Hidden Gems: Meet Dawn Mongelluzzi Quintana of Quintana’s Barber & Dream Spa and Quintana’s Speakeasy

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dawn Mongelluzzi Quintana.

Hi Dawn, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
After I graduated from high school in 1990, I was set to go to Kent State University. My financial aid fell through, since I would be paying for college myself. My older sister, Gina told me to apply to cosmetology school. I thought, “nah, that’s not for me” But I enrolled in nail school, (I was washing dishes at Guarino’s restaurant in Little Italy, while in high school, so I worked there to pay for nail school. I thought it would be great to fall back on from college breaks and summers.

I was 18 and fell in love with the beauty industry, I was renting space inside of a Barbershop, La Barberia. Shortly after I started there, I opened up, Nails by Dawn. Fast forward 10 years, I moved the business, changed the name and added more spa services.

In 2001, I opened Dream Spa in Cleveland Heights in the Cedar & Fairmount, business district. My husband Alex and I were married the following year, a year after that Alex and I opened up the Barbershop and purchased the building. We ran both businesses but after 9/11 and the housing crash, we decided to merge the Barbershop and Spa together. We were worried that with people justifiably losing their houses and jobs that they would eventually cut back on personal beauty and grooming services. We were fortunate that a lot of our guests and the community truly rallied around us. Spa clients were telling their husbands that their nail salon had moved above the barbershop and vice versa.

When the building next-door to the Barbershop became available, we purchased it and remodeled the building for the Spa. We offer manicures, pedicures massage, facials, waxing, microdermabrasion, dermaplanning, and most recently Botox. The second weekend in December 2016, that we moved the Spa over to the adjacent building, we had a groomsmen party group that came in for straight razor shaves and haircuts. They had brought their tuxedos, bagels, beer, and bourbon. I walked the groomsmen’s party upstairs to the second floor where the spa was recently located. I told them they can unwind and relax up there. We would get them when it was time for their services. Years before, I had gone on a girl’s trip to New York City, we had visited a Speakeasy through a working barbershop, but that had never been a thought until that day. I came downstairs and told Alex, “I think we need to open a Speakeasy bar upstairs!” -and the rest is history!

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I would say it’s been anything but a smooth road. Alex and I were asked to speak at John Carroll University’s Boler School of Business by Professor Scott Allen. It was the first time we had publicly spoken about our entrepreneurial journey, including our highs and lows. I remember telling one of the most humbling stories thinking it would be easier to be standing up in front of his class naked than talk about “back taxes”… In 2003, two years into opening up Dream Spa, we received a telephone call from our (old) accountant, he said we owed $42,000 in 941 back taxes. We were devastated, I was still doing nails at the time, juggling payroll, hr, ordering supplies, and more. Most of my clientele was upper management, a large portion of top CFO’s and CEO’s in Cleveland. I got a call one morning from a longtime client and friend Michelle, who was the CFO of a prestigious company in town. She said, she read about our current tax issue in Crain’s Cleveland Business.

I knew we needed to brace ourselves for the workweek ahead. I knew I needed to tell our employees so they did not get blindsided, if anyone asked. We were audited by the IRS both companies and personally. I was pregnant at the time with our daughter and looking back I remember it took everything I had to get up and get out of bed. We reached out to a prestigious tax law firm, we had heard that you can ask for an “offer in compromise” where you make the IRS an offer on taxes that you owe.

We settled with the IRS. It was one of the most prolific business lessons I’d ever learned. At the time, we were so busy running Dream Spa and putting everything we had into the renovation of the barbershop that I was not aware that our accountant at the time had not set up Dream Spa 941’s to be taken out electronically, like they were previously when I had my old company, Nails by Dawn.

Ever since that experience I made it a point to make sure all of our I’s were dotted and T‘s were crossed. This was extremely helpful in running our companies. Especially, when I filled out all of our PPP loans and business grants for all our companies.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
At Quintana‘s, our business is a Barbershop, Day Spa, and Speakeasy Bar. We have two side-by-side buildings located on South Taylor Road, in Cleveland Heights in the Cedar Taylor business district. Our parking lots are adjoined to maximize guest parking. We carry and provide service experiences with our collaboration with Aveda. Aveda, is a holistic beauty company that is a champion of environmental responsibility. Their training and continuing education for our staff and leaders are a great fit for our company. We offer a wide variety of men’s grooming services, a unisex spa, medi-spa services, and a handcrafted cocktail lounge that offers over 100 higher end bourbons.

I oversee a team of over 25+ employees in the areas of front desk Salon Coordinators, Service Providers, and Bartenders. I am fortunate that everyday I come to work is different, we joke that since we offer so much – it’s like TJ Maxx, “it’s never the same place twice”. Some of the tasks I work on include booking live jazz, bourbon & whiskey tastings, private cocktail classes, organizing spa & groomsmen parties, educating our team through our Aveda partnership, leading staff meetings, marketing/advertising through new technology, brand identity, finances, development of new and creative ideas.

Alex is behind his Barber chair cutting 5 days a week, his passion is talking and chewing the fat with customers, who end up becoming friends. He loves to network and is famous for getting calls from new transplants to Cleveland that ask him anything from who to call for a leaky faucet to where should I take my in-laws to dinner when they come to town. He loves to work with new QBDS hires and help them step out of their comfort zone and build their business through coaching them on asking for referrals, reviews, or how to hone their skills. He will be cutting back to 4 days a week in the coming year to focus on continuing education for the team.

My sister-in-law, Melisa Quintana Day handles our payroll and human resources. She has been in the company for close to two decades. We were at a family party when I bamboozled her and asked her to go to nail school. She has been a huge asset to us, the company, and a wonderful peer-to-peer coach for the team. Melisa handpicked the awning for Dream Spa, she recommended a slope design to offset the flat roof aesthetic.

The Speakeasy has received its fair share of press for being the newest part of the business. The bar team is led by our Manager, Olivia Flanagan who implements the most delicious Original and Classic cocktails. The whole team collaborates to join forces and come up with exquisite and creative cocktails.

We recently launched our Whiskey and White Claw Advent Calendars for the 2021 holiday season. My husband Alex had this amazing idea to have our own. This was his idea that we along with our super talented General Manager, Angela Voorhis needed to build to fruition. We weren’t sure how or where to begin. We knew we wanted to include some of our latest Speakeasy Private Barrel picks that we collaborated on, with The Cleveland Bourbon Co-Op. We learned a lot of what not to do, so we chalked it up to several business lessons learned. The calendars came out beautiful, we worked with a local graphic designer Sara, from Small Screen Designs to really make the packaging pop along with individualized stickers with each whiskey of the day, along with some quick wit names. It was a fun project.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
It’s really hard to predict what will happen in the next 5-10 years. Alex and I have always been ones to forecast the businesses and current trends but with Covid-19, We learned quite frankly that as leaders and a business you really need to pivot your ideas and growth to work, be extremely flexible with your greatest commodity – your team, what works one day may not work next month.

Pricing:

• Men’s Haircut $30+
• Manicure $25+
• 50 Minute Swedish Massage $75+
• Dream Pedicure $55+
• New York Sour Cocktail $14

Contact Info:

• Email: Events@QBDS.net
• Website: https://qbds.net/speakeasy/
• Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/speakeasyqbds/  | https://www.instagram.com/qbdsclehts/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpeakeasyatQuintana | https://www.facebook.com/quintana.QBDS
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/QBDS/status/1471850313309114370
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvw8aw7HwwM&t=2s
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/quintanas-barber-and-dream-spa-cleveland-heights-5 

Image Credits
Phill Bailin
Steven Cutri Photo
Mgrace Bakeshop
Carmen Mandato
Quintana’s
Eddie Smith

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