Top-notch: Brittman & Son continues longtime local success
Brittman & Son owner Joe Fusaro in his East Northport shop. Photos by Olivia Allen.
If you’ve driven on Larkfield Road, you’ve probably gotten a peek into the high-end carpentry at Brittman & Son Fine Woodworking. Or perhaps the bold “WE FIX CHAIRS” signage caught your eye.
Since opening in 1958, Brittman & Son has established a legacy of custom woodworking and furniture repair in East Northport.
Despite ownership changes, its business model continues to speak for itself.
“Our quality and designability is top-notch,” said owner Joe Fusaro. “People can come in with [projects] that ten other places can’t do, but we’ll figure out a way.”
While furniture retailers like Lowe’s or IKEA can’t always meet homeowners’ project specifications, Brittman & Son makes it happen: “We can tailor anything,” Fusaro said. “That’s our distinguishing factor.”
Sourcing all supplies and materials domestically, Fusaro is willing to extend project timelines if he can’t find the “best vendors” to meet customer requests.
“I don’t want to commit to something I can’t deliver on,” Fusaro said, adding that Brittman & Son is likely turning down more work than they are taking on right now. “I’m a local too, so I don’t want calls from people in ten years saying, ‘My cabinets fell apart.’”
While not ideal from a business perspective, it’s a sacrifice he’s prepared to make for quality. And often, customers are willing to wait.
The business generally caters to higher-end clients (Jennifer Lopez is one notable example) or projects, Fusaro said.
Word of mouth
Instead of a traditional showroom or using social media to promote the shop’s work, Brittman & Son relies on an old-fashioned advertising strategy: word of mouth.
“We’ll do [a project] for somebody, and within a couple of months, we’ll usually get a call from a neighbor, cousin” or someone else the customer knows, Fusaro said.
He views these personal referrals as a nod to the human connection small businesses offer communities like East Northport, filling a gap corporate competitors can’t.
“Here, you can talk to the owner directly,” Fusaro said. “We build one of something, and it goes straight into someone’s house.”
Maintaining history
Before opening on Larkfield, Brittman & Son began in Sy Brittman’s garage.
A really nice man who “came here against the odds,” Fusaro said, Brittman began fixing chairs. Two years later, Brittman’s neighbors took issue with the constant smell of sawdust and stain, prompting the move to Larkfield. He went on to live a long life after his son, Joe, inherited the business in the ’80s.
Joe took the business to the next level by expanding to the custom-build brand it is today, Fusaro said.
Joe’s sons, however, eyed different career paths – leaving Brittman & Son’s future unclear.
Fortunately, he and Fusaro were longtime fishing buddies; in 2020, the latter agreed to take over.
Fusaro got the entrepreneurial gene from his father, a former local business owner. He also had a career in military and manufacturing engineering, skills that translate well into carpentry.
Staying true to its roots, Brittman & Son still offers furniture repair. Though these services aren’t as lucrative today, Fusaro said they yield high customer satisfaction and turnover.
“It gives us an opportunity to build a relationship with the locals,” he said. “We do a lot more than what meets the eye.”
Modernizing, mending labor gaps
As he seeks to propel the business’ local legacy, Fusaro is modernizing internal workflows with technology, starting by digitizing all records and blueprints. He’s also making video instructions for his staff, an appealing option for visual learners.
While Brittman & Son seldom sees the same design twice, Fusaro said these upgrades make projects run more smoothly and keep things organized.
“If we can’t standardize the product, I’m trying to standardize the process,” he said. “I’m putting all the infrastructure and systems in place ahead of time for growth, once I get enough labor.”
Navigating workforce shortages has been the “toughest” part of the business, Fusaro said, creating a strained work-life balance.
“I’ll get all the blueprints [ready] to hand off to someone else to build, but then I just end up doing it myself, you know?”
Still, he’s confident the decision to own Brittman & Son was the “right move,” and he encourages anyone interested in the skilled trades to consider carpentry.
“I thoroughly enjoy the design work, and then I can go out and do [hands-on] manufacturing,” Fusaro said. “And I love working with customers.” He’s also fond of the creativity involved in woodwork, especially the opportunity to see one’s hard work through completion.
Having past experience with large-scale engineering projects, Fusaro knows this isn’t a luxury all laborers have. “It’s very rewarding in that aspect,” he said. “You can take what started out as a chunk of log, and you can make a beautiful mantle out of it.”
To learn more about Brittman & Son, click here.
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