BINGHAMTON — Taste of Europe, a Binghamton restaurant serving Ukrainian, Slovakian, and American cuisine, held its grand reopening ceremony at its new, larger — and newly renovated — location at 440 Court St. on Jan. 21. The restaurant first reopened for patrons at the new location last Sept. 17, just in time for Binghamton […]
BINGHAMTON — Taste of Europe, a Binghamton restaurant serving Ukrainian, Slovakian, and American cuisine, held its grand reopening ceremony at its new, larger — and newly renovated — location at 440 Court St. on Jan. 21.
The restaurant first reopened for patrons at the new location last Sept. 17, just in time for Binghamton Restaurant Week. Owner Igor Shelestovsky and manager Kirsten Juhl say that was the plan to help boost turnout. “We were going to do what I call a soft opening,” before the official grand reopening, says Juhl, “but it wasn’t soft, we were actually pretty busy that week.”
The restaurant had been closed for about a year as the current building (a former Arby’s sandwich shop) was being overhauled. Shelestovsky himself did much of the renovating. It’s a decision that he estimates saved him between $20,000 and $40,000 over hiring outside contractors. He even worked in the unheated building during the winter months, according to Juhl.
The strong turnout after the not-so-soft opening was good news for the relatively young restaurant after coming off a one-year hiatus. Shelestovsky says he had been looking for a new location for a while. When he found the current property, Shelestovsky took out $60,000 in loans from First Niagara Bank, and borrowed another $40,000 from generous friends, for the move and renovations. He is leasing the space from the building’s owner, Elsayed Mohamed, who is also in the restaurant business.
Taste of Europe first opened in June 2011, in downtown Binghamton at 56 Court St., in a building Shelestovsky described as old, dirty, and in poor shape. “We had four tables there,” he says, and fewer than 1,000 square feet of space.
Juhl says Taste of Europe can seat about 45 in its current building, which is more than 2,500 square feet, although it has been given a 110 seat-capacity by the fire marshal’s office. The expanded size has brought in more revenue than the roughly $2,000 generated each week at the old location, says Shelestovsky, but he would like to see more growth and more consistency. At this point, he’s seeking to bring in between $1,200 and $1,500 each day. “I just want to be able to cover expenses.”
Business has slowed in recent weeks, though. “It was real busy for a while,” says Juhl. “We’re in a dip right now, but that happens this time of year” because people are recouping from holiday spending.
Shelestovsky isn’t making any excuses, though. He says he always hears that winter isn’t a good season for restaurants, “but I see people going out,” he says. “I think that one problem is still that not a lot of people know about us.” He says the staff is sending out flyers and using social media to give the restaurant more exposure. Overall, Juhl says she thinks the restaurant is doing pretty well.
The owner
Shelestovsky emigrated from Ukraine at age 36 with his wife, Olga, and four children in 1999 (they have five kids now). Work in Ukraine, he says, was varied and inconsistent. “Whatever you could make some money [on], you would just go and do it,” he says.
The family came to Binghamton because he had relatives in the area, he says. Shelestovsky found work as a bus driver for the Binghamton City School District, before moving laterally to Broome County Transit more than 10 years ago. He has been a full-time bus driver there ever since.
Because of work, he is only able to spend between one and two hours at the restaurant each weekday (on Saturdays, he is there all day.) “Just trying not to be in the way of the people who are working,” he says. “I’m trying to make sure … that everything is going as it should, that everything is not changing,” especially the quality of the food.
The idea of opening a restaurant came from Olga Shelestovsky, his wife, whose recipes are used for all of the Ukrainian and Slovakian dishes that she teaches to the cooks. Igor Shelestovsky says he needed some convincing. And, fewer than two and a half years after giving in and opening Taste of Europe, he closed its doors in the fall of 2013 as the switch to a bigger space began.
“This property was abandoned for a while. We did a little to fix the landscaping, but I want to do more,” says Shelestovsky. “I want to change more of the shape from the outside. I want to give more of [an] old country experience when you see it.”
He also would like to hire more people, which Juhl says she is working on. She is the only full-time employee, with between 10 and 15 part-timers filling all other positions. Shelestovsky says he also wants to raise everyone’s pay. “My goal is so that I will be able pay them at least $14 to $15 an hour.” Several of his employees currently earn minimum wage, he says.
Taste of Europe recently expanded its hours to include breakfast (mostly American items, says Juhl, with some quiches as well) and opening on Sundays. The eatery also expanded its lunch and dinner menus.
President Obama’s prolific use of social media allows him to set the agenda and frame the debate. Those who are loudest in the media tend to drown out their competitors regardless of whose reasoning is better. Many media outlets published the unedited footage of the 2015 State of the Union address online. The White
President Obama’s prolific use of social media allows him to set the agenda and frame the debate. Those who are loudest in the media tend to drown out their competitors regardless of whose reasoning is better.
Many media outlets published the unedited footage of the 2015 State of the Union address online. The White House published its own version, a split screen between the footage of the speech and a slide show of images, graphs, and quotes generated to support the speech.
Consider just one paragraph and the accompanying slides from the 2015 State of the Union address.
Halfway through, President Obama boldly proclaimed, “Let’s close the loopholes that lead to inequality by allowing the top 1 percent to avoid paying taxes on their accumulated wealth. We can use that money to help more families pay for child care and send their kids to college. We need a tax code that truly helps working Americans trying to get a leg up in the new economy and we can achieve that together. We can achieve it together.”
The slide says, “The $210 Billion Trust Fund Loophole: Unlike middle-class families, the wealthiest use this tax loophole to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes on investment gains — like stock profits —that they pass down to their heirs.” At the bottom, the slide proudly displays, “#MiddleClassTaxCuts.”
Policy analysts have interpreted this “trust fund loophole” to mean that Obama has his crosshairs set on inherited investments. But no one believes such legislation will pass. In fact, influencing Congress to pass new legislation is not Obama’s intent here. Instead, he is trying to divide the country, both with his quote and with his slides.
In his speech, Obama separates the country into two groups, “we” and “the top 1 percent.” He claims that “we,” presumably including him, have lofty goals of helping people — goals “we can achieve together.” Meanwhile, them, “the top 1 percent,” are opposed to these plans, he says.
These adversaries are able to “avoid” taxes, never mind that they do not legally owe them. The fact they don’t owe them is a so-called loophole, implying the intent of the law was for them to owe this tax.
The tax, according to Obama, should be on the enemy’s “accumulated wealth.” Of course, the phrase “accumulated wealth” is chosen, as though money just drifts into their bank accounts without intention or effort. Words like “savings” or “earnings,” although equally accurate, might leave listeners with the impression that the enemy deserves to keep some of it.
Class warfare like this preys on the stereotype of ostentatious consumption while actually targeting people who live well below their means. It subverts the reward of success and prudence.
A 5-year-old girl with a piggy bank and no debt has a higher net worth than 80 percent of medical-school graduates, 15 percent of U.S. households (46 million people), and the bottom 30 percent of the world combined. And that’s just because she has a few pennies to her name.
Let’s be clear about what leads to wealth inequality. Imagine you and I each earned an after-tax income of $50,000 last year. You spend $42,500, and I spend all
of my income. You have a net worth of $7,500. I have a net worth of $0. An inequality of $7,500 exists between our accumulated wealth. If both of us continued this way every year, our inequality would grow to $15,000, then $22,500, then $30,000. Fifteen years of plain savings on your part, and plain spending on mine, results in a $112,500 inequality between us. If you had saved and invested, that number would only be larger.
That’s why closing “the loopholes that lead to inequality,” even in Obama’s speech, takes the form of confiscating savings. Because there are always people with a net worth of zero, the only way to solve inequality is to attack the people who are financially responsible.
In his slides, Obama alludes to the stereotypical “trust fund kid” by titling it “Trust Fund Loophole,” even though, according to Janet Novack at Forbes, “the loophole Obama is aiming at has nothing to do with trusts.”
He uses this “trust fund” language to imply a separation between “the top 1 percent” and the ownership over these assets that is due to them. Inheritance or any other generosity of parents with their kids, almost uniquely, has the ability to anger everyone. Most people just hate heirs.
So after robbing these people of their savings, earnings, or inheritance, Obama says that “We”— the bank-robbing government — “can use that money” — the careful savings of someone else — “to help more families” — who also didn’t earn this money.
Regardless of how he plans on implementing this scheme, his intention is redistribution at its wickedest.
Although it is charitable when you donate money freely and willingly to the less fortunate, there is nothing commendable about forced redistribution. There is nothing admirable in being charitable with someone else’s resources.
Obama goes on to say, “We need a tax code that truly helps working Americans trying to get a leg up in the new economy.” We agree. Study after study shows that when you allow people to save and grow their savings with some tax advantage, it significantly encourages more savings. And savings are how working
Americans get a leg up in the economy.
We need a tax code that doesn’t confiscate our production and spend it on deadweight loss.
Obama seems to believe that inequality of accumulated wealth is morally wrong, while the forceful redistribution of unequal wealth is morally right. That is one of the primary tenets of socialism. Unfortunately, it is currently hip and cool among a large portion of the younger electorate.
However, the president’s war on production and thrift is evil. The forced redistribution of wealth has no moral value. Being generous with other people’s money is larceny, no matter how good the intentions.
The White House slide-show version of the State of the Union only amplifies this socialistic attitude. The American people should not tolerate this demagoguery. Class warfare will not help anyone.
David John Marotta is president of Marotta Wealth Management, Inc., which provides fee-only financial planning and wealth management at www.emarotta.com. Megan Russell studied cognitive science at the University of Virginia and now specializes in explaining the complexities of economics and finance at www.marottaonmoney.com
Editor’s Note: CNY Executive Q&A is a feature appearing regularly (about every month) in The Central New York Business Journal, authored by guest writer Jeff Knauss, who is president of his own digital-marketing firm. In each edition, Jeff chats with a different executive at a Central New York business or nonprofit, with the interview transcript appearing in
Editor’s Note: CNY Executive Q&A is a feature appearing regularly (about every month) in The Central New York Business Journal, authored by guest writer Jeff Knauss, who is president of his own digital-marketing firm. In each edition, Jeff chats with a different executive at a Central New York business or nonprofit, with the interview transcript appearing in a conversational Q&A format.
In this edition, Ispeak with Jay Yennock, owner of China Towne Furniture and Mattress, located on Milton Avenue in Solvay. China Towne’s familiar slogan is “The One Big Store in Solvay.” Jay lives in Camillus with his wife, Darla. They have two daughters, Michenzi, who just graduated from the University of Tampa, and Morgan Marzano, who joined China Towne in 2013 and is learning the family business.
JEFF: China Towne is a very interesting name. Can you tell me where the name came from and provide a little history about the business?
JAY: I get asked that a lot. In fact, we talk a little about our name in one of our newest commercials. My dad [John Yennock] owned a kitchen-cabinet factory in downtown Syracuse. The main store here in Solvay started as a China factory that manufactured dishes for almost 100 years in the late 1800s, until management eventually closed up, left all the dishes, all the equipment, and locked the door. My father bought the leftover dishes and sold most of the equipment in an auction. Because there were still a few China pieces around, he started selling the dishes and called it China Towne. He purchased the building and leased the rest out to Allied Chemical. That’s how we got our name “China Towne.”
JEFF: What attracted you to taking over the business? Was it something that you always knew you wanted to do, or was it a career decision you made over time?
JAY: You know, growing up in a family business, I had it different than most kids. At 10 years old, most of my friends went and fished, whereas I went to work with my dad. I got involved doing whatever needed to be done, but I was also playing all the time. A lot of times, there were dishes that needed to be thrown away, so I would spend my weekends breaking dishes. It was a ton of fun.
So growing up, I was involved in every aspect of the business. After I finished college in 1984 [with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing from SUNY Brockport], I decided that my heart was in the business and I started full time. I was involved in construction on the store, advertising, purchasing, selling merchandise, stocking the store, and basically whatever needed to be done.
JEFF: What do you like most about being a business owner?
JAY: The challenge, the change, creating something, and advertising the business. On a really good day, the most rewarding thing is seeing all the customers coming in and being happy with what you have in the store. They get their items delivered and are happy with their service. That’s what it is all about.
JEFF: What’s the biggest challenge that you have as a business owner?
JAY: When things don’t go well, that’s the biggest challenge. Also, when there’s a drop in business, you have to think and act quickly to make changes and bring your business back up.
JEFF: If I were to ask your employees what your leadership style is like, what do you think they would say?
JAY: I would hope they would say that I try to lead by example. I like to help people make informed decisions. I think they should know exactly what’s expected, what the parameters are to make any decision that they need to make, and if they make a decision that maybe I disagree with, we just talk about it. I ask, “How could we do that better? What was the outcome? Was it what we expected?” I like everyone to be on the same page for what is expected. Today, we have a really great team of 28 employees that are always striving to deliver a great customer experience.
JEFF: How long have you led China Towne as the owner of the business?
JAY: There was never really a date. There was never any hand off here, saying, “This is yours now.” I guess in 1984, I walked in, I came into the business full time … as vice president. At that time, I had enough experience to do media buying. I had enough experience to do purchasing, hiring, firing, and a lot of tasks. As the years went on, I took on more and more responsibility, and I guess in December 1990, when my dad passed away, that would be the passing of the torch for China Towne. But I had been heavily involved with the company’s decision making since 1984.
JEFF: Talk a little bit about China Towne’s culture. How has it evolved over the years and what steps have you taken to grow your vision of the culture of
China Towne?
JAY: My father started the business basically because we had dishes we had to sell and he was a true entrepreneur. He really liked to work at the business, and the details of the leadership roles were a little vague. When employees worked for the store back in the ‘70s and ‘80s and they wanted to take a day off, he’d say, “Just take a day off.” You want a raise, and he’d say, “We’ll talk about it.” So as time went on, I could not break that very loose culture. So we developed an employee manual. We created over a year’s worth of systems describing how we do things, how we define what we do, so that we would get the outcome we wanted. I think that was my direction with the business.
I just felt like I needed to surround myself with better people to bring the business to another level. In order to do that, people needed to know what they could expect from me to work here. We also needed to know, from their perspective, what I needed to do for them. I had a consultant help us with this process. The number one thing that we needed to do to make people feel that I cared about them was to put hot water in the building.
JEFF: Really, the number one thing?
JAY: It was number one. I said, “Hot water? What’s the problem?”
The employees told me, “You got to have hot water. People need to wash their hands.” I said, “All right, but that’s going to cost $1,000.” “But you’ve got to spend it,” they said. So we put the hot water in and that was miraculous. Everybody liked it.
It was so funny to me because I never really thought about that. We also discovered that we needed to communicate our expectations and I needed to give more praise to the employees. I grew up with the attitude that, “Okay, we got that job done. Let’s move on to the next one.”
JEFF: How has the Internet changed the face of the business and what are you doing to stay ahead of the curve?
JAY: Well, the Internet obviously has changed the way people shop, so we’ve had to really put a lot of time and effort into our website. We’re continually looking for ways to make the site better, get more product on our website that is relevant to people that we have in the store. We do a lot with our Facebook page and social media.
JEFF: Do you see the change as more of a positive or negative for China Towne?
JAY: Right now, I can’t say if it’s one or the other. We don’t have an online shopping cart so we’re not doing sales online. We get a tremendous amount of inquiries and respond to them. We try to work with the customers to get them in the store, provide a value for what they are getting in the store. If customers come in, they can sit on it, feel it, touch it, and we can show the fabrics. We can help show how it will work in their home and do more of a complete room rather than just buying that sofa on a website. Buying locally, you’ve got us for help and are supporting a business and people that give back to your own community.
About the author: Jeff Knauss is managing partner & president of a digital marketing firm, DigitalHyve.com, and has always been interested in hearing successful executives’ stories. He lives in Camillus with his wife Heta and son Max. For more, check out his blog at www.CnyCeo.org
Sending mass emails to the news media, government agencies, and community leaders has become the norm — yet it’s one of the least-effective ways to actually get through to real people. They know when they’re receiving a mass distribution and often ignore it; or maybe they don’t know, because it gets caught in their spam
Sending mass emails to the news media, government agencies, and community leaders has become the norm — yet it’s one of the least-effective ways to actually get through to real people. They know when they’re receiving a mass distribution and often ignore it; or maybe they don’t know, because it gets caught in their spam filter and they never even see it. Building relationships with key influencers requires having someone dedicated to constantly tracking information and cultivating the relationships.
Take time to read the news in the communities and industries where your organization does business. Get to know reporters through their stories, then maintain a media contact list. You may want to get some help to find the right contact initially, but then pay attention to changes in reporters’ assignment topics and their positions with the media outlet. Also, be diligent about investigating bounced emails and automated responses — they may point you in the direction of your next contact.
It’s equally important to research and identify individuals at the appropriate local and state government agencies, and community organizations, who have the most direct connection with your organization. Watch the proposals, positions, news, and other information coming out of that office. Look for event schedules and attend a few of the meetings that affect your business. Strategically send a note of support or congratulations; and then, when it’s appropriate, you can ask for a one-on-one meeting.
Another easy method for tracking reporters, government staff, and other community leaders is to follow them on Twitter. Engage with them on the topics that they are sharing, even if only to “favorite” or retweet one of their posts. This gets you on their radar.
When you spot an issue or trend that could be addressed by your organization, reach out to that reporter, government-agency staff member, or community leader to introduce yourself and share some helpful information, without directly promoting your organization. You’ll get your name in front of them and provide a bit of education that may develop into something larger in the future.
The more personalized your communications are, the more attention they’ll receive from any of these key influencers. Because electronic communications now dominate the way we speak to the world, having a dedicated individual communicating on your organization’s behalf and adding a personal touch to an otherwise automated process will go a long way toward making your communication stand out.
Finally, touch base with your contacts in the media, government agencies, and community organizations even when you’re not making a pitch or request. Remember, be human, be helpful, and find the right balance between being persistent and being patient.
Are you being heard?
Crystal (Smith) DeStefano is president and director of public relations at Strategic Communications, LLC, which says it provides trusted counsel for public relations, including media relations, employee relations, and community relations. Contact DeStefano at Crystal@stratcomllc.com
VESTAL, N.Y. — Binghamton University recently announced that it appointed Calvin Gantt as director of its Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), effective Feb. 12. Gantt comes
ALBANY, N.Y. — District-attorney offices in seven Central New York counties are among 28 offices statewide that will use state-grant funding to help their investigations
