DeRosa’s Restaurant — and Riverside Barber next door — are preparing to close.
The redevelopment of Saugatuck — which includes the demolition of their block — is months away. But with leases up, the popular restaurant and the barber shop where Saugatuck “mayor” Lou Santella once ruled — will soon be mere memories.
A proposed retail/residential complex promises to inject new life into an old neighborhood. In the meantime, those vacant storefronts — coupled with the empty Laura Barzante salon across the street, Peter’s Bridge Market nearby, and the abandoned Conte’s across the street — will give Saugatuck the same ghostly aura that haunts the Shaw’s/Curran Cadillac stretch of the Post Road just 2 miles north.
You can see balloons by DeRosa's -- and a demolition notice above the entrance to Riverside Barber Shop.
I remember when Derosa’s was Frannys, a place to stop for baseball cards, among other things. And Riverside Barber: “Are we going to get Old Guy or Young Guy?” was always the big question for us when we went there, as by the time we started going there Mr. Santella Sr. was not always known for consistent quality.
I always thought you got an upscale haircut at Santellas. That is why I always referred to the proprietor as Mr. Louis.
Riverside was my childhood barber shop, and I happily went there with my father until the disco era, when I decided I needed a bit more “styling” and switched to Mike and Mario’s. In the end, Riverside outlasted them.
On and on.
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Many childhood haircuts there and TREP (Catholic Religious Ed) and ping pong in my teens at the Santella’s house. Such fond memories of Mr. and Mrs. Santella.
Staples ’73
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