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Sunday April 11, 2010
Business: Pam Haynes
FUN FURNITURE: N.C. company looks for online success. 2C
PHaynes@hpe.com (336) 888-3617
Tough sell Vulnerable Democrats are tiptoeing on health care FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) – First-term Rep. Betsy Markey is convinced that once people learn what’s in President Barack Obama’s new health care overhaul law, they’ll support it. But it’s not a message she was eager to carry in person to her constituents in Republican-leaning eastern Colorado. During Congress’ two-week Easter break, she reserved any discussion of health care reform for conference calls, an op-ed piece and
an appearance at a smalltown Rotary Club – all small-bore outreach. After the raucous, angry town halls of last summer, Markey steered clear of massive gatherings. She was not alone. Tough votes for Obama’s health care plan have further complicated the re-election prospects of dozens of already vulnerable freshman and second-term Democrats. There’s even a chance the party could
lose control of one or both houses in the midterm elections. Democrats and a few Republicans reported receiving threats to themselves and their families in the days after the vote. The FBI arrested a California man Wednesday for allegedly making threatening phone calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. On Tuesday, a Washington state man was arrested and charged with threatening to kill Democratic Sen. Patty Murray. In districts and states where the overhaul was most controversial, townhall meetings have been replaced with tightly controlled business roundta-
bles and other gatherings with voters. In Nevada, first-term Democratic Rep. Dina Titus defended her vote for the health care bill in a newspaper piece she cowrote and in a meeting with female doctors. Facing a vigorous GOP challenge from a Republican physician, she acknowledged treading carefully. “It’s more of a teaching tour than a selling tour,” she said of her recent appearances. Republicans dismiss the notion that voters opposed to the new law can be sold on it. They equate the overhaul to a “government takeover” of health care and blame it on one-
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
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party arrogance. The theme is central to House Republicans’ plan to cast the GOP as the party that will listen to what voters want, not pass bills the people oppose. As lawmakers prepared to wrap up their recess and return to Washington, Republicans released a campaign spot featuring feet in flip-flops and criticizing House Democrats who voted against the health care overhaul last fall but then voted for it on final passage. Like Markey, Titus voted for the health care overhaul but hasn’t made an in-person appearance before a large crowd on the topic since it was signed into law.
BUSINESS PROFILE
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Are you an entrepreneur with an established business in the High Point area? If so, you may be a candidate for a Business Profile. We profile selected businesses every Sunday. If you’re interested, submit your name, number and brief explanation of your company to jfeeney@hpe. com.
RHAP MUSIC
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DON DAVIS JR. | HPE
Mehmet Cakal owns Sumela Restaurant at 805 N. Main St., formerly known as Main Street Grill.
Sumela owner offers Turkish delights BY PAM HAYNES ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
HIGH POINT – Mehmet Cakal isn’t afraid of a little change. The Turkey native came to the U.S. more than 15 years ago for a change — one that he refers to as “half opportunity and half adventure.” “I was working for my father then,” said Cakal, who was 21 when he departed from Turkey. “I knew a little bit about running a business.” Now the owner of Sumela Restaurant at 805 N. Main St., he’s become a business owner in High Point on his own accord, never forgetting to embrace change along the way. Cakal, who served 18 months in the Turkish military before departing, arrived in the U.S. in 1988. He stayed with friends in New York before heading to Williamsburg, Va., where he got his first taste of the restaurant industry. He managed an Italian restaurant for six years,
then decided to shift gears once again. “I was looking for a yearround business,” Cakal said. “Williamsburg was just a tourist town.” Cakal had another group of friends who lived in the Piedmont Triad area. He followed their suggestions to consider opening a restaurant in Winston-Salem, but a suitable location appeared in High Point, he said. “I didn’t know anything about High Point then or the furniture market,” he said. “But it turned out to be better than I expected. It turned out to be better than what I thought I would find in WinstonSalem.” The Main Street Grill opened in 1997 serving mostly a lunch menu of burgers and sandwiches. The restaurant served High Point for more than 10 years until suddenly, in 2008, Cakal hung a sign above the restaurant that read “Sumela Restaurant.” That’s when customers began pouring in, asking if
the business had been sold or if new owners had taken over. “A lot of customers said, ‘We thought you were gone,’” Cakal said. “But a lot of them are still coming back now.” The name “Sumela” holds sentimental value for Cakal, who is from the Black Sea Province in Turkey. Sumela is a century-old monastery dedicated to the Virgin Mary there. But the sudden change represents a bigger series of changes Cakal is implementing at the business — switching gears from a sandwich shop to a sitdown establishment that offers Mediterranean and Turkish dinners. That’s important to Cakal not only because the dishes are from his native land, but because it’s also a unique offering in High Point. “It (the new offerings) has really worked,” he said. “I see their potential here because High Point is known as an international town. We’re the
MEHMET CAKAL
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Occupation: Owner of Sumela Restaurant Age: 43 Family: Wife, Kimberly; Two sons, Ercan, 16, and Cihan, 13 Hobbies: Soccer, traveling Favorite music: Soft rock Business advice: “Do the best for anything – for the customer or anything else. Doing your best is the key.”
only ones here offering this sort of thing.” The new items include lamb, beef and chicken shish-kabobs, as well as a Turkish pizza known as Lehmacum. The pizza has a thin crust with beef, fresh chopped parsley, onions and more. Food is Cakal’s main focus now, and the quick change he made to the restaurant’s name is a sign that he isn’t afraid to continually change and better his own business, he said.
YOUR COMMUNITY. YOUR NEWSPAPER.
“We’re always thinking new things,” he said. “Changes are always coming up. We’re just doing as much as we can as soon as we can.” And being your own boss, just like his father was, makes that a little bit easier. “I like this business because if I have a good idea, I don’t have to get it approved,” he said. “I can change it and go ahead and try it.” phaynes@hpe.com | 888-3617
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Subscription music service Rhapsody is dropping its monthly price to $9.99 from $14.99, hoping that loads of iPhone users who sampled it will now pay for all-youcan-listen access. Several companies have announced their intention to launch similar music plans that let people listen to songs that are stored on remote computers and streamed to their smartphones wirelessly. Such music services, based on so-called “cloud” computing, are challenging Apple Inc.’s system of having consumers buy and download tracks for playback on iPhones and iPods. The subscription plans have yet to take off. But as cell phone networks have gotten faster and more capable of handling large amounts of data, more companies are beginning to offer cloud-based music services. Apple itself is believed to be developing a cloud-based music offering after its acquisition in December of Lala.com. That site lets people purchase songs to stream online from a digital locker for 10 cents apiece. Rhapsody says it has an advantage over other subscription plans because it has an established user base – about 675,000 at the end of 2009. Also, it has cash to spend after spinning off last week from parents RealNetworks Inc. and Viacom Inc. Rhapsody got $18 million from RealNetworks and a $33 million credit from Viacom so it can buy advertising on Viacom cable channels such as MTV.
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