To say the restaurant business is in Greg Smeader’s blood would be an understatement.  The Michigan native has been working in the industry since he was 10. He's done everything from washing dishes to cooking and baking in his family’s restaurant back home.  When he was 18, he moved to California and opened a pizza company, and after settling in Florida in 1989, he went on to take a job as the food and beverage director for a Las Vegas casino that had five restaurants under its roof. His sister also owns the popular Dunedin breakfast joint Brenda’s on the Causeway. So Smeader knows what he’s …

Young Nas Hadjiat got a call from his family while he was studying mathematics and computer programming at a Parisian university. They told him to come home. They were moving to America. Hadjiat packed his belongings and rushed back to his native country of Algeria, located in northern Africa across the Mediterranean Sea from France, to immigrate with his parents and younger brother and sister. The family had been awarded Green Cards through the United States’ Diversity Immigrant Visa Program which gives about 50,000 permanent resident cards a year in countries with low immigration rates. …

Can a personal chef ever be compatible with a tile installer whose dream is to own a hot dog cart? Apparently, the answer is yes, at least according to eHarmony, where Nick Annenos, the owner of Oceanside Tile Installation, was matched with Susan Norton, a personal chef.   Annenos had always wanted to own a hot dog cart for when his tiling business was slow. He thought it would be fun way to meet people and it was easier on his knees. On the other hand, Norton cooked for families and people with special diets. She had moved to Pinellas County from New York after the tragedy of 9/11. When she …

Bayshore Pizza, the popular eatery located just north of downtown on Bayshore Boulevard, has reopened under new ownership after being closed for two months.  Dwayne Wright, a native of Syracuse and co-owner of a residential energy solution company, recently took over the business from former owner Eric Johanson. His good friend and fellow New Yorker Josh Cook is serving as his manager and main chef.  Despite having no previous restaurant experience, Wright was confident he could be successful because he knew he was inheriting a solid business, thanks to a standard of excellence the previous …

Rondell McNeil, a former college football player and Pennsylvania native, never saw himself as a barbershop owner. "My mother was a hairdresser and I grew up going with her to hair shows and competitions. We both had trophies" he laughs. “Hers for hairstyles. Mine for football. "I only thought of hair from my mother’s world: styling women’s hair. So I got a job as a bricklayer, but after a few years I looked down at my beaten up fingers and thought, I have got to find something else to do. I guess all those years with my mom seeped through because I decided to open a barbershop. I started out…

Organic cafes, markets and stores are all the rage throughout the country, and they have only grown in popularity over the years as people continually strive to eat healthier.  But Jai Hambly, a college-educated landscape architect and master gardener at the newly re-located Organic Living Garden Center on Patricia Avenue, wants people to know that eating organic is not good enough when it comes to getting the most out of our food.  The problem, according to Hambly, is not with the products coming out of the soil, but with the actual soil itself.  “Plants need roughly 90 minerals to be …

New owners Ali and Nadine Ismail work together from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. seven days a week at Benedicts Restaurant. They have have three children and have been married for 14 years.  When asked how they do it, Nadine responds, “We just get along,” and Ali matter-of-factly adds with a contagious smile, “She runs the front. I run the back.”    Benedicts is tucked in the back of Causeway Plaza. The front porch is dog friendly and the owners just added gelato to the menu so that on hot afternoons visitors from Honeymoon Island can enjoy a cool sweet treat. The owners have already renovated the …

Wildlife artist Ernest C. Simmons' seemingly effortless depictions of birds transport you to the shore, to the Everglades, out into the wild scrublands and finally catapult you into the heavens. Simmons was fascinated by birds as a child and spent his free time sketching them. He is one of those rare people who knew what he wanted to do from a young age, and so he concentrated on advancing his knowledge of art and birds. Growing up in Clearwater, he started volunteering at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary, the largest wild bird hospital in the U.S. In his 19 years as a volunteer, and later as …

After retiring from the communications industry, Tom Cruden was ready to follow his passion. He wanted to create a business that combined the two loves in his life: his family and firearms. In May of 2011, he did just that when he opened JCT Arms on State Road 580 (next to Tiny Treasures Boutique and Consignment Store and across the street from the new Neighborhood Walmart store).  JCT stands for Joan, Chris and Tom. Joan is Tom’s high school sweetheart and wife and Chris is one of the couple’s three sons who owns the business with them. Like his father, Chris Cruden grew up with a passion …

Being a high school teacher is not usually a prerequisite for owning a small business.  But it certainly helps when you have the smarts to know what type of business can be successful in a particular area, and also how to sustain that success over a long period of time  For Ghada Abdo, a Palm Harbor resident of Lebanese descent, four years of teaching history at Pinellas Park High might have been the ideal preparation for running her own business. After just one month, her International Food Mart on Overcash Drive is quickly becoming a success, thanks to the area's varied ethnic communities…

“A tattoo is art that you wear on your body forever, so you better have a love affair with what you choose,” says Jason Leigh, custom tattoo artist and owner of Plush Gallery Tattoo. That is why when a client sets an appointment with me to get a tattoo, we sit down and talk about their ideas, what they love, what their passions are, and I draw up an initial sketch. Then we take that sketch and critique it, rip it apart, change things until it is perfect. Once my client is happy, I draw up the final design. Everything I do is one-of-a-kind, after the tattoo is finished, if the client doesn’t …

Art has always been in Mary Lou Meyer's blood. For more than 50 years, she has used her art degree to teach students of all ages, from grade school to college, and she has owned galleries across the country, from Florida to Wyoming to Colorado.  But Dunedin has been Meyer's home, either part-time or full, for almost 25 years, and it’s where she chose to put down roots and become a fixture in the local art scene.  So it comes as no surprise that her shop 7 Arches Gallery & Boutique has quickly become a favorite with area artists. In fact, she has grown so quickly that she recently moved into a…

Lisa Bever and her husband didn’t think she would ever be a mother. The couple had given up hope after multiple miscarriages and years of infertility. Then, nine years later, Bever discovered she was pregnant. She was ecstatic, but she also felt conflicted about her future. She had dreamed of a baby for so long that she couldn’t bear the thought of putting her child into daycare. What kind of job could she get where she could be with her child? Could she start her own business and raise her daughter? Should she open something that would help other mothers make money so they could be home with…

The Carson brothers, Jack and David, grew up in Gridley, Illinois, a small town of about 900 people. They were the two youngest of five children. Six years older, Jack Carson jokes that he got to be the baby of the house until first grade when Dave was born and replaced him. On March 31, 1962. when Jack and David were ages 13 and 7, respectively, their father opened a pest control company. Both boys went to work for their father right away: knocking on doors, giving away flyers and Jack sprayed houses on the weekends and all during the summers. All the money they made was saved for college. …

“Becoming a mother is what really woke me up,” Gina Vincelli, a skincare technician since 1996, tells me in her Dunedin business Awaken Organic Skincare & Boutique. “The chemicals that women get exposed to in their beauty treatments can be dangerous, and I felt obligated to let them know what they were putting on their skin.” In 2004, Vincelli thought she could advance her career by becoming a licensed medical esthetician, but it turned out that working in doctors offices was more disheartening than invigorating. “Women would walk in the front door and sneak out the back door,” she says. She …

What I like about the Gulf Coast Skate Shop is that you can walk in — as a very ignorant dorky parent (like me) — and get patient, knowledgeable and unpretentious help. Another plus for parents is that Gulf Coast Skate Shop emphasizes rider safety and sells a full line of the best protective gear. They support the Ian Tilmann Foundation, which was began after a local skater, Ian Tilmann, suffered a fatal brain injury from a longboarding accident. The foundation gives out free helmets to skaters who promise to wear them. Rob Vaillancourt Jr., the owner of the shop, built his childhood love for…

  Meet the Moms and Pops brings you, the last-minute shopper (wink, wink), some holiday gift ideas from a few of the local businesses we have interviewed this year. But by all means, poke around in shops nearby and shout out gift ideas you find so others may benefit! For Women Whether it is spicy or cozy, find the perfect gift for the woman in your life at Lace Lingerie. Our pick is the Hanky Panky panty. It is one-size-fits-all so you won’t look like a dodo for buying the wrong size, and it is both sexy and comfortable. (How did lingerie come to downtown? Read more.) If jewelry is what makes…

In early 2010, Kim Engle found the space on Broadway to rent and was excited about her store, but after she signed the lease and looked around at her new storefront she started to cry. Engle never imagined herself as a small business owner. But in the eight years she had been a massage therapist, both studios where she worked went bankrupt and she felt unwilling to start over at a third business that might also fail. She was ready to be in charge and know what was going on behind the scenes.   So in 2010, with the support of her husband and her mother, she opened Pure Harmony Massage Studio …

For many years, Michael Angelo Russo served up Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes to children who ate at The Covered Bridge Restaurant. One day, he decided to surprise his waitress’s son with a flapjack that looked remarkably like Godzilla. The 6-year-old was thrilled and offered up a long list of pancake designs with each subsequent visit. “Customers caught wind of what I was doing and began making requests,” Russo said as he scrolled through photos of incredibly detailed pancakes stored on his cell phone.   Russo has served up pancakes shaped like Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Sponge Bob Square Pants…

After 15 years of running edible bouquet shop Kookie Krums, owner Kelly McMurtey thought of one person to buy the business: longtime customer Janet Long. “She was so creative,” McMurtrey says of Long. “She would throw these amazing birthday parties for her daughter, and I thought she was perfect for the job. I called her and asked her if she knew anyone who might want to buy Kookie Krums. But really I wanted her to buy it.” It turns out the timing was perfect for Long. After quitting her job as an office manager at an insurance company to care for her ailing young daughter, she was ready to …