Business Profiles

After eight years we have shut down the ithacaBiz directory. Now we offer over a decade of local Tompkins County business profiles in the Lansing Star Online.

Northeast Pizza

: By Dan Veaner; Business Profiles; | Dec 7, 2006 |

Northeast PizzaIf you've picked up a pizza from the shop at the Small Mall recently you probably noticed a flyer taped to the box saying that Rogan's Northeast is now called Northeast Pizza. The sign hasn't been changed yet, but changes are coming. It's the same great pizza, but there is more coming according to new owner Steve Fazzary. "The actual name of the business is Northeast Pizza and Beer Company," he says. "We'll add the Beer Company to the name after we get the brew pub going."

Fazzary also owns the Laundromat two doors down. The space in between will become a brew pub by Spring. He envisions it as a unique place for adults to come. Fazzary plans to put an archway between the pizza side and the pub side to allow casual access between the two with the pub side geared toward adults and the pizza side for families, much as it has been. "They can sit down and have some pizza, some home brew," he says. "I'll probably carry some regular types of beers, plus some Ithaca Beer Company and some different micro-breweries stuff out of Syracuse. Just a beer and wine license, nothing fancy."

Nutritional Wellness Center

: By Dan Veaner; Business Profiles; | Jan 20, 2012 |

The thing is that sometimes doctors are stumped. For example, Irritable Bowel Syndrome is what doctors call cramping and other gut symptoms when they can't really pinpoint the cause. For some it causes mild discomfort, but for others it means debilitating lifelong symptoms. Oftentimes medicine does nothing to relieve patients. But dietary changes have been known to relieve or even eliminate them.

That's the idea behind Ithaca's Nutritional Wellness Center. After clients are evaluated a diet of whole foods and whole food supplements is prescribed. These are foods that humans are naturally built to assimilate, making feeling better a matter of directed lifestyle change, rather than a regimen of chemicals or partial food supplements.

On Demand Assistants

: By Dan Veaner; Business Profiles; | Dec 7, 2012 |

One of the challenges small businesses face is that they are, well... small. That reaches a threshhold where it is hard to get everything done, and customers tend to have more confidence in larger companies. One way companies address that today is to use virtual assistants. On Demand Assistants is an Ithaca company that is offering experience and quality services to small businesses.

"Executives at corporations have secretaries who work right outside their cubicle," says owner Jen Lindblad. "They can go to them for every little thing they need, whether it's reviewing their email, scheduling appointments, or setting up meetings. We offer those services virtually so you don't have to set us up with a computer and an office and benefits."

One of a Kind Orchard

: By Dan Veaner; Business Profiles; | Sep 4, 2008 |

Ray Reynolds has been having a love affair for 25 years that his wife actually encourages. Reynolds owns the One Of A Kind Apple Orchard on Buck Road in Lansing. "My orchard is the love of my life," he says. "It's a very comfortable thing. I enjoy it. There is history. There are varieties that 99% of the people around this area have never known or heard of."

And Reynolds is working on bringing many of them to Lansing. May, Pristine, Opalescent, Padukah, Sheet Nose, Margadale, Hudson's Golden Gem, Arkansas Black, Smokehouse, Yellow Transparent, Cox Orange Pippen, York Imperial, Gravenstein, and Nickojack are only a few of the 500 varieties in his orchard. Specializing in heirloom apples, he currently has 800 trees. His goal is to grow 1,000 varieties. To put this into perspective there are 7,000 apple varieties in the United States, with 17,000 around the world.

Paddle Rental Shop Opens at Myers Park

: By Dan Veaner; Business Profiles; | May 25, 2012 |

The entrance to the spit of land at Myers Point has boat racks where you can lock and store your kayak, canoe, or small sailboat. This summer two new racks have appeared, part of a new business located in the concessions building in Lansing's Myers Park. Paddle-N-More will be renting kayaks, canoes and stand-up paddle boards, and offering classes in paddling.

"I think it's a great location," says owner Jennifer Miller. "Last summer I thought, 'this is the perfect location for a rental shop.' I asked (Park Superintendent) Steve Colt, 'Are those rentals?' He said, 'No, but that's not a bad idea.' So I said, 'Let's talk soon.'"

PAMA Designs

: By Dan Veaner; Business Profiles; | Dec 14, 2006 |

PAMA DesignsAll visual media use light, but art glass uses it more than others, and is transformed as light is applied. Glass jewelry takes on this dynamic quality even more as the person wearing it moves from place to place. And when the pieces are very beautiful, the effect is almost magical. "I have always really liked glass," says Lansing Village artist Alice Horrigan. "I like the way it looks. I ran into some nice art glass jewelry at the Grassroots Festival and I fell in love with this dichroic glass."

Most artists can make art, but aren't as good at selling it. Horrigan stands out because in addition to producing beautiful work she is developing a wholesale business to sell it. Currently she is developing five lines of glass pendants and earrings that she can market to gift shops through her business, PAMA Designs. She decided to make the business full time last May, and has already begun finding shops to sell her work. She was recently invited to be one of the wholesalers to show at the American Craft Retailers Expo in Las Vegas next May.

Paradigm Shifts Life Coaching and Healing

: By Dan Veaner; Business Profiles; | May 28, 2009 |

Albert Einstein is widely attributed with having said, "The height of insanity is continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result." By that definition most of us are insane, repeating patterns of thought and behavior that we think is right, or we feel comfortable with, that our mothers taught us... and desperately hoping for a different result. Ravi Walsh's Paradigm Shifts Life Coaching and Healing helps clients to change those patterns by seeing reality in different ways.

"The reason our lives look the way they do is because we firmly believe with absolute conviction that that's the way it has to be," Walsh says. "Until we don't. That's the challenge of my work, to show people that that intangible belief is directly influencing tangible experiences they are having in their life."

People's Market

: By Dan Veaner; Business Profiles; | Feb 11, 2011 |

Many local artisans sell their products at seasonal markets, then have to store them until the next season. That's what Jay and Carol Engels were doing with products made from fiber from the alpacas and other animals on their farm. On top of that, Engels Accounting was beginning to outgrow the home office in the farm house. Their solution is to open a new marketplace in Lansing Plaza on East Shore Drive where they will not only move the accounting business and sell alpaca products year 'round, but provide a place for other local artists to sell the jewelry, fiber art and craft, and other things they make twelve months a year.

"People want hand made goods," Carol says. "And they want the quality of hand made. We decided we wanted to offer a place where people who just needed a ten dollar birthday gift could come to pick something up, because I felt we don't have that in Lansing. But then some of the artisans will have things in the $100 range. We have pottery, jewelry, a wood crafter, a quilt artist, fiber, knitting, quilting, purse making, slates, quite a bit. And a clown."

Pete St. John Design

: By Dan Veaner; Business Profiles; | Jul 16, 2009 |

Museum exhibits, trade show booths, store displays -- in a way they are taken for granted. But the best ones attract our attention, draw us in, and connect us to what we're seeing. Your booth design may make the difference between attracting new clients at a trade and wasting opportunities. A store display can make a huge impact on sales. Pete St. John makes that difference for his clients, and is having a great time running his own design business.

Pete St. John Design is a home based Groton business that has clients all over the country. St. John has designed exhibits for The Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, The Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science in Tallahassee, The New York State Military Museum, and the Rochester Museum and Science Center, displays for the Seward House, Mirrorshow Management, and in-store designs for Cartier and Cannon.

Plantsmen Nursery

: By Dan Veaner; Business Profiles; | May 18, 2006 |

Plantsmen NurseryHearty, unusual and indigenous plants. That's what Dan Segal wants to offer at the Plantsmen Nursery on Peruville Road. Segal is the new owner, taking over the nursery that was established in 1994 to provide unusual, specialty plants. The nursery reopened on May 6th and Segal says he wants to continue offering unusual plants with an emphasis on native plants and unusual perennials and shrubs, as opposed to annuals and tropical annuals. "I'm still doing some fun annuals, things like bananas and elephant ears and coleus, all kinds of fun annuals," he says. "But I hope the nursery will eventually be known as a native and unusual hearty plant nursery."

Pro Map, LLC

: By Dan Veaner; Business Profiles; | Mar 22, 2007 |

Pro Map, LLCWhen you check into a hotel you are given a card with information, a message from the hotel, and a map, including ads from local businesses and dining establishments. That's where you are likely to go, because the information is right there. "You go back home, keep the card it's too nice to throw away," says Lizette Odfalk, Area Manager of Pro Map, LLC, a company that produces the welcome cards. "You return to the hotel or recommended businesses. And the businesses would not be in the rack cards from the side of the front desk. Very few of us have time to go through hundreds of those things."

With years of experience in hotel management and marketing, Odfalk knows what brings repeat business to hotels. Her experience is matched by her enthusiasm for the cards and the potential for widening her market for them. "With human skills you can just sell anything," she says. "If you believe in the product it's even better. If it is bringing people back into the area and it is giving me a livelihood I think it is meeting a lot of needs and I feel very happy with my job."

Providence Hobbies

: By Dan Veaner; Business Profiles; | Feb 10, 2012 |

In a time when video games and online communities seem to take priority over real life, one Ithaca shop is trying to bring community back to live people in a room, doing things together. In addition to being a good old fashioned hobby shop, Providence Hobbies brings people together to play games, build models, and share experiences in real life. Manager Jeffrey Witty says when he opened the store teenagers had nothing to do, and that resulted in crime and social problems in Ithaca.

"I wanted to help move Ithaca out of that dark space and give teenagers something to do," he says. "So we started our gaming events and started building our gaming community. It pulled people who were feeling alone out of the streets and put them in rooms where they were playing games with other kids their age. Soon they started building new friendship networks. Eventually our community expanded so now it consists of a wide range of ages from 9 to 30."

Rasa Spa

: By Dan Veaner; Business Profiles; | Mar 8, 2007 |

Rasa SpaAs you enter the Island Fitness building, it is all business, modern, rising to impressive height and there is an energy and bustle to the building. Take the elevator to the second floor and enter the Rasa Spa you are transformed into a serene atmosphere. The energy is there, but there is no hint of bustle. "I think we were able to continue that throughout, which is great," says owner/manager Rachel Hogancamp. "It is about continually getting people to understand that it's okay and more than okay -- really important to take time for ourselves."

Hogancamp, who also owns Bodyworks on North Cayuga Street, partnered with Island Health and Fitness Club when its owners called her to create a spa in the building. The building is themed toward health with the fitness center, spa, Cayuga Medical Center's outpatient physical therapy department, a prosthetics business, a sports medicine practice, among other businesses.

Page 9 of 12