Bombshells goes Blonde
Published 10:25 pm Thursday, May 22, 2014
A prominent North Suffolk building is receiving a substantial makeover for its latest incarnation – a hair and beauty salon and gift shop.
The old house at 5664 Shoulders Hill Road, owned by the Eberwine family, formerly housed Heirloom Botanica and — more recently — October Moon. It will reopen soon as Blonde Boutique and Salon.
It will be a kind of sister shop to Bombshells Salon and Spa at Harbour View Marketplace Shopping Center, where he has been an apprentice, said Rocky Pokorny, who is going into the new business with Bombshells’ co-owner Tom Flores.
“I decided after 11 years in marketing and sales in health care and pharmaceuticals (that) I wanted to pursue something on my own,” Pokorny said.
The building’s landlord, Sherl Eberwine, is one of Pokorny’s clients at Bombshells. “She and Tom and I were all kind of talking … and she said, ‘I have the perfect place for you,’” Pokorny said. “We came and looked, and fell in love.”
They hope to bring back the garden and have plans for a bridal suite, he said. But for now, some interior redecorating — spackling, painting, a new kitchen, light fixtures and more — is underway.
“Right now, we have six chairs and three shampoo bowls,” Pokorny said.
It will be a full-service salon as well as a gift shop selling home and garden items that will blend with the décor, he said, adding, “A customer is not going to know, from one visit to the next, what they are going to see” for sale.
He also hinted at larger future plans, saying, “Our ideas are as big as the property.”
The business will probably have six staff members, Pokorny said, but not all of those would be stylists.
Besides hair styling, other beauty services, he said, would include spray tanning, mobile manicure-pedicure and limited waxing services.
Pokorny said goodies will also be baked fresh in the kitchen every day and gourmet teas and coffees offered for sample and sale.
A lot of money and time is being spent to make Blonde Boutique and Salon “a home away from home,” according to Pokorny. “The reality is, women who come for the longest service might stay three hours. Add services, and they can be here longer than that.”
The building’s makeover would honor its history, he added. “There’s a lot of history, and that’s one of the reasons we wanted to do something special here,” he said.
Pokorny said the business is looking at opening June 1.