Business Vacation: Local shops in Red Hook need R&R too

Frank Morales opened F & M Cafe on Van Brunt Street about 21 years ago. As the owner, it was hard for him to go on vacation while the business remained open. “I tried to leave the place open without me … and it didn’t work … too many complaints,” Morales explained.

After almost 15 years of limited time off, Morales finally felt that he’d built a strong enough rapport with the Red Hook community to close the cafe for the summer without risking the loss of his customers. So in 2021, he closed up shop for the first two weeks of August (their slowest month), and he took a trip.

The customers did indeed return after the two-week break, so Morales has continued to close  the shop in August each year. Two years ago he went to Dubai. This year he went to Greece. Next year, he is planning to visit Thailand. 

The closure also means well-deserved time off for his team, who get a fully paid two-week vacation in addition to the standard holidays throughout the year. 

F & M is not the only local Red Hook business to take a summer break. In fact, Morales’ former employer, Defonte’s, closes for two weeks every year around July 4. (Morales started working at Defonte’s when he was 15 and worked there for 18 years before opening F & M Cafe.)

Defonte’s manager Ray Rotondi, who has been with the sandwich shop for 18 years himself, isn’t sure exactly when the yearly break at Defonte’s began. “Into the ‘20s and ‘30s … I wouldn’t know, but as far as I can remember and as far as the stories they tell me, this was always the case,” Rotondi shares. 

Sarai Deras, a Defonte’s employee, visited family in Minnesota this past July during the break, but also uses the time to just rest at home. Deras says this is her first job that gives her a paid two-week vacation. 

“They work six days a week; they work 10 to 12 hours a day; they’re on their feet,” Rotondi shares about the hard work his team puts in throughout the rest of the year. 

Another Red Hook business that takes an extended break every summer is 1811 Auto Repair on Van Brunt Street, which closes for a week around Labor Day. Like F&M Cafe, their summer break is a newer tradition.

“Once I got married and had a baby, my wife said … ‘We’re gonna go take a vacation,’” Jonathan Vorhies, a managing partner at 1811 Auto Repair recalls. That was five years ago; the Vorhies family now spends their Labor Day at Disney World every year. 

Vorhies says the place couldn’t run without him or the owner, Joe Abutel. “There are things that I know and that he doesn’t know, and there’s things that he knows that I don’t know,” Vorhies explains. So instead of taking staggered vacations they chose to close the business altogether for a summer break.

Readers might have noticed that Mark’s Pizza also shut down for two weeks this summer. However, that is not a yearly occurance. Tony Kokali, the owner of Mark’s for the past 20 years, closed temporarily in August to update the lighting and install a new showcase counter. 

“We would never close,” said Kokali. “The neighborhood needs me. And I need them too.”