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Norman Rockwell café coming to Three Village?
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Stony Brook is on its way to becoming the home of Bill Sukow's latest business venture: Norman Rockwell's Café & General Store.
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| | | The entrepreneur’s concept, shown here at a Massachusetts site, is for a ‘family friendly’ eatery serving ‘American comfort food.’ Bill Sukow is hoping to bring his idea to reality in Stony Brook and three other Long Island locations.
Photo courtesy of Bill Sukow (click for larger version) | |
Sukow, who owned the Bayport House restaurant for seven years until 2007, first visited the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., in February 2008. During his second visit a year later, Sukow, 41, said he realized what a "great concept" it would be to incorporate Rockwell's art in an Americana-style restaurant. Upon returning home, the lifelong Sayville resident contacted the Norman Rockwell estate and pitched his idea, quickly gaining approval from the Norman Rockwell Licensing Company.
"When I saw the impact that Norman Rockwell's images had on everyone who walked through the museum's door, I knew that his work and the style and honesty in which he captured America and Americans would translate superbly into a restaurant concept," Sukow said. "Americans are yearning to return to what still feels like the halcyon decades which encompass the 1920s through the '60s."
Now the founder and CEO of Rockwell Cuisine Concepts, Sukow said his goal is to open 10 restaurants in the next three to five years, including four on Long Island. Having researched the demographics of several possible locales on the Island, the CEO said Stony Brook not only meets the ideal criteria of having a strong chamber of commerce and being a "destination location" but also possesses elements that are "over and above what we were looking for," such as the hospital, university and proximity to the Port Jefferson Ferry.
With plans to establish the four Long Island locations on the North Shore, South Shore, East End and Nassau County, Sukow, a former food and beverage director for Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts, said the Norman Rockwell-themed restaurants will serve "American comfort food" such as chicken pot pie, southern fried chicken and apple pie. He noted that the menu will also be "very moderately priced," adding to the "family friendly" feel of the eatery.
While he searches for suitable property in Stony Brook, Sukow said he recently put in an offer for a site in Massachusetts and hopes to open the first two restaurants simultaneously. The CEO, who has received numerous emails inquiring about the Rockwell project, said his idea seems to have "struck a chord" with people across the nation. "We are in the midst of a life-changing earthquake that continues to share the financial foundations and preconceptions of what the American dream consists of and what it promises and delivers," he said. "The past decade's consumer-driven materialistic yardstick that had replaced America's core values is being dismantled, and Americans are reconsidering their lives and the guiding principles of their very existence. All of us are rediscovering what quality of life means, and the experiences and activities that really matter."
To help develop his concept, Sukow has retained New England-based consultant and designer Joyce Faiola, whose career milestones include the Hard Rock Café and John Harvard's Brewhouse. Having worked in the hospitality industry for more than two decades, Faiola said she seldom feels the "tingling sensation" she felt after learning about Sukow's project. "I hadn't even read the details when I knew that I had to be an integral part of this," she said, "and I also knew that this entire concept, done correctly and located in the right places, would become bigger than Bill or myself ... I am thrilled that Bill invited me to join him in this glorious endeavor that will quickly become 'the best of America.'"
Mary Seitz-Pagano, licensing director of the Norman Rockwell Licensing Company, acknowledged Sukow's project as a "great idea" and said, "In representing the Rockwell family, we only license concepts that incorporate the Rockwell name in the highest and most positive image. Mr. Sukow's concept has provided us with that image."
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