Three new stores open in O’side and I.P.

The champagne was running at the grand opening of Bliss Beauty Bar in Island Park last Saturday.

“I live in Island Park, and when we were thinking of opening up, there was no other place we’d do it,” said Josephine Lobel, who opened the salon, at 239 Long Beach Road, with her husband, Adam. “We’re recovering from Hurricane Sandy, and we want to get the business district rolling.”

Bliss Beauty Bar is a place where you can come in, get a blow-out and go, Lobel said, adding, “We’re not a full-service salon. We’re young, we’re new, we’re hip and we’re fresh.”

Bella Hair Salon owner Mario Gentile takes pride in the skills of his staff, and his web page shows it. Bella, at 3257 Long Beach Road in Oceanside, specializes in up-dos, curls, extensions and colors. With his family surrounding him, Gentile accepted proclamations from Town of Hempstead Councilman Anthony D’Esposito and from Michael D’Ambrosio, representing County Executive Ed Mangano, at his July grand opening.

It’s a long way from hairstyling to cooking, but new restaurant owner Méane Di-Stefano followed her passion, left her job as a hairdresser and opened Mé Lore, at 3303 B Long Beach Road in Oceanside. “Cooking has always been my passion,” she said. DiStefano got to know the area after living in Lynbrook for 15 years. “I just kept passing this place, and finally decided this is it,” she said. “Everything is fresh to table.”

DiStefano held a ribbon cutting on Aug. 3, with State Sen. Todd Kaminsky among those in attendance.

Meanwhile, according to published reports Unitex Textile Rental Services, a busine,ss based in Mount Vernon, N.Y., has acquired Oceanside Institutional Industries, which closed in June, laying off 171 workers. Unitex is a 90-year-old, family-run business that supplies linens for medical services as well as uniforms, sheets, towels and mats for other facilities in the tri-state area. It also operates 12 laundry-processing facilities and one garment warehouse.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Unitex stated that it would continue to provide the high level of service that Oceanside Institutional Industries clients have come to expect. Albert Arroyo, secretary and treasurer of Workers United, part of the Service Employees International Union, whose members worked at OII, said that as far as the union knew, Unitex had no plans to hire any of those workers. Some of them found positions at other shops in the area, and the union negotiated a severance package for all of them.

“We still have some influence,” Arroyo said. “We were able to get all the reassigned union workers into union shops. That’s a plus as well.”