Chanukah Hardware (12/10/2003)

A journalist-turned-plumbing supply man creates a ‘fitting’ menorah.
Sandee Brawarsky-Jewish Week Book Writer

The phrase “bathed in light” takes on new meaning this Chanukah.

One of the most unusual menorahs available this year is a striking brass model, made entirely from plumbing fittings and pipes. It’s vintage New York City, created by an Upper West Sider who’s third-generation in the hardware store business.

Steve Stark’s “Plumber’s Menorah-The One and Only” is on display in the window of Beacon Paint and Hardware, on Amsterdam Avenue between 77th and 78th Streets. It’s base and branches are made of brass tees, elbows, flanges, nipples, cross tees, couplings and reducing couplings, (for the candle holders.)

“This is the kind of stuff a building Superintendent might buy.” Stark explains, as he shows The Jewish Week the bins where these parts are kept in the store. An industrial-size plunger is nearby.

“It was an accidental idea.” The business co-owner says, when asked about how he came to design his original menorah. Last year, while trying to construct a coat rack in his bedroom, he was connecting a flange and nipple, and when he saw the connected piece, he realized that it could be the centerpiece of a menorah. “I had a sudden thought and picture. The next day I started drawing.”

Back at the store, he consulted a colleague who’s particularly experienced in plumbing supplies, and then completed the model, which weighs about 15 pounds.

Beacon Paint and Hardware has been in business for more than 100 years, formerly at a location just across the street. This site, on the East Side of Amsterdam, used to be a food market, and Stark points out where the horse-and-carriages for deliveries would be parked, in what is now the back of the store. Steve Stark’s father, Mel Stark, now 76, bought the business in 1971, and still works several days a week. But the family had a history in the hardware business before that; Steve Stark’s mother’s father had a shop on the East Side of Manhattan, and the 40-year-old grew up working there.

Before formally joining his father, mother, who manages the books, and brother Bruce, 46, in the business in 2000, Steve Stark was a journalist for 17 years, most recently covering the cable television industry for ‘The Hollywood Reporter.’

“One of the surprising things is that I used to think I left my creativity behind when I left journalism. Far from it. I use my creativity here all the time.” He says, explaining that he likes to try new things-from carrying a line of appliances to participating in street fairs all the time. Last May, he and his brother taught a class of the JCC in Manhattan, just down the street, titled, “Who says Jews aren’t handy?” In which they showed participants how to do some basics.

“Are you handy?” The Jewish Week asks the younger Stark. “No.” He laughs. “But I’m more handy than other guys.”

Stark, who’s a member of B’nai Jeshurun on the Upper West Side, notes that the store will be closed on the Shabbat of Chanukah when the family will be in Virginia celebrating the bat mitzvah of Stark’s niece.

The Plumber’s Menorah sells for $79.99, available only from Beacon Paint and Hardware. It is sold either fully assembled or in separate parts for those who prefer to do it themselves.