JOHNHANCBYSpecial to Newsday

Nick and John DeVitocould see the hand-writing on the wall— and it was digitaltext.

The DeVito brothers, whogrew up in Syosset, had spentmost of their working lives incommercial printing. But asmass mailings were replacedby emails, invites by Evites andfour-color brochures by PDFsand web links, the brothersfound their Manhattan-based

company in a downward cycle.“I saw other guys in printing

whose business was evaporat-ing, but they didn’t want totake a risk doing somethingelse,” recalled Nick, 55. “Wedidn’t want to just sit there andwatch it dwindle away to noth-ing.”

He and his brother decidedto go in a different, nostalgia-driven direction. In 2013, theybought a building in Farming-dale, out of which they contin-

ued to operate a trimmed-down version of their business,Manhattan Business Forms, inthe back. The 1907 buildinghad originally been a depart-ment and ladies dress store,and faced out to the village’sburgeoning Main Street, cur-rently in the midst of revitaliza-tion, with new restaurants andpubs opening left and right.

The brothers did their re-search and realized that some-thing was missing among all

the rounds and meals: coffeeand dessert.

They decided to fill the void,and in January 2014 theyopened Charlotte’s, namedafter their mother. In thenearly four years since, itsmenu of gourmet coffee, self-serve, soft frozen yogurt andhand-packed ice cream,desserts and sweets has madeit a hit for children, parentsand grandparents, many ofwhom find a familiarity in the

warm atmosphere — completewith an old-fashioned soda-fountain-like counter androcking chairs — that harksback to youths spent in candystores and ice-cream parlors.

“We wanted to have the feelof an old-fashioned ice-creamparlor, while capturing some ofthe best part of a moderncoffee or frozen yogurt shop,”said Nick, of Rockville Centre.

Still, going from commercialprinting to a business neitherbrother had experience with

See SPEAKEASY on E26

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The boys in the back roomNick and John DeVito renovated the Prohibition-era speakeasy area in the same building as Charlotte’s Desserts, the Farmingdale establishment they named after their mother.

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was a leap of faith. “It was arisk, but a calculated risk,” saidGeorge Andriopoulos, manag-ing director of Launchpad FiveOne Six, a business consultingfirm that worked with thebrothers to make the transi-tion. “They’re good businesspeople, and it shows.”

The success of their midlifepivot also speaks to the bondbetween the siblings. (Theyhad one other sibling, olderbrother Vinnie, who died in2012.)

“We’re brothers and bestfriends,” said John, 51, of Syos-set. But they complement eachother in a Felix-and-Oscar-likeway. “John is much more orga-nized,” Nick said. “If I waspaying the bills, there’d be aproblem.”

The two share another im-portant quality. “They have thesame work ethic,” said Nick’swife, Rachel.

And the brothers’ hard workat Charlotte’s has paid off, saidCarol Menscher, one of theirfirst and most loyal customers.“My husband and I went in theweek they opened,” she said.“It was just such a cozy,friendly atmosphere, and Nickand John were so eager toplease.”

Menscher, a Plainview resi-dent who allows to being olderthan 60, said that Charlotte’sbrought back warm childhoodmemories, right down to theDel Shannon, Beach Boys andAretha Franklin hits playingover the loudspeakers.

Along with classic rock, youget classic candies: While hedoesn’t want Charlotte’s to bepegged as a “nostalgia” or“theme” establishment, NickDeVito has a sense what hisfellow baby boomers like.When they were initially pick-ing out selections for candiesto sell at the checkout counter,he opened his supplier’s cata-log and saw a section that said“Nostalgia Candies.”

“I saw my childhood flashingbefore my eyes,” he said. Now,patrons to Charlotte’s can buysuch vintage treats as Whop-pers, Chuckles, Clark Bars,Sugar Daddy pops andBonomo Turkish Taffy.

“This was stuff I neverthought I’d see again,” Men-scher said with a laugh.

Soon, she and other Char-lotte’s patrons are going to seesomething that few peoplealive today have ever seen.

Not long after they movedinto 294 Main St., the brotherswere told an interesting storyabout their new building byseveral local residents andbusiness owners:

It seems that an approxi-mately 1,000-square-foot sec-tion of their basement hadbeen a speakeasy during Prohi-bition.

Closer inspection revealedan ornate, 12-foot-high tinceiling and the remnants of atin wall covering. There wasalso an arched cinder blockentranceway to the backyard(“Why something so elaborateif it was just a storage cellar?”Nick asks) and an “escape” exitthat led through the basementof an adjoining building andinto the backyard next to Char-lotte’s.

John was flabbergasted. “Isaid, ‘We’re literally sitting onhistory! We need to act on it.’Nick was right there with me.We decided we had to bringthe speakeasy back.”

This month, they will: Thenew Charlotte’s Speakeasy,which will open Nov. 24, is a1920s-themed bar, completewith a disguised entrance: It’sa door that looks like a book-shelf and can only be openedby pulling down on a candle-stick mounted on the wall.Patrons will then descend astaircase suffused in a goldenlight, reflected off an antiqueceiling mirror. Once in thespeakeasy, they can see someof the original tin ceiling andwall covering, and belly up toa bar constructed from theoriginal support beams theDeVitos found when theymoved in.

The menu will not includebathtub gin, an illegal concoc-tion popular during Prohibi-tion, but there will be 1920s-themed cocktails as well asdrinks for a modern palette.

One wall will include photosfrom that era of the buildingand the Village of Farmingdale.The DeVitos stress that theywant to pay homage to thehistory of the original establish-ment. But what exactly is thathistory? Since illegal busi-nesses don’t usually leavedetailed records, it’s hard to

SPEAKEASY from E25

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Coffee, sweets and gin

Business is looking up for Nick and John DeVito, printers who opened Charlotte’s in 2014.

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say.What is true is that Long Islanders

didn’t allow a little thing like theVolstead Act — the legislation en-acted by Congress that prohibitedthe production, sale and transport of“intoxicating liquors” — to interferewith their cocktail hours. “Probablynowhere in the nation was illicitalcohol so available as in NassauCounty,” declared former countyhistorian Edward J. Smits in his 1974book, “Nassau, USA.” The “speaks,”as they were called, were om-nipresent. “Clandestine bars wereeverywhere, and it was easy to makea nightly circuit of them and rubshoulders with the most substantialcitizens,” he wrote.

A ladies dress shop would have

been the perfect cover for such anoperation, although Nick DeVitothinks there is another reason aspeakeasy in their building makessense.

“It was right near the intersectionof two major roads, today’s Route109 and 110, both of which ended atthe water,” he said.

Village of Farmingdale historianSerena Brochu said that would havebeen an advantageous location for aspeakeasy. She added another pointabout Long Island during that era:“Liquor used to be hidden in hollowgrave markers in cemeteries duringProhibition.”

As of now, the DeVitos, however,have no plan to add a cemetery totheir soft-serve yogurt offerings.

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The way to get to the speakeasy is via a stairway to nostalgia.

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