Apr 05, 2013 — North Country highways are full of diners, cafes, and coffee shops. The sign on the Silver Leaf in DeKalb Junction calls it a diner. But owner Loretta Thayer says it's really a hamburger joint.

She decided to open the place after the September 11th attacks. Thayer is 80 now, and the place is still running.  Go to full article

Potsdam, NY, Feb 01, 2013 — Continuing our occasional series on the North Country's entrepreneurs is this portrait of one man who's become a poster child for small entrepreneurship

Potsdam's Tim Damon built a custom fly rod business into an online storefront success story. Then-Senator Hillary Clinton held him up as a model. The first President Bush bought a Damon rod and invited him to Maine to fish with him.

Now Damon's turning his knack for success to a new business - high end, custom drums for the drummer seeking a perfect sound.  Go to full article

Canton, NY, Oct 25, 2012 — Like Governor Cuomo at his beer, wine, and liquor summit Wednesday in Albany, a pair of Canton entrepreneurs is hoping craft beer sales will provide an economic lift.

Ken and Katrina Hebb, owners of the Blackbird Cafe in Canton, are starting St. Lawrence County's first microbrewery. The St. Lawrence Brewing Company is leasing space in a new industrial building in Canton. They're ready to start moving in next week and hope to start selling beer by St. Patrick's Day.

Ken Hebb gave David Sommerstein a tour.  Go to full article

Watertown, NY, Aug 16, 2012 — As fast as veggies are popping up in the garden, local foods are showing up on grocery store shelves throughout northern New York.

A new food co-op recently opened in the Jefferson County town of Clayton that showcases locally-sourced vegetables and other products. And big grocery chains like Hannaford and Wegman's are getting in on the trend, too, adding more of the region's products to store shelves.  Go to full article

Jun 29, 2012 — Continuing our occasional series on North Country entrepreneurs, we talk with Sharon Bastille, better known around her West Potsdam stomping ground as "Mom." Bastille and her husband, who's a carpenter, own Mom's Schoolhouse Diner, which is located in a former one-room schoolhouse. Mom's is a '50s diner, where the staff wears red and white checked circle skirts under their aprons.

Bastille has had Mom's for about a decade, after a couple decades spent at home with her kids. She tries to make the diner as much like home as possible by knowing customers' names, likes and dislikes, for example. Though Mom's is a business, Bastille doesn't think of herself as a businesswoman. She told Nora Flaherty she doesn't make a living from the diner. But as long as it breaks even, her priority is creating a nice place for people in the community to come together.  Go to full article

Canton, NY, Apr 27, 2012 — Continuing our occasional series on North Country entrepreneurs, we talk with Jeremy Morrow. Morrow owns the Harvest House framing shop on Main Street in Canton.

He's had a couple locations in the last few years: his shop was in a restaurant that closed down, and now he's on the second floor of a building that doesn't get much walk-by traffic. Although he says he's tried advertising, he gets most of his business from word-of-mouth.  Go to full article

Harrisville, NY, Apr 10, 2012 — Nora Flaherty talked with the Atkinson Family in March, about the business of running its family bluegrass band.

The family talked about costs, planning, and their dreams for the band--and for all the Atkinsons, making music is at the base of it all. Family patriarch Richard Atkinson is no exception--he's a sound engineer, a singer, a songwriter...and a banjo player. For today's Heard Up North, Richard showed Nora how to tune a banjo:  Go to full article

Canton, NY, Mar 28, 2012 — NCPR's occasional series on North Country entrepreneurs continues, with Aaron Reardon. Reardon's a young guy, and a hard-nosed businessman. He started his first online business in college, and in June of 2007 he opened a bricks-and-mortar business: A gaming store in Canton called "Gamer Craze."

In the last five years, Gamer Craze has moved to a bigger space, opened and closed a second store in Potsdam, and shifted much of its business from traditional video games to a collectable trading card game called Magic: The Gathering. It's done well, and Reardon's now looking for a bigger space.

Gamer Craze is one of just a few bricks-and-mortar shops in the North Country where players can come to buy what they need and they can play, too: Reardon keeps tables set up for gaming, and sells snacks. As Nora Flaherty found when she talked with Aaron Reardon, much of the store's success has come from making it a place to hang out.  Go to full article

Canton, NY, Mar 27, 2012 — In a nutshell, Aaron Reardon, owner of Gamer Craze in Canton, explains what Magic: The Gathering is, exactly.  Go to full article

Canton, NY, Mar 27, 2012 — A longer version of Nora Flaherty's conversation with Gamer Craze owner Aaron Reardon  Go to full article