dangerous it was. How difficult it was to make a decent living and yet how one could more easily make enough to get by whatever you did anyway. Following his family’s story from Bulgaria to Turkey to Greece and finally to the United States, Christopher “Elis” Voulgarelis eventually opened up about his unique creations, his games.

Elis is a self-taught woodworker who made his first chess set when he was ten. He continued making them on the side while he ran a trucking operation and later as a cabbie. His primary tool is an X-Acto knife. He designed two original games: Give & Take and Escape. Give & Take is a simplified form of Turkish checkers as there so many different variations and it can take seventy-five moves before a game is called a draw. The story behind Escape is more interesting. It was created out of Elis’ frustration with the police when he was a cabbie. He believed they picked on him because of his heavy Greek accent. In Escape, there are only three pyramid shaped pieces. One represents the cabbie and the other two, the police. The cabbie’s objective is to lose the police to avoid paying a steep fine for some traffic infraction in five moves or less. At least, this is what motivates poor Elis when he’s playing!

Elis uses wood from discarded furniture to make his games and despite his experience as a cabbie, he’s a proud New Yorker. In fact, some of his pieces resemble the towers under construction at the new World Trade Center. While Elis never made it big with his games, he makes them for his own edification while “trying to make fun of the world.” As if to emphasize this, he quotes, “business with no sign is a sign of no business.” 

Greek Odyssey in Brooklyn

As I waited for my egg and cheese at the Greek diner by my home, I was pleasantly surprised to find a map of Greece on my place mat. I found the island of Chios far east of Athens in the North Aegean Sea where Anna’s parents are from. Anna Almiroudis is an experienced scientist with an education in biology and toxicology. She spent her summers in Chios as a child. Her grandparents were farmers and today her family still on the island continue to maintain their connection with the land. They grow herbal teas and belong to the growers association that cultivates mastic, a precious resin from an indigenous shrub that grows only on this island.

Anna started making skincare products for fun on the side when she worked for the NYC Department of Health. Soon this fun transformed into passion. Like the meaning of her company’s name, Anthesis, Anna began to bloom. Anna’s creations are handmade with botanical oils, floral waters like rose water and herbal extracts. Intending to create a line of organic skincare products that go beyond pleasing the senses, Anna eschews tap water, fragrances, dyes and other chemicals like parabens. The Anthesis approach to skincare is holistic; the creams and salts are meant to heal and rejuvenate.

While Anthesis is located at The Shops on Front Street in DUMBO, Anna’s heart is warmed by the Grecian sun. Her nostalgia for those summers on Chios naturally led her to choose golden tears of mastic as a key ingredient for Anthesis Organic Skincare products. Mastic from Chios, known since antiquity, has antimicrobial and healing properties that regenerate the skin. And so this Greek Odyssey stretches from the islands of the North Aegean Sea to Brooklyn in the Archipelago of New York.

The Spirit of Brooklyn

Last night, I invited my good friend Keith out to a talk on the subject of sacred books at the Rubin Museum. While I admittedly am very wary of social media platforms like Facebook, Keith's life practically floats on them. So, there we were waiting to hear about how centuries old religious texts were created and illuminated for the benefit of the masses discussing what medium I may use to produce something of value for the benefit of my online friends. Inevitably, Keith, who's company ITESA just launched the SocialGogo brand to educate ignoramuses like me about social media, brought up Facebook and I immediately went on the defense.

Still, I don't want to make my first authentic post about Facebook vs Twitter vs Google and all the rest. I'd rather write about why I want to blog in the first place. Without a reason, I’m just making more unnecessary noise in cyberspace. So, here’s why: I want to share my experiences with the people I meet on Made in Brooklyn Tours. These people inspire me and, more than that, they inspire my guests. No doubt, my guests go on to inspire their friends and family. It's a beautiful thing. These experiences give my life and hopefully the lives of others meaning. When I'm designing, leading, talking and, yes, even dreaming about my tours I'm very happy and, let’s face it, the world could be a bit happier.

When we take a coffee break on my tours, we meet people like Mike and Jim at the Brooklyn Roasting Company who are dedicated to making coffee green in every possible way. From the Fair Trade, Organic, Rainforest Alliance certified coffees and Loring Kestel 83% fuel efficient coffee roaster to its delivery by way of biodiesel powered vans and bicycles. When we visit an illustrator, we may meet Jane at Foxy & Winston who designs and creates her own line of stationery and textiles using screen printing and letterpress techniques on recycled or cotton paper with water based inks in her cozy little shop on Van Brunt Street. And when we visit a chocolatier, we may visit the brothers Mast who really do make their chocolate from beans to bar, some of it sailed – yes, sailed – directly from the Dominican Republic.

Making anything in Brooklyn is challenging. The tallest building in Brooklyn is a condo. The construction of new residential developments is relentless.  It’s surprising that any real estate is preserved for industry. And the regulations that manufacturers face here are onerous. Yet, if one gets to know Brooklyn as I have, one can find start-ups like the Red Hook Winery making significant investments for the production of wine right here in Brooklyn and others like Pastosa’s Ravioli that have persevered and even thrived for decades. I want to share about the people behind these companies because their story is about the spirit of Brooklyn.