|
Fairhaven Hardware & Garden Owners: Larry Foster and Rebecca Wiswell
It’s not your big-box hardware store with rows and rows of tools and supplies. Then again, Fairhaven isn’t a big-box neighborhood. Fairhaven Hardware & Garden fits like one of its gloves in a 2,500-square-foot building. Like most of the district’s businesses, it’s an owner-operated shop. Larry Foster mans the counter at the hardware store while his wife, Rebecca Wiswell, owns and operates Rebecca’s Flower Shoppe just a block up the hill. While dwarfed by Home Depot, Hardware Sales and even the hardware department at Fred Meyer, Fairhaven Hardware & Garden has an important advantage: It’s the only hardware store in Fairhaven, which has lacked one for at least 20 years. “Customers were always coming into the flower shop and asking where the hardware store was,” Foster remarks. Despite its small size, Fairhaven Hardware & Garden offers a wide range of products — many of them listed on its Web site. The store carries tools, electrical and plumbing parts, paint supplies and much more. For yard and garden enthusiasts, Foster offers seeds, fertilizer, gloves, rakes and bird feed. After experiencing what Foster described as a “tremendous response” from the community in the store’s first week, he already was reordering some gardening and plumbing items. Foster also is compensating for the store’s small size by placing online orders that can bring products to the store within a day or two. “I just did a custom order for a child’s hammer,” he remarks. Before opening the store, Foster was an assistant manager for the Whatcom Farmers Co-op store on Meridian Street for seven years and then ran Country Lane Gardens, a custom pond and waterfall business. “It was a time in my life to work smarter, not harder,” he says with a chuckle. Not that the store will be a piece of cake. Until a solid customer base is established, Foster will running the store by himself, but he vows to keep consistent hours and not repeat the mistake of some Fairhaven businesses. “Time and persistence” will be the keys to success for the store, he says. — Dave Brumbaugh
Giuseppe’s Italian Restaurant Owners: Giuseppe Mauro
As day becomes night, the atmosphere changes dramatically at Giuseppe’s Italian Restaurant in downtown Bellingham. The lunchtime crowd is a mix of businesspeople, tourists and mothers with young children. The dining room has a warm and outgoing feel, complemented by floral arrangements and awash in light from the large streetfront windows and the skylight. As the sun falls below the horizon, the dining room becomes cozy and intimate. Candlelight gives a glow to the flowers at each table and bounces softly off the brick wall. From Thursday through Sunday, the romantic mood is accentuated by live piano music. For Giuseppe Mauro, the site across the street from the Parkade was perfect. “It’s a charming building,” he says. “I was able to create what I had in mind.” Mauro, a native of Sicily, wanted to create the warmth of a café in Italy. His renovations included faux balconies, each draped with flowers, to take advantage of the high ceilings. Mauro has years of international hotel and dining experience, having worked in London, Paris, Frankfurt and the Cayman Islands. He owned and operated an Italian restaurant in Langley at the southern end of Whidbey Island for five years before moving to Bellingham. Giuseppe’s Italian Restaurant features cuisine from both Northern Italy, known for its creamy sauces, and Southern Italy, where tomato-based sauces with herbs reign. Menu choices include pasta, seafood, beef, chicken and lamb. The wine list includes Italian and domestic selections. A small lounge near the entrance gives customers a chance to unwind. The restaurant also has an upper-floor banquet room that can seat some 50 people for groups or when the main floor is full. Total seating capacity is 130 people. The building has been the home of fine-dining restaurants with mixed experiences. Most recently, il Fiasco enjoyed a 12-year run before closing in 1999. BoZak only lasted a year before shutting its doors in September. Mauro says the key to his restaurant’s success is consistency in the food, presentation and service and making every effort to accommodate customers. “When they ask for extra things, we are there to say yes,” he emphasizes. — Dave Brumbaugh
Front Street Home Furnishings Owners: Steve Sr. and Daisy Sandstedt
Just about any new business is welcomed by other merchants in their community, but the sigh of relief in downtown Lynden was quite audible when it was announced that Front Street Home Furnishings was coming to town. Steve Sr. and wife Daisy Sandstedt announced early this year they were leasing the 25,000-square-foot store building and 20,000-square-foot warehouse. Both were formerly occupied for many years by the Alsum & Bode furniture store, which closed in September 2000. The closure was the biggest of a series of blows to downtown Lynden because Alsum & Bode drew customers from throughout and beyond Whatcom County. The resulting empty building was the biggest vacancy downtown. The rejoicing in Lynden was amplified when the community learned the Sandstedts weren’t Johnny-come-lately newcomers to furniture sales. The family has worked in the furniture industry since 1963, specializing in wholesale furniture, and opened Sanasco, a 78,000-square-foot furniture store, in Tukwila in 1986. After being opened only a week, Front Street Home Furnishings already had drawn customers from throughout the county, including some who had shopped at the Tukwila store. Both stores offer medium- to high-end products aggressively priced, says store manager Steve Loeffler, a longtime Lynden resident who is one of eight employees. Besides upholstered (fabric and leather) sofas and chairs, the stores offer formal and casual dining-room sets, bedroom furniture for adults and children, home-office furnishings and lamps and other accessories. “The only difference between the stores is the physical look,” remarks Loeffler, noting that the Tukwila store is in a warehouse while the Lynden store has more of a traditional look. Although Lynden is about 20 miles from Bellingham and off Interstate 5, Loeffler says the success of Alsum & Bode proves a good furniture store can thrive in the community. The keys to success for Front Street Home Furnishings are good merchandise, good selection and excellent pricing. “Word of mouth will drive the business,” he states. — Dave Brumbaugh
|
||