Family ties hatch a small business community
Many families abide by tradition and routine, such as a nightly meal together, but rarely does a young family treat a public restaurant as its home dining room.
However, in the case of Emma and Buddy Sullivan — an immigrant couple who began raising a family in Brooklyn Heights in the 1950s — the couple and their three children came together night after night at Long Island Restaurant and Bar, the restaurant they owned and operated. They upheld the tradition even after Mrs. Sullivan’s two daughters married.
“They came from work with their children and we ate as a family every single day at the bar,” she explains.
In so doing, they unknowingly set a foundation that would serve as a draw for commerce and be built upon by future generations of the Spanish-Irish clan. Indeed, today, Mrs. Sullivan’s offspring — and their offspring — have followed in the stalwart businesswoman’s footsteps. Her granddaughter Marissa Alperin operates a custom jewelry business in the neighborhood and her grandson David Alperin opened a menswear boutique and art gallery nearby. Marissa’s husband John Lowe runs a fashionable children’s boutique next door, so that stylish spawn can match their fathers.