John Sardy, Sleepy Hollow Tarrytown Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, Bids Farewell

by Jerry Eimbinder

John Sardy, 59, will conclude five years of service as Executive Director of the Greater Sleepy Hollow Tarrytown Chamber of Commerce on August 4, 2014 and, about ten days later, will depart for Covington, Louisiana. [Covington, a 35-minute drive from New Orleans, is about the size of Tarrytown and like Tarrytown is steeped in history; it is a tourism destination and possesses a downtown full of restaurants, specialty shops, art galleries and a convention-and-concert center.]

Sardy is a former resident of New Orleans where he worked in the Grill Room at the Windsor Court Hotel in the city’s business district (the hotel is located about two blocks from the French Quarter).

Concerning the future, Sardy said, “I have no specific plans other than to reinvent myself for the last time.”

He added, “I enjoyed every minute of being the director of the Chamber of Commerce.”

Many friends and acquaintances gathered for a farewell party at Tarry Tavern on Main Street in Tarrytown on July 24. Sardy has been a Tarrytown resident, on and off, for more than 30 years.

Born in The Bronx, Sardy attended Cardinal Hayes High School and then studied for the priesthood at St. Joseph’s Seminary Dunwoodie in Yonkers.

Career paths and accomplishments

1. While in his teens, Sardy was a waiter at Anna’s Harbor on City Island (which became Harbor Restaurant) and is now closed.

2. He was a priest for nine years (1980-1989).

3. As a singing waiter, he was often paid by other waiters to sing Happy Birthday at their tables. Restaurants he worked at as a waiter include Ruth’s Chris Steak House and Abigail Kirsch’s Tappan Hill.

4. He was an actor and singer and appeared in Annie with Jamie-Lynn Sigler (who went on to play Soprano mafia-family daughter Meadow in the HBO television series).

5. He also appeared and sang in many stage productions of Broadway revivals .

6. He organized seminars for the medical profession where new prescription drugs and advances in medicine were described.

7. He was a front-of-the-house manager and a member of the crew that opened Equus in the Castle on the Hudson (now the Castle Hotel and Spa) in Tarrytown.

8. He became an award-winning real state agent for Hudson Homes Sotheby’s and a realtor at Prudential Rand Realty.

9. He worked as a part-time salesman for The Container Store in White Plains.

10. He has a patent pending for a reservation-bidding system.

Sardy’s mother Ginny Saturday was an actress and a member of the June Taylor Dancers, probably best remembered for their performances on television’s The Jackie Gleason Show and Ed Sullivan’s The Toast of the Town.

The Greater Sleepy Hollow Tarrytown Chamber of Commerce has 290 members. It operates a Visitor’s Center at One Neperan Road in Tarrytown where tourism literature and maps can be obtained, conducts social networking meetings and sponsors annual food and crafts fairs on Main Street in Tarrytown and Beekman Avenue in Sleepy Hollow.

The Chamber will conduct a Food, Wine and Beer Networking Event and Preview Night for Local Halloween Events at Lyndhurst on September 18, 2014.

Greater Sleepy Hollow Tarrytown Chamber of Commerce, One Neperan Road, Tarrytown, 914-631-1705, www.greatersleepyhollowtarrytown.com.