Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce To Honor Founders at Holiday Party

When the Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce meets next Wednesday, December 7, for its first holiday party since 2020, the organization will honor three stalwarts of the local business community: Nada Barry of the Wharf Shop, Achille “Jack” Tagliasacchi of il Capuccino restaurant, and the late David Lee, the one-time owner of Cove Jewelers, who until his death in 2016 was an indefatigable booster of Sag Harbor’s charms.

Among their many accomplishments, the three community members, all immigrants, founded the Merchants Association of Sag Harbor in the 1960s, which later became the Chamber of Commerce.

“The fact that Nada and Jack are still active in the community is incredible,” said Chamber board member Kelly Dodds, who is chairing the event. “This is the perfect opportunity to acknowledge what they’d done.”

Barry and Tagliasacchi, who are both 92, said the idea to create the association arose out of their belief that Sag Harbor, then a struggling factory town, needed a stronger advocate for local businesses.

At the time, that was the role of the Round Table, a group of business owners — all men, by the way — who met at Baron’s Cove restaurant, which was partially owned by Barry’s husband, Bob Barry.

“They were more interested in socializing,” Tagliasacchi said. “So we decided we had to do something.”

“It was exactly at the time I started the shop,” added Barry, who opened her store in 1968, “but when they discovered we were women opening it, we couldn’t join.”

When Tagliasacchi and Lee approached Barry with the idea of starting their own organization, “Boom! I was in,” she said.

Tagliasacchi, who had emigrated from Italy, had first worked as the chef and manager of the Baron’s Cove restaurant before buying it outright. Lee, who had arrived from England in 1948, owned Cove Jewelers on Main Street. Barry herself had moved from her native London to New York before World War II and later settled in Sag Harbor.

“The main thing we did, I can tell you, is walk this Main Street,” said Barry. “We’d take different shops or go together, trying to get people to join this organization we were forming.”

Soon, they were joined by Doris Gronlund. Romany Kramoris, who still owns her shop on Main Street, was another early member.

Tagliasacchi said the legwork paid off, and MASH soon grew to about 50 local businesses, with committees being formed to look for new ways to promote Sag Harbor merchants.

One early success, Barry said, came at Christmas when shopkeepers would donate a small gift that was placed in a treasure chest on display in front of the Bohack’s grocery store, now Sylvester & Co.

“If you spent so much at village store, they would give you a key, and you got a chance to go up and try to open the chest,” Barry said, adding that only one key worked in the lock. “That was the first major thing we did, and it was one of the things that made us known as a place to come for Christmas shopping.”

While the association typically focused on ways to draw shoppers to village stores, Lee took it into his own hands to literally direct them to the village. He got a counterfeit New York State Department of Transportation sign reading “Sag Harbor,” with an arrow pointing north, and mounted it on Montauk Highway at the Sag Harbor-Bridgehampton Turnpike intersection in Sag Harbor. The state didn’t notice for a couple of years, Barry said.

But Tagliasaachi said it was difficult to get the Village Board to support the association’s efforts. “They didn’t want anything to change,” he said. “Every proposition we came up with, it was always a negative response.”

“I 100 percent agree with Jack,” said Barry. “It has taken us years — years! — to get a Village Board that was receptive to us.”

Over the years, MASH morphed into the Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce. Neither Barry nor Tagliasaachi said they could remember when. Not that it mattered anyway, according to Barry, who said, “We operated for several years as a chamber without ever making it official.”

When Dodds approached the chamber board about honoring its founders, current President Ellen Dioguardi said the idea was accepted enthusiastically. “I think it’s way past time we did this, and my hat is off to Kelly for making it happen,” she said.

Dioguardi said she would also toast Barry, who in co-founding MASH, gave women a place at the table. “As current in a long list of women who have served as the president of the Sag Harbor Chamber, I’m particularly grateful to Nada for rallying other like-minded business owners to open the door for women in our business community leadership,” she said.

Wednesday’s party, which takes place at the Sag Harbor Inn beginning at 6 p.m., includes a buffet-syle dinner catered by il Capuccino, wine, beer, and nonalcoholic beverages. It is open to the public, although seating is limited, and tickets are $54.97. For a ticket link, email president@sagharborchamber.com.