‘I really like making people feel comfortable to be whoever they are.’

Glen Cove

“I’ve been cutting hair for 20 years. I started when I was in 11th grade just to make some of the kids want to hang out with me more. I was a very nervous and awkward high school kid.

“It worked, and I found out that I loved cutting hair so much. I think cutting hair is a form of people’s expression. A haircut can really reflect somebody’s personality as well. I really like making people in the barbershop feel comfortable to be whoever they are.

“I opened up a barbershop called Strong Island Styles in 2006. A lot of celebrities have stopped by, including UFC fighters Conor McGregor, Israel Adesanya, Al Iaquinta, WWE wrestling stars Brian Myers and Braun Strowman, Mike “The Situation” from The Jersey Shore, Doc Gooden of the New York Mets, and Rick DiPietro of the New York Islanders.

“When I was younger, my dream would have been to have a celebrity on the front of my page when I was on MySpace. Just getting to cut somebody important made me feel important too.

“Conor’s agents reached out to me because they had some talent in New York, back when he was just becoming the double champ, and it led to a great relationship between me and his entourage, agents, and managers. We all became friends.

“Myspace was my first social media campaign. I actually did it before there were all these rules. Back before people even called it ‘social media marketing.’ I think I might have been an entrepreneur. I started using it before they even knew it was going to be something big.

“In 2015, I won the title on The CW network’s Cedric’s Barber Battle, which was a reality TV competition hosted by Cedric the Entertainer. It was very similar to the show, Ink Master. Barbers would battle to see who gave the best haircut, while a bunch of judges determined who had the most skills and technique.”

“I was the underdog in the competition. Nobody thought I would make it, nonetheless win. It was great just to represent my hometown. Now we are the proud home of my heavyweight barber battle belt.”

I think cutting hair is a form of people’s expression. A haircut can really reflect somebody’s personality as well. I really like making people in the barbershop feel comfortable to be whoever they are.

“I hope that this will be a place that people look forward to going to, where they can all feel equal and all feel important. My biggest thing is making sure everybody is comfortable.

“Hunt’s Hairstyling has been here in Locust Valley for 113 years. It’s a historical barbershop. I bought it in 2020 as a sort of emotional buy.

“The shop’s former owner, Layton Hunt, didn’t want to do it anymore. I had been asking him for almost 10 years to please consider me when he retired because I didn’t want anybody else taking it over. This way I can keep it going for the next hundred years.

“Hunt has been cutting hair in the Locust Valley area for more than the past six decades. He acquired the shop in 1961, a few short years after he returned from the service. Both he and his twin brother are Korean War veterans and members of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.

“Life is too short to not do what you want to do. There are so many miserable people who get jobs and they get good money but imagine doing what you don’t want to do. I could never do that.

“COVID definitely changed things in the barbershop due to space restrictions. I rented extra space next door for six months to be able to keep all of my barbers working and to meet the needs of customers.

“Last year was also supposed to be our 13th straight year working with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, which donates money to childhood cancer research, but COVID put a stop to it. So far, we have raised over $300,000.

“I see myself watching generations grow up here and me being a tradition in their futures as far as the place where they sit down and get a haircut. Even as our lives are changing so much, I want this to be one solid thing that they will always be able to experience a good haircut and personal interactions.”

Interviewed by Dan Offner

‘Growing up in my parents’ restaurant, you take in everything, helping out in every way.’

Glen Cove

“Growing up in my parents’ restaurant, El Tazumal in Glen Cove, you take in everything, helping out in every way. The food is Salvadorian staples, pupusas, eggs, plantains. Everything is homemade.

“My parents came here in 1977 or 1978, they were from the countryside and they had land, but it got taken away from them when the war began and it got dangerous.

“Both my grandmas were awesome cooks. I learned the basics from them, soups and stocks. They would make a lot of different cuts of meats that not everyone eats, beef’s tongue or pig’s feet, but it was so good.

“My parents’ business is mostly a to-go business, serving Salvadorians immigrants who often don’t have kitchens, so I know how to expedite the food and get it out. At 19, I left my parents’ restaurant, and got a job in an assisted living facility working mostly with frozen and canned stuff, but I learned a lot of ingredients and basic recipes.

“Then I started working at busy French and Italian restaurants on the weekend. I’ve been cooking for 20 years, and I learned a lot from Long Island being multicultural and all the great chefs I worked with.

‘Do you want to cook for the rest of your life or do you want to be a chef?’

“I worked at Prime in Huntington for years, started as a cook, and Chef Gregg Lauletta asked me, ‘Do you want to cook for the rest of your life or do you want to be a chef?’ He was kind of mentoring me, made me sous-chef and from there, I went to other restaurants and then to Tellers Chophouse in Islip.

“Waterzooi opened a new place in Port Washington and they hired me as the new chef de cuisine and we were doing really well for the first two months and then COVID happened. I’ve been working six days a week, doubles through the pandemic, doing to-go orders, and outdoor dining. Waterzooi is a Belgian bistro. The signature dish is a Belgian fish, we sell tons of mussels and lobsters.

“Chefs would come to me for the plating. I love colors, so I’m always daydreaming about colors and dishes. I learned a lot from the chefs I worked with, people who didn’t look anything up. They just knew it. But the creativity is all me.”

‘Working with dogs has taught me to calm down, be present, and live in the moment.’

Glen Cove

“My ex and I had a dachshund and we inadvertently created a monster out of her. She constantly had to be near me. We thought it was adorable, but we created a lot of separation anxiety in her. She wasn’t able to healthily cope on her own so I wanted to fix the problem. That was why I started researching and taking classes, which eventually led to training. I tried every tool imaginable on her. Fast forward to two years later and my new puppy, Dylan, was scared of everything. He didn’t want anybody to come up to him. Like most people, I thought, ‘I just want a dog to love.’ But when you think about how most people love an animal- giving food, treats, affection…none of that worked with Dylan. He wanted his space. It was a real wake up call for me.

Just as there’s a hierarchy in our world, there’s a hierarchy in their world too. Very often we don’t respect their space; then we expect them to listen to us and respect ours.

“When dealing with a fearful dog you can do more harm than good. I started out doing the typical positive-only training. It evolved from there because I realized that doesn’t always work. Loving any animal is broken down into relationships. People need to establish leadership with the dog, building trust, respecting the dog’s space, having them respect their space, having clear consistent rules, boundaries, and routines. I focus on the relationship portion of training. I owe that to Dylan because twelve years later, my little old man has come out of his shell and he will go up to people wagging his tail. He is good friends with Odee, my Hurricane Sandy rescue. I am a better trainer because of Dylan. I’m proud of where he is now. Since my training journey began I have spent a week working with Cesar Millan on his ranch. He taught me not to force relationships with dogs. Just as there’s a hierarchy in our world, there’s a hierarchy in their world too. Very often we don’t respect their space; then we expect them to listen to us and respect ours.

“Working with dogs has taught me to calm down, be present, and live in the moment. That helps give them the leadership they need from me. It has taught me to be more confident. People follow unstable leaders; dogs don’t. Dogs take work. It’s our world and we brought them into it, so we have to teach them how to navigate that.”

‘No matter what the economy does, dogs never stop pooping.’

Glen Cove

“I had a tire shop in Glen Cove and I was looking to do something else. I was getting bored. I was at my friend’s house and his wife came outside with antipasti and stepped in a big pile of dog poo and started gagging. I thought there might be something here.

“I started researching and bouncing ideas off people at the tire shop. Half of them said there’s no way anybody is going to pay you to pick up dog poop. The other said if there’s anybody that’s going to make money with dog poop, it’s you. And 20 years later, here we are.

“We have business opportunities across the U.S. and in the UK. I’ve been sought after for reality shows from three different networks. We wrote a screenplay and sat down with Adam Sandler. They loved the concept, but the timing was off. I was in his movie, “The Week Of.” I played a fat Italian at a Jewish wedding. With this business, you have to have a great sense of humor. You have to embrace it.

It’s like anything, if you follow through and do what you say, you’re going to succeed.

“The first week we decided to form the business, I had 10 customers. It’s like anything, if you follow through and do what you say, you’re going to succeed. Hard work pays off. No matter what the economy does, dogs never stop pooping. Which dog poops the most; you have any idea? It’s the Boxer. You can’t even imagine.

“We’ve been in rooms with brain surgeons, big celebrities. They’ll be talking to me and I’ll be like, ‘I’m the king of poop,’ and they go crazy. They don’t care about the brain surgeon anymore. I’d love to do more reality TV. I saw a Facebook post: ‘Do you have a cool car and unique story?’ So I said, ‘I have an orange dune buggy and I’m the king of poop.’

“The phone rang the next day! Next thing you know, they’re flying me to California. It was for a show called “Sticker Shock.” I met so many cool people. Animal Planet approached me, A&E, History Channel, but reality TV started going the other way because of COVID. Timing is everything. Sooner or later, one of the networks is going to pull the trigger. King of Poop TV is my YouTube channel. We have three videos called Dung Dynasty. You’re gonna go nuts. I have another channel called Jimbo’s Raccoons. I got 50 raccoons in my backyard. I can’t get a dog. They’ll go crazy. I got two cats.”