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.