Allied Optical Plan getting set to close after 55 years downtown

An advertisement published when the business moved to 20 West Main St. boasted of having served 120,000 customers in its first 15 years and showed the business had six employees.

“Back in the day” is a phrase you’ll hear often hear any time you pull up a chair and let Jerry pour you a glass of whiskey at Allied Optical Plan.

He often rails against the current state of downtown businesses but also talks about the glory days of the 1960s, when his father’s generation had it “really good” on Main Street.

“Every store was filled,” he said. “There was Riverhead and Patchogue and nothing else. The fire marshal would come around and say, ‘No more people in the stores.’ ”

Jerry Steiner began working for his old man when he was 8 years old. He said he’d sit in the back and screw side pieces onto eyeglass frames. Most days, after a few hours of work, his father would take him to the old Erma’s Diner on East Main Street for a bite to eat. Other days, they’d visit Cy White’s in Polish Town.

Eventually, the younger Mr. Steiner spent two years at Eastern Michigan University and, later, New York Community College. He worked at Sears Optical in Bay Shore during college but returned to work at the family business after earning his optician’s license. Father and son worked side by side for another 30 years. Sol officially retired in 2005 and died five years later at the age of 85.

“He was always a really smart dude,” Mr. Steiner said of his father. “He was a real businessman. This business is all about him.”

The Steiners’ business is one of several multi-generational enterprises still operating — for now, at least — downtown. Liz Strebel recently listed her family business, Riverhead Diner & Grill, for sale. There are also the Balzanos at Main Street Haircutters, the Meras family at Star Confectionery and the Barths and Griffings, whose names hang, respectively, on the signs of their pharmacy and hardware stores.

Before Ms. Aldrich left to purchase her new glasses Tuesday, a friend told her to ask Mr. Steiner about the old “breakfast club” in Riverhead. The term refers to a group of local businessmen who would line the counter at Papa Nick’s — as Star Confectionery is better known — before heading to work.

“There’s my old man and there’s the superintendent of schools,” Mr. Steiner joked. “The whole counter would be filled. Captains of industry.

“Now the old guard is gone. They’re all gone.”