Shiki's New Life as a Funeral Home

When the new owners of the shuttered Shiki restaurant first walked into the defunct Japanese steakhouse, the lingering smells of and chicken overwhelmed their senses.

Surveying the inside on that June day, Robert and Dominic D'Amico saw the metal Hibachi tables still in place. They saw an empty sushi bar, huge stoves in the kitchen, and Japanese architecture all about the nearly 35-year-old, 70s-style building.

— an apparent victim of both the recession and the proliferation of  — did not have many windows either.

That's when the D'Amico brothers knew they had their work cut out for them. Undaunted, they brought in their architect and contractors and initiated the extreme makeover of the restaurant into a family-owned funeral home.

Yes, a funeral home. Robert D'Amico understands why some people familiar with the closed Shiki are surprised to hear about the .

"It's going to be a lot different from what it used to be," D'Amico said on Friday as he stood inside the spacious, Mediterranean-styled lobby with its wainscotted beige and taupe walls.

A glass-protected fireplace that can be lit to provide warm and comfort on a chilly night with a few chairs worthy of placement inside a company boardroom form the focal point of the approximately 1,500-square-feet lobby.

"This is a drastic change," D'Amico continued. "We came in and went right down to the bare walls. Only the walls and the building footprint remain."

Outside near the northbound lanes of Route 35, the sign reading "Evergreen Memorial Funeral Home" is still covered with plastic and other materials placed on it by the manufacturer.

By the first week in November, the D'Amicos hope to unveil the sign as they open for business. They expect to invite local community and business leaders and area clergy to an open house sometime after that.

Most funeral homes are usually run out of converted houses rather than other structures such as former restaurants, stores, or offices, Robert D'Amico noted, much less a Japanese steakhouse and 70s sushi haven.

Yet, when Robert and Dominic (the latter was not present for this interview), first spotted the abandoned , they were drawn to its easy access from the highway and its large parking area.

They also found the surrounding woods attractive and calming. Small evergreens line the perimeter outside the main building.

"The parking lot has over 150 spaces," D'Amico said.

Evergreen Memorial will also be accessible from Old Country Road.

During the summer, the hibachi tables, ovens, sushi bar, and other restaurant fixtures came out and the walls were taken out. New plumbing and a new heating and air conditioning system were installed by contractors, D'Amico said.

Outside, the old steakhouse roof came off to be replaced by a new Spanish-designed, shingled roof. Windows were cut into the walls.

The windows, curving at the top and flat on the sides and bottom are Monticello style windows similar to those at Thomas Jefferson's estate, D'Amico explained.

The building exterior now has stucco-covered walls. The old Shiki carport out front is still in place.

Back inside, after the walls were stripped, crown molding went around the tops and bottoms of the walls. Then came the  beige and taupe paint on the walls and an entirely newly designed covert or recessed ceiling with recessed lighting, D'Amico said.

Ornate alabaster chandeliers hang from the ceilings in the lobby as well as two "reposing rooms," that is the term used to refer to the spaces used when visitors come to see a deceased person's family or to view the casket.

Much of the the inside flooring, most notably in the lobby, is made from an imported marble known as travatine according to D'Amico.

Despite the Spanish style employed both inside and outside the building, Evergreen staff member Anthony Tenga stresses that the D'Amico family purchased American-made products when choosing chairs, tables, desks, doors, rugs and other furnishings.

"It was important to us that all of the furnishings and fixtures be American-made," said Tenga, a longtime employee of the D'Amico family. "Most of the chairs come from Syracuse."

The entrance doors also have a stained glass look. The doors to the reposing rooms, offices and restrooms are all cherry wood with long, golden handles.

The elongated door handles are designed to enable a wheelchair-bound visitor to be able to open the door without assistance, Tenga explained.

"These are all custom-sized doors designed for the wheelchair-bound," he said. "We also renovated the front so that a wheelchair-bound person can enter the building without assistance."

Evergreen Memorial will be able to accommodate up to three groups of visitors at once. One larger reposing room, to the building's south side, can be divided by a double-paneled partition constructed of soundproofing materials, D'Amico said.

"We want to respect everyone's privacy," he said.

Without the partition, the south reposing room can accommodate a family expecting larger attendance at a viewing or memorial service, D'Amico explained.

To the north side, a smaller reposing room, like the larger one, is sizeable enough to allow flow of traffic between a waiting line, a space to visit with a deceased person's loved ones and back to the lined up chairs.

Like the lobby, those rooms have beige and taupe walls. The newly installed wall-to-wall carpet is brown, tan and nutmeg. The Monticello windows allow light to stream inside.

A conference room and office is also carpeted and designed in the same color scheme. A storage area for caskets and urns is accessible only from the office by staff and clients.

That area will be designed before the opening by a casket company, D'Amico said.

Both the men's and women's restrooms are situated off the main lobby area. The Spanish style continues there with individual stalls and a beige porcelain sink.

Altogether, the D'Amicos and Tenga have over 60 year experience in the funeral business. They look forward to carrying on a long-standing family tradition and serving Middletown and surrounding areas. Both have also joined the local Knights of Columbus, Kiwanis, and Lion's Club.

"We're dedicating to this memory of my father, Dominic D'Amico, Sr. who died on April 30," Robert D'Amico said.

"I chose this profession because of its holiness," Tenga said. "To have someone call you into their life at their greatest time of need and to have them entrust you to treat their loved one with the same care and love they did is an honor. I sit there in awe when they do."

Evergreen Memorial will be a full-service funeral home offering public arrangements for both burials and cremations, Tenga said. They will arrange for disterment, shipping remains into the area or other locations around the world.

They will also arrange for flowers, guest books, burials, death notices, and religious services.