Café: Local Crowd Keeps Us Ticking

When Colin Ingarozza took over the on Lake Avenue in St. James nearly two years ago, not much needed to be done.

“I really just came in, cleaned it up and tightened things up a bit,” he said. The place already had a loyal following and a solid staff, so Ingarozza chose not to disrupt that. He tracked sales of menu items and found that everything sold, so he left that, too.

However, it's in the pricing where Ingarozza is hoping to stand out.

“It’s hard to raise prices in a tough economy," he said. "When you’re working in such close margins and you raise just pennies – people notice.”

That's despite the rising cost of many ingredients including flour, a major necessity for a place that deals so heavily in bagels.

Ingarozza charges $8 for a dozen bagels, which he said is $2 to $3 less than many similar establishments. And when it comes to sandwiches, the owner tries to keep them in the $7 range.

Like everything else on the menu, the bagels are made entirely in-house, from the dough itself to the boiling and baking, which Ingarozza begins at 3 a.m. every morning. All the bread in the café is baked fresh each day, an activity he said he enjoys for its quietness before the rest of the world wakes up, often cracking the windows and letting the fresh air swirl through and mix with the aroma of baking bread.

“I’ve really grown a love of baking,” he said.

Ingarozza inherited a loyal following, and he said he hopes more small homegrown businesses are so lucky.

“People used to want to work and have their own place, now people just want to work and go home. There used to be more pride in building something and owning it. Small businesses are what continue to run this country – it’s the big guys that need bailouts,” he said.

Ingarozza, a self-described South Shore kid, got started in the restaurant business washing dishes for his father’s restaurant and catering hall in East Islip. After selling the business nine years ago he thought he was done with the industry, but seven weeks helping a friend get her organic café on its feet made him anxious to follow suit.

His wife, a St. James native, suggested he look for something in Smithtown. He met Greg Koke, who started Tic Toc in 2004 with his twin brother, Chris, and the two hit it off. Ingarozza bought the café in November 2009, working closely with Greg to learn how it worked.

Ingarozza considers the early hours a perk, allowing more time for his three children. He lives just a few minutes’ drive from where he works and can leave for a bit if he needs to, a privilege he said he extends to his employees. He’s happy in his new neighborhood.

That doesn't mean the business doesn't have its challenges. As lunch spots like Panera Bread, which just opened nearby in Lake Grove, continue to rapidly expand, and coffee behemoth Starbucks beats out alternative coffee houses, competition can be tough.

But local loyalty keeps him optimistic that Tic Toc will keep on ticking.

“I tell ya, I love this town. There’s always something going on. It’s got a lot of history,” he said, adding that Tic Toc fits right in. “This place was made for this town and this town made for it.”

Eve Miceli of St. James has been eating breakfast here for four years.

“I just love the vibe,” she said, sitting at a table next to the café’s large windows swung open onto the street. “I love the waitresses, Peggy and Theresa. We’ve become good friends.”

Miceli said she sometimes sits for an hour, seeing plenty of familiar faces.

“It’s just a cool place to hang out,” she said. “It’s a good place to start your day.”