After Father’s Death, Son Takes Over Country Corner

For Ben Saraydarian, leaving his Boston job in property management wasn’t the difficult part. The reason for leaving was what stung.

Ben’s father, Sahak Saraydarian, died in July, and by the beginning of August Ben was running his father’s business, East Setauket keystone tavern, full-time. It was a prospect he and his father had only briefly spoken about when his father was alive.

"It wasn't financially the right decision. Looking back on it now, it was stupid," said Ben. "It was always in the back of my mind that I would come back. He wanted me here. I know he did."

Talking about his dad recently in one of the restaurant's old wooden booths, his eyes reddened and welled up.

"I didn't think it was going to be this hard," he said. "You always hear people say, 'I wish I could have one more day.' It's true. It's true."

For two decades, Sahak, an Armenian master jeweler from Turkey who arrived in the United States in 1962, ran The Country Corner. He had been working in Manhattan's jewelry district before opening his own store in East Setauket, upstairs from where the restaurant is now. He bought the building in 1987 and took over the restaurant three years later, tending the bar and acting as primary cook.

Contributing to the community was a major priority for Sahak. He opened an art gallery next door to the restaurant to encourage local people to display their art, particularly young art students from , and later donated money for the building of the footbridge in Pond Park across the street.

Sahak also treated customers as friends, Ben said.

"He treated this like it was his home. People came into his living room and he would go in the back and cook for them."

A skilled chess player, he'd also play with patrons at the bar, working between moves.

Ben's mother, Christine, who used to watch over the bar and keep young patrons from getting too rowdy, said customers are glad the place is staying in the family.

“They're curious to see the changes," she said.

Since taking over, Ben repainted the walls in a single day with the help of friends from Boston, tore up the carpeting that had been worn nearly bare, installed a wireless Internet router and added a small speaker outside so that patrons stepping out for a smoke can still hear the music or television. What he doesn't want to change is the atmosphere.

"I've been very careful not to change that feel," Ben said.

Many of his customers are graduate students at the university, like Shannon Cawley of Port Jefferson, who first discovered the tavern this past football season.

"It's good service, they're friendly," she said. "It's a good neighborhood bar.”

Ben says he'd like to appeal to a younger crowd as well as the regulars, but he isn't willing to sacrifice what his father built.

"I don't want this place to be a frat house," he says. "I'm looking for a broad range of customers."

He remembers one night when a man in a suit stepped out of a limousine, came inside and sat down for dinner. In a nearby booth was another man in soiled work clothes and an old hat. It’s that diversity that he loves for the place.

Ben also buys food in small quantities to have fresh ingredients, often walking to the butcher shop around the corner several days in a row for the meat to make his burgers.

"I don't want anything coming out of the kitchen that isn't right. When people get a burger, I want to wow them," he said.

But they won’t be wowed by The Armenian burger, a staple of his father's menu, flavored with special seasonings. The same goes for a lot of Armenian food his father used to make, though he hears customers asking for those. Not until he’s confident enough to make it the way his father did, Ben said.

The current menu does include other distinct items, such as the Jack and Mac burger, which features a custom barbecue sauce creation and a side of homemade macaroni and cheese.

Ben has expanded the beer selection at the bar, introducing some craft beers for more selective tastes. He wants to set up a dart board and is considering hosting a game night on Sundays, where customers can grab a board game and play as they enjoy their food and drink. Tuesday night is trivia night. He’s even thinking about adding a karaoke night.

"It's so much fun," says Jennifer Kalar, a Stony Brook senior who first visited The Country Corner this past fall semester. "They give out prizes."

Ben, who said business is picking up, said he tells friends that he never wakes up knowing what he'll do that day, but he always wakes up with something to do, just like his father.

"He wouldn't take anything out, just kept putting in, putting in," he said, "and that's what I'm doing."