Laundromat Owners Offer Olive Branch to Obama Supporters

Owners at Rogers Linen Services on Douglas Avenue removed a controversial sign against President Barack Obama, and in its place, painted another message.

Victor and Karen Rogers don't want any hard feelings left over from their political statement in the 2012 election. Their sentiment is painted on a storefront window at Rogers Linen Services, Inc. in the same place a controversial sign suggesting President Barack "Obama Can Kiss My Ass" for his July "You Didn't Build That" campaign speech in Roanoke, VA. To get off on better footing in 2013, Victor Rogers had another message painted in his store window a week before the president's inauguration on Jan. 21: "The Election is over the talk is done. My Party lost, your Party Won. So let us be friends, let argument pass. I'll hug my elephant, You kiss your Ass." It's a poem he found on Facebook, which is where he also found the "Kiss My Ass" …

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Meet the Moms & Pops

New Owners at Jolli Mons Give Restaurant A Fresh Start

Charming new owners Danny and Winsil Falcone are infusing the kitchen and menu at Jolli Mons Grill with some unique international touches.

New owners of Jolli Mons Grill — Danny Falcone, a New York Italian, and Winsil Falcone, his Filipino wife — may have very different favorite fare, but one thing they both agree on is fresh, homemade food. Like Jolli menu items wontons and wild berries, you might question the Falcones as a perfect pairing, but Winsil, with her bright smile and Pacific breeze hinted accent, matches his bravado with her own special charm. The couple met almost a decade ago while Falcone was on vacation in the Philippines. It was love at first sight, but it would take almost two years to convince U.S. Immigrations that they intended to marry. Once Winsil Falcone was in the United States, they wed and she began working at Falcone’s self-named Oklahoma City …

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Good Neighbors

Kindness Returns to Dry Cleaner Offering Help to Unemployed

Owners at Causeway Cleaners hung a sign in the window offering free dry cleaning to people in need and received a surprising act of kindness in return.

The storefront of Steve and Peggy Milby's dry cleaning business blends into the landscape of strip malls and vacant lots off of Dunedin's Bayshore Boulevard.  With Florida's unemployment rate hovering around 8.1 percent, according to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, the small business owners asked themselves what, if anything, could they do to help. Then, a sign. Three months ago, Steve Milby added a large white sign in the window of Causeway Cleaners, his 25-year business tucked snugly in the far corner of Causeway Plaza. It sticks out among a clutter of colorful stickers and miniature suction-cupped signs honoring his dogs, who've also worked there. The sign contains a heartening message in large, red capital letters: IF YOU ARE …

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Meet the Moms & Pops

Meet Dunedin's Top 'Moms & Pops' of 2012

Local business owners have intrigued us, inspired us, and captured our hearts. Today, we highlight the 10 business owners you loved reading about the most.

You've been getting to know some of Dunedin's small business owners with us throughout the year in a regular feature we call "Meet the Moms & Pops." Many local business owners have shared the story of their successes and struggles. They have intrigued us, inspired us, and captured our hearts. And today, as we look back on 2012, we highlight the 10 stories that you loved the most.  Of course, you can read the stories behind all the local merchants we've featured anytime you want. Visit them here on a special page we dedicated just for them! Or do them a big favor: find their shop in the Dunedin Patch directory and leave a nice review. Your review helps connect your favorite, hard-working small business owners with more customers, so it's an…

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Meet the Moms & Pops

For New Owners of Dunedin Smokehouse, Living Room, Opportunity Knocked Twice

Philip and Tammy Renaud are the new proprietors of both the Dunedin Smokehouse and The Living Room in downtown Dunedin.

Opportunity knocked twice for Philip Renaud and wife Tammy. The couple recently acquired The Living Room and The Dunedin Smokehouse restaurants on Main Street in downtown Dunedin. Renaud has worked for the last 12 years in the Boston area as a wine consultant and restaurant designer specializing in custom wine cellars. He said a few years ago he and his wife started looking to acquire their own restaurant. The couple's dream was to find "a small place near the water on Florida’s west coast," where he could feature some of his special recipes and share his love of good wine. The couple started their search along the Sunshine State’s Gulf coast, looking at places from Clearwater to Fort Myers. Fate had bigger ideas. In October, he was able …

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Meet the Moms & Pops

All Religions Welcome at Enchanted Spirits

“Spirituality should not be something that is hidden or be ashamed of, and the businesses that guide you on your path shouldn’t be either,” owner Kathy Vogt explains.

The journey to small business ownership is as much a spiritual as it is entrepreneurial for the Vogts. “She has always wanted a place like this,” Barry "Bear" Vogt says. Bear and wife Kathy Vogt opened downtown metaphysical shop Enchanted Spirits, which is tucked on the cozy corner of Broadway and Scotland Avenue, on the fall equinox of 2010. The shop offers tools to help guide people in their search for spiritual knowledge and enlightenment “Spirituality should not be something that is hidden or be ashamed of, and the businesses that guide you on your path shouldn’t be either,” Kathy Vogt explains. “We welcome every religion here. We are all seeking and sometimes we need encouragement to ask questions in love and safety." Worklife wasn't …

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Meet the Moms & Pops

Inspiration Takes Flight at Lucie-Mae's Beach House

Deb Gelerter left the corporate world for a new life producing custom-painted, vintage furniture and original paintings. Now she's paying forward to others the inspiration she finds in Honeymoon Island.

Deb Gelerter vividly remembers her first visit to Honeymoon Island. “I knew I had to live here as soon as my feet hit the sand,” Gelerter, an artist who owns Lucie-Mae’s Beach House. While her piggies sunk into the granules, she began brainstorming how to move away from the corporate life that was ticking-off its vacation days. “No other place speaks to me like Honeymoon does," she says. "I try to explain how it makes me feel, but I can’t … so I paint.”   Gelerter began creating a working studio to sell her paintings. But she wanted to fill more than just the walls. “A few years ago, I painted a chest of drawers and eventually sold it on craigslist. A few weeks later, the buyer called me and asked if he could buy end tables to match. I …

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Meet the Moms & Pops

Fast Friendship Makes Consignment Store Twice as Nice

Who said don’t mix business and friendship? Two mothers, Leticia Estep and Andrea Garzon, went from friends to successful consignment business partners.

Leticia Estep spent her life in retail, starting at age 14. Now she is the part owner of a women's downtown consignment boutique, Twice as Nice.  “You have to pay attention in life because you may be learning skills that will help you later,” Estep says. She worked for Grendha, a Brazilian shoe company, and did trade shows across the United States. She worked as a retail CEO’s assistant, and later, in fragrance for L’Oreal and Liz Claiborne. She first became passionate for consignment stores when she was looking for work after her divorce. She found a part-time position at Second Time Around, a consignment shop (that is now closed) in Tarpon Springs. “I thought the consignment store was really cool and I said, ‘I want to have one of these…

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24-Hour Diner Comes to Main Street

Greg Smeader has been in the restaurant business since he was 10 years old, and he believes an all-night diner can succeed in Dunedin.

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 talking about when he says a 24-hour diner can succeed in Dunedin, and he hopes his recently opened Our Place Restaurant can fill a void he feels is …

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Meet the Moms & Pops

At New Barbershop, Every Chair Gets a Flat Screen

Owner Rondell McNeil says he wants clients at In the Cut Barbershop to feel like home.

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 small, in Pennsylvania, and grew the business, taking the profits from one store and using it as capital to open the next. And his barbershop, which …

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