Coronavirus: Suffolk Business Owner Adapts, Praises Customers

PATCHOGUE, NY — Many Suffolk business owners are concerned about the effects of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's announcement this week that all restaurants, bars, casinos, gyms, and racetracks in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will close indefinitely in response to the new coronavirus outbreak. While restaurants will shift to takeout and delivery, the move could be a huge blow for those businesses reliant on foot traffic.

West Islip resident Rob Cutrone might have reason to worry, given that he owns three businesses on Long Island. But he's taking the new restrictions in stride.

Cutrone is in a unique position. He also owns a coffee shop in the middle of a bustling Main street, The Bean Of Patchogue on West Main Street, and is the co-owner of East End Coffee Roasters, also located on a Main Street in Center Moriches, in addition to owning the recently opened café inside a hospital.

"The nice thing is that at the hospital, I'm in the business now that has to have people, so as one business is adapting, the other business is ramping up to make sure that we have everything for the staff that needs to be here," Cutrone told Patch.

While the New York restaurant closing mandate, along with the recommendations that people stay at home and practice social distancing, will most likely hurt Main Street businesses most, The Green House Cafe inside Long Island Community Hospital in Patchogue has seen no shortage of customers, with hospital staff working around the clock during the pandemic — despite the fact that there has been no confirmed coronavirus cases in the immediate area.

"Having the café in the hospital where the first responders and the people that, God willing, are going to make this change happen, ... they obviously need to be fed (and) it's just nice to be able to do that," Cutrone said.

As for his business on Main Street, Cutrone says that 98 percent of the business at The Bean is takeout and only a small percent of people actually sit and stay at the cafés, so he is not too affected by the state mandate. However, he sympathizes with restaurants that need sit-down customers and acknowledges a takeout-only economy will hurt them.

"The reality is that the collateral damage that the economy is incurring is not going to allow the consumer to spend anything close to what they normally do when jobs will be compromise and industries will be compromised," he said. "I've always been attracted to the recession-proof business like a coffee shop. When you own a steakhouse, you need to economy to be strong. But when you are in a business that sells a cup of coffee for $2.50, it's not going to break anybody's bank. It just comes down to how people are going to react to this."

Cutrone said he supports Cuomo's orders and said he's a "big fan" of the extraordinary measures.

"I think in the short term, a lot of business owners are jaded, bitter and upset about what's going on but I don't think they really understand the reason as to why we're doing what we're doing," he said. "These changes are being implemented at a rate that obviously we've never seen and there's really no protocol for something of this magnitude. So a lot of people are going to question something that's never happened. That's just society."

Cutrone said he's grateful to all of his customers who have shown support over the past few days.

"I have to say thank you, thank you to our customers that allowed us to be in business and thank you to all of the ones that continue to support small and local business and keeping the money on Main Street," he said. "I've had customers come in and spend $70, $80, $90, in a store where the average ring is usually about $10, they're really doing us a big service in giving back. So much gratitude towards the community and just understanding that this is just a mean to an ends and there is going to be an end and we're going to come out the other end much healthier."